You Only Love Twice (29 page)

As Perry began to open the bureau drawers, she took one of the candles and entered the bedchamber. Shadows flickered and danced on the wall. After closing the curtains, she turned and surveyed the tiny room. The bed was built into an alcove, giving a little more floor space. The only other furniture was an elaborate washstand with glass jars and bottles scattered over it, just like a lady’s dressing table; a chair, and a great mahogany wardrobe-dresser.

She crossed to the wardrobe and opened the doors. Every shelf was stacked with garments—coats of every color, white lawn shirts, waistcoats, pantaloons, and white satin breeches. Her heart was beginning to race and she didn’t know why. She shut the doors and opened one of the drawers underneath. Spanking fresh neckcloths smelling faintly of starch took up most of the space. There was also a pile of white lawn handkerchiefs embroidered with Mr. Stone’s initials.

She stretched out a hand to touch them and quickly drew back. The fine hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end; her throat began to close up; there was a roaring in her ears. She forced herself to go on with it and, before she could change her mind, quickly pressed her hand to one monogrammed handkerchief. And she was instantly swept into her dream.

She saw a church and her wedding guests playing a game in the shadow of a cross. They caught Rodney Stone and led him off.

“No!” she said. “No!” And with a cry of panic, she turned and ran.

There was no one in the other room, but the door stood open. “Perry?” she quavered. “Perry?”

Silence.

She blew out her candle, threw it down on the table and ran through the door. Perry was sitting on the floor, slumped over. She took a step toward him, then another. Strong arms suddenly wrapped around her and her scream was cut off by someone’s hand. A surge of pure terror galvanized Jessica and she fought with the ferocity of a captured wildcat. Her attacker was stronger, and he got hold of her in an armlock, subduing her struggles with pressure across her chest.

The man holding her yelled out, “I got the other blighter, Jack. In ’ere.”

Perry was groaning as he slowly came to himself. He
rubbed the back of his head. A red-faced beefy man came through the front door. He had a cosh in his hand.

“Bow Street runners,” said Perry, blinking up at Jessica. “I told you this would happen.”

The constables took them to the Bow Street office for questioning, where they were locked up in separate cells to await the pleasure of the magistrate on duty. Nobody believed their story, nobody believed they were people of quality. The runners had been lying in wait for them all along, having been alerted by the landlady who had suspected something like this might happen when Perry had come to look the place over that morning. They weren’t even dressed like people of quality, the constable said, but in plain, shabby garments. No. They were housebreakers, caught in the act, and all their protests fell on deaf ears.

Their luck changed when the magistrate finally condescended to see them. He recognized Perry as an old school chum of one of his sons. Perry played up the connection for all it was worth. He also played up his “friendship” with Rodney Stone, making him out to be another old school chum about whom they’d been worried. Not only did the magistrate let them go, but he also promised to investigate Rodney Stone’s disappearance.

One of the runners had hailed a hackney for them. When they were sitting inside it, Perry finally spoke. “Don’t look so upset, Jessica. I know we’ve been gone for three hours, but Lucas will never find out. You won’t see him till breakfast, if then. That sporting crowd always spends the night carousing. I’d wager they’re all as drunk as lords right this minute, and snoring their heads off. I just wish I were with them.”

She hadn’t been thinking about Lucas but about Mr. Stone, and the awful feeling that had come over her when she’d touched his handkerchief. The one good thing that had come out of all this was that the magistrate was going to look into Stone’s disappearance.

“Did you find anything in Stone’s desk?” she asked.

“Nothing, and that’s what’s so interesting,” he said. “He’s cleared everything out of it. Looks like he left in a hurry.”

She thought about the rooms that were as neat as a new pin and the garments that were stacked in order in Stone’s wardrobe. “If he’d left in a hurry,” she said, “things would have been in a mess, and they weren’t. Everything was in its place.”

“Hmm. So what does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know.”

When they arrived home, Perry walked her to the side entrance which led to the servants’ quarters in the basement, and took his leave.

Though she knew the servants would be asleep now, her heart began to race as she climbed the servants’ staircase. When she opened the door into the corridor, she paused to make sure the coast was clear. A few steps took her to her own chamber.

As soon as she closed the door, she went as limp as a rag. She was back in her own room and Lucas didn’t ever have to know what had happened. Almost at once, she stiffened. The candles were still lit, and she was perfectly sure that she had doused them before going to meet Perry. She’d wanted everyone to think that she was asleep and must not be disturbed.

Her glance darted around the room, then flew to the dressing-room door. Under her horrified gaze, the handle turned and the door slowly opened. Lucas stood on the threshold. He had removed his coat, but apart from that he was fully dressed.

And his expression was dangerously calm.

CHAPTER
19

A
t first, she just gaped, then, coming to herself, she made a lightning decision. The best form of defense was attack. Squaring her shoulders, she made a great show of removing her outer things and throwing them over the back of a chair. “You told me,” she said, “not to expect you back till the wee hours of the morning.”

“And I was told,” he answered in a voice that was all the more menacing for being polite, “that you were not at the musicale because you were at home nursing a headache.”

“You were at the musicale?”

He smiled unpleasantly. “I left a message with Ellie to pass on to you. Didn’t she tell you? I decided that as soon as the fight was over, I’d look in at Lady Bowes’s. After all, I’m a newly married man. My friends would think it odd if I did not make a few concessions to my bride.”

She missed the sarcastic reference to his bride because her mind had fastened on Ellie. She was remembering
Ellie’s smile as she’d looked up at the house before entering the carriage. Ellie must have guessed she was up to something and had hoped Lucas would find her out. As he had.

“No, she didn’t tell me,” she said.

“No doubt she did not want to disturb you when you were indisposed.”

“How like Ellie,” she said sweetly, “to be concerned for my welfare.”

“Yes, isn’t it,” he agreed amicably. “Do you know that Perry was indisposed, too?”

“Perry?” she quavered.

He nodded. “He wasn’t at the fight because he had a … now what was it?… a cold, I believe he told Adrian. Quite a coincidence, wouldn’t you agree, both you and Perry indisposed on the same evening?”

All this pleasantness was making her more nervous than she already was. She moistened her lips. “Coincidences do happen, you know.”

He suddenly roared at her, making her jump. “Don’t lie to me! You were with Perry tonight. So no more lies and no more evasions. I’ve seen the way he looks at you and follows you with his eyes. I want the truth, Jessica, and I want it now. What have you and Perry been up to?”

“The way his eyes …?” Her teeth snapped together. “I hope you’re not suggesting what I think you’re suggesting!”

“You tell me.”

He threw the words down like a gauntlet and she lost no time in picking it up. Her fears and guilt for having deceived him were swallowed up by a stronger emotion. Outrage. Her teeth were still clenched; her eyes snapped. She ground out, “Only a filthy mind like yours could believe that Perry and I are capable of such a thing.”

He stared at her long and hard. His eyes were the first to break away. Swinging away from her, he raked his
fingers through his hair. “Bloody hell, what am I supposed to think? Every time I turn around, yes, even in my own house, I’m falling over the young cub.”

“He’s my friend,” she cried out,
“and
your cousin. Adrian is here, too, but I don’t hear you complain about him.”

“I’m not complaining.” Frustration roughened his voice. “It’s just that—”

“What?” she demanded when he hesitated.

He swung back to face her. “You shouldn’t encourage him. Perry is young and susceptible.”

She gasped. “I don’t encourage him. I don’t encourage any man!”

“And that’s another thing. This situation between us is unnatural. If we had a normal marriage, Perry wouldn’t be a problem.”

“How can Perry be a problem?”

“You know what I mean. I don’t know where I am with you. You won’t let me come near you.”

“You come to my room every night.”

“Yes, and read a book while you mend and sew for your cursed convent boys.”

“And we talk. I thought that was the point, that we should get to know each other better.”

He said angrily, “I know what I said, but what I meant was …” He shook his head. “That’s not what’s important right now. What I want to know is where you and Perry were tonight, and what you were doing.”

He was still angry but she no longer felt threatened by him. Apparently he’d decided there was nothing between her and Perry after all. She wanted to stay angry with him but she couldn’t. After everything she’d been through, she wanted someone to talk to. And he looked so capable and solid, like a rock that nothing could erode. Just looking at him made her feel better.

She gave a teary sniff. “This has been one of the worst nights of my life,” she said, “at least the life I remember.
Oh Lucas, for the last three hours, Perry and I have been locked up in Bow Street.” She sat on the edge of the bed and looked tearfully up at him. “We were terrified that we would be transported to the colonies and our friends would never know what had happened to us.”

“In Bow Street! For three hours! You and Perry?”

She nodded and sniffed again.

There was a long, baffled silence, then he began to laugh. He stopped when he saw the look of reproach in her eyes. Going down on his haunches, he took her hands in his. “My poor darling! How awful for you both. I’ll have my attorneys sue those damn magistrates for wrongful arrest. If anyone has hurt you or insulted you, they’ll pay for it.”

His words acted on her like balm on a festering sore. “It wasn’t that bad,” she allowed. “The magistrate on duty recognized Perry and finally let us go.”

He was frowning. “They must have arrested you for something.”

She gulped. “They said we were housebreakers.”

“Housebreakers? What made them think that?”

“They caught us breaking into Rodney Stone’s house.”

He dropped her hands and stood up. “What were you doing there?”

“We were trying to find Mr. Stone. We were looking for some clue to his whereabouts.”

“Why?”

She spoke quickly, eagerly. “Do you know that no one knows where he is? The last his friends saw of him was before he set off for Chalford—you know, to attend Bella’s ball. He hasn’t been back to his lodgings in town. Don’t you think that’s odd?”

“No. Stone told me that he was going straight from Chalford to Brighton.”

“But that’s just it. His Brighton friends haven’t seen him, either. Lucas, I’m afraid something bad has happened to him.”

“Nonsense! I spoke to his aunt. She told me that he was deep in debt and she was letting him stew this time before helping him out. Obviously he’s gone into hiding to escape his creditors.”

“You met this aunt?” she asked incredulously. “When?”

“When you were recovering from your fall. What difference does it make?”

“What? Oh, Perry and I were beginning to doubt she existed. How did you find her?”

“Stone’s landlady gave me her direction. Why?”

“She told Perry—”

“What?”

“It doesn’t matter. Obviously, she didn’t trust Perry. It was she who called in the runners.”

“Would you mind telling me what the hell this is all about?”

She came off the bed because he was towering over her and that made her feel at a disadvantage. “What this means,” she said, and she spoke quickly before she could change her mind, “is that I’m still not convinced that Rodney Stone is as innocent as you seem to think. No! You listen to me, Lucas Wilde! It all fits together, don’t you see? He was in debt. Someone paid or offered to pay him a great deal of money to abduct me. And now Rodney Stone has disappeared.”

“For the love of God!” He swung away from her and walked to the fireplace.

She went after him. “His rooms haven’t been lived in for weeks,” she said. “But his clothes are all there. Only his desk has been cleared out.” Everything was beginning to fall into place in her mind. “Do you know what I think, Lucas? I think someone else cleared out his desk, someone who didn’t want us to find an incriminating letter or message.”

He said roughly, “I might believe you if you could give
me one good reason why anyone would wish to abduct you.”

“Isn’t it obvious? Because I was asking questions about my father’s murder. The murderer must have wanted to frighten me off. Maybe I was getting too close.”

“Don’t tell me you’re back to that again!”

“It’s the only explanation that fits.”

He lowered his head till they were practically nose to nose. “You’re still trying to find out who murdered your father. That’s what this is all about, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” she hissed.

There was a heartbeat of silence, then he said in a frighteningly soft tone, “Am I still a suspect, Jess?
Am
I?”

“If I thought you were the murderer, I wouldn’t be here, now would I?”

“Then whom do you suspect?”

Their voices had dropped to a whisper, and a feeling of eeriness crept over her. He was as still as a sculpture. Only his eyes were alive, and they were watching her with an intensity that she could not hold. She stepped away from him.