Raven (Gentlemen of the Order 2)

“Dr Goodwin is Mr Archer’s trusted friend, though he’s somewhat older. I daren’t hire a new doctor, daren’t speak of this to anyone else.”

“Because you fear they will have Jessica committed?”

“Yes, and once the secret is out, everyone will know we lied to save a poor girl’s reputation.”

A rising panic forced him to say, “Please tell me Archer and Maud married legally.” The Order did not condone fraud.

Sophia nodded. “They married in Gretna Green. When they returned, Maud pretended to be Jessica. They sailed for India a week later.”

Everything she had said so far explained the need for secrecy. Yet the burning question on his lips had nothing to do with Jessica Draper. For a few seconds they sat in silence while he fought the need for an answer. But he could not solve a case without knowing all the facts.

“And what prompted you to marry Lord Adair?” The man was her father’s friend and twenty-five years her senior. “Surely the need to keep the secret outweighed the need to marry.” Bitterness clung to every word.

She closed her eyes briefly. “Father took ill not long after we learnt you were dead. While he had made financial provisions for our welfare, the house was to go to his cousin Jeremy. He’s a pompous prig and hasn’t the capacity to hold his own water. Lord Adair offered a solution. William’s first wife bore him an heir but died before giving him a second son. We married for convenience, as most people do.”

A cavernous hole opened in the pit of Finlay’s stomach. He hated that she used Adair’s given name so intimately. He hated the thought of her sharing the lord’s bed.

“As it turned out, I am barr

en,” she added with cool detachment.

“Barren, or just so anxious you could not conceive?”

She shrugged. “Who can say? I’m rather glad, truth be told.”

He was glad, too, though did not want to delve into the reasons why.

“And so your husband agreed you might purchase this house after your marriage,” Finlay stated. “He agreed to keep your secret and let Jessica live here.”

“Yes. We hid her at home until Father died five years ago and then moved her here.”

Ah, that accounted for the discrepancy.

The longcase clock in the great hall chimed the midnight hour. The ominous ring brought tension to the air, as if the sound preceded the onset of supernatural events. No doubt wicked spirits were already waiting in the shadows to plague his dreams.

“Perhaps that’s enough for tonight,” he said, pushing to his feet. He drained the goblet and returned the glass to the silver tray on the chiffonier. “Tomorrow, you may reveal the catalogue of events that forced you to approach Lucius Daventry and request my assistance.”

Sophia gripped the arm of the chair and stood. She took a moment to peruse his clothes and face. “I don’t recall ever seeing you with a beard. Not even when you returned from Belgium.”

No, he had taken care over his appearance before their reunion. He had wanted everything to be perfect when she discovered he’d escaped his abductors.

Fool!

Finlay drew his hand along the black beard tinged with the odd fleck of grey now he’d turned thirty. “Do you not like it?” He hoped she found it dirty, thought him shabby and unkempt, a shadow of his former self.

“You don’t need my approval. But it suits you, Mr Cole.”

He almost raised a smile at her use of formal address. Over the years, they had devised ways to maintain their distance. Still, he wore his beard like a mask. For all intents and purposes, the man she once knew had perished in Leuven.

“Might you ring for Blent to show me to my room?”

“There’s no need. I can escort you upstairs.”

“No!” he said sharply. He kept his gaze focused on her face, didn’t dare let it slide down to the beating pulse in her throat or the soft swell of her breasts. “I must build relations with the staff if I’m to help you here.”

Did that not sound like a reasonable explanation?

She eyed him suspiciously. “Blent will have returned to the kennels. He takes two hounds out at night to scout the perimeter.” After a long pause, she added, “Time and circumstance have changed us, Mr Cole. We are no longer in the bloom of youth, no longer consumed by uncontrollable passions. We must get used to being in each other’s company if we’re to help Jessica.”