“There was a period in my life when I followed the frivolous vicissitudes of a wealthy nobleman, but I moved on to more productive endeavors.”
Venetia pursed her mouth. Traherne continually managed to subvert her admittedly biased conceptions about him. The Wildes were a breed apart—scandalous, hedonistic, passionate—but each time she tried to dismiss him as an arrogant, self-centered rake, he pushed her off balance.
He also acknowledged that his parents’ drowning had influenced him significantly. “Had their schooner been powered by steam, they might have been able to outrun the storm that took their lives.”
Venetia heard the deep emotion in his voice, the anger and sadness, and so was hesitant to press him further. She could only imagine the shock and grief he’d felt at the untimely death of his parents. It was difficult enough to endure that her parents had renounced her. She couldn’t bear to think of them perishing.
“How did it happen? I believe you said they were returning to England after collecting your mother’s inheritance that had been hidden since the French Revolution.”
“You have a good recollection for detail. My parents, along with Kate and Ash’s parents, had set sail from the southern coast of France when a storm overtook them and sank their ship with all passengers and hands on board. Flotsam and pieces of wreckage washed up on shore for weeks afterward, but the site of the shipwreck was never discovered. It was thought that the de Chagny family treasure sank with them…until the pendant appeared.”
“Yes,” Venetia said dryly, “adorning the neck of your former mistress.”
Ignoring her gibe, Traherne went on. “I set out to determine how Lisle came to possess the pendant. In addition, I sent Macky to France to investigate any recent news of the shipwreck. I also wrote to my mother’s distant cousin in Paris, the Compte de Montreux, requesting his aid in learning about a possible salvage attempt. The tragedy happened fourteen years ago, so Macky’s task will be difficult, but I had expected to hear from him before now. I’ve had no word in three weeks.” Traherne gave a testy sigh. “There has been no word from Hawk yet, either.”
“It has only been five days since we left London,” Venetia reminded him.
He ran a restless hand through his hair. “I know, but I will be glad to return. I cannot cower here in the backwoods of Somerset forever. I need to discover if Lisle hired an assassin to kill me.”
“Do you think him guilty?”
“He is the prime suspect, although I have no evidence linking him to the attempts on my life. For all I know, the culprit could be the owner of a rival shipping company, determined to prevent my steam-propelled ship from reaching completion. But if Lisle is the perpetrator, was his motive because I initiated a search for the treasure or something else?”
“Such as eliminating the competition?”
He raised an eyebrow in question. “Competition?”
“For Lady X’s favors. I should think jealousy would be a likely reason for Lisle to wish you in Hades. In truth, I cannot fathom how you reached the ripe age of—how old are you anyway?”
“One and thirty.”
“Well, I am surprised you managed to survive all your scandalous affairs without some possessive rival or slighted lover attempting to murder you before this. I was prepared to do it myself, albeit for a different reason.”
His smile broadened. “I trust I’ve succeeded in improving your opinion of me.”
“Somewhat,” she conceded with a grudging smile. “At certain moments, I even find myself admiring you.”
Traherne laughed outright at her admission. “I am elated to count small measures of progress.”
In return, he probed her own past. That evening after supper, Venetia unexpectedly found herself revealing her deepest feelings about her bitter experience with Ackland.
“I felt like the greatest fool alive, to be so ignorant of his deception. All the while he was courting me and claiming to love me, he was disporting with a demi-rep behind my back. I only suspected the truth mere hours before the ceremony, and didn’t truly believe it until he arrived at the church unkempt and reeking of perfume.”
“I admired you on the church steps, acting on your beliefs.”
Venetia looked at Traherne warily and saw only sympathy in his expression. “My response was actually unplanned. I reacted out of shock and pain and humiliation.”
“You should be proud you took a stand. A weaker woman would have gone through with the ceremony or given in to hysterics.”
She looked away from his disconcertingly tender gaze. “It is hardly fair,” she muttered a long-held grievance. “My betrothed was the libertine, but I was the one punished and branded a scarlet woman. Men are allowed outrageous license to do anything they please, especially noblemen. Take yourself, for example.”
“Yes, do take me.” His easy tone suggested he was trying to lighten her mood, yet it didn’t soothe her.
“Your scandal in the park with Lady X was worse than anything I created. You didn’t suffer one bit.”
“It helps that I have a title and fortune. Had you possessed the same, your crime might have been mitigated a degree. But you were a genteel young lady who caused a public spectacle.”
Venetia sighed. He had punctured her swelling bubble of frustration. “Indeed. My airing soiled linen in public angered my parents immensely. Had