Colin cleared his throat. “I’m afraid your father had no choice but to tell me after his investigator followed a trail that led to my door.”
“It’s your Christian n
ame,” Gillian said. “You share the same Christian name, but Papa’s investigator made a mistake. You are not the man Papa meant to find.”
“He’s exactly the man I wanted to find,” Lord Davies contradicted.
Gillian’s resolve seemed to desert her, and she abruptly dropped onto the big leather ottoman in front of the massive wing chair. She wanted to apologize to the viscount, but she didn’t have the words to express what she was feeling.
“I travel the length and breadth of England and Scotland on business,” Colin explained. “Colin Fox is a name I’ve often had occasion to use. That’s why your father’s investigator found me.”
“Why would you travel the width and breadth of England and Scotland using another man’s name?” Gillian asked.
“I’m a viscount,” he stated in the firm, confident tone the other higher-ranking Free Fellows often used. “It’s common practice for those in my position to travel incognito in order to avoid attracting unwanted attention from highwaymen, bandits, and ne’er-do-wells.” He shrugged his shoulders. “And as far as I know, I’m not using another man’s name,” Colin answered. “He’s using mine.”
“I could be mistaken,” Gillian admitted, “but I was given to understand your family name is McElreath.”
“It is.”
Gillian sighed. “As we seemed to be at sixes and sevens over whose name belongs to whom, perhaps it’s best if you explain yourself.”
“All right.” Colin admired her forthright approach. “The man you knew as Colin Fox and I are sharing more than a Christian name. We appear to be sharing an identity.”
“You can’t be...” Gillian began. “Colin Fox is an agent with His Majesty’s government.” She glanced up at Viscount Grantham’s face and faltered. “Isn’t he?”
The look in her big, blue eyes was devastating. The hurt she had suffered and the doubt she felt shimmered in their depths.
“It’s possible.” Colin looked at Lord Davies and dared him to contradict him. “Or all of this may be a big misunderstanding, but since he married you using a name I also use—” He broke off as Gillian blanched.
“I’m married to both of you?” she guessed.
“No,” Colin said softly.
Gillian breathed a sigh of relief.
“You’re not legally married to either of us.”
Gillian buried her face in her hands. “I was afraid of that,” she murmured.
Colin would have sworn she was innocent of the deception, but her answer begged the question. “You knew the man with whom you eloped was using a false name?”
Gillian shook her head. “I had no idea. I believed he was who he said he was.” She uncovered her eyes, but she kept one hand over her mouth almost as if she meant to keep her admission inside. “I believed everything he told me.”
“When did you stop believing?” Colin’s voice was little more than a gruff whisper.
Gillian looked down at her hands. At the third finger of her left hand where a ring should have been. “When she told me I wasn’t the only one.”
“Who told you?” Colin asked.
“The innkeeper’s wife.”
“The innkeeper at the inn in Gretna Green?” Lord Davies asked.
Gillian didn’t answer, and Colin had a vivid memory of a woman’s face at the window of the Blue Bottle Inn. And Colin had an equally vivid memory of the spite in the words of the innkeeper’s wife when she had spoken of the lady upstairs.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Lord Davies asked.
“I didn’t want to cause a bigger scandal than I already had,” she said sadly. “You were trying so hard to keep everyone in the ton from learning I’d eloped. I didn’t want to make it worse by telling you that I was foolish enough to elope with a man who had already married two other women.” She met her father’s penetrating gaze. “I thought that if I did as you asked, Papa, and played along, you would forget about finding him, and the gossip would fade away. I thought I might get a second chance to make things right.” Tears rolled down Gillian’s face, but she was oblivious to them.