Duchess of Seduction (Hearts in Hiding 3)

At the irony in his tone, she nearly abandoned her resolve not to hurl herself right back into his arms.

Nearly.

Only the fear of a fate equal to death in nine months stopped her.

Chapter 8

“You seem distracted, Justin. Bad news?”

Justin glanced up from the little writing desk in the corner of Mariah’s sitting room at which he’d been

working for the past hour, reconciling, yet again, the list of orphans who’d been delivered to and removed from Sedleywich eighteen years ago.

“I wish I could offer you concrete answers, but we have to be patient, Mariah,” he muttered, though it was not his apparent preoccupation with the task with which Mariah had charged him that accounted for his distraction.

Cressida. Her behavior defied logic. Last night it was as if she’d enticed him to her merely so she could repulse him at the final juncture when that was not at all her nature. He closed his eyes and shivered with remembered longing as he recalled the brief feeling of being wanted once more by his wife.

Brief. He nearly snarled his bitterness. Where had she learned such a thing? That extraordinary moment when she’d shimmied down in the bed and indulged in an act no respectable woman would even know about?

He didn’t want to answer that question. After all, he’d found her at a House of Assignation, for God’s sake.

And why would she start on an act so calculated to whip up his desires only to reject him at the end?

He was confused and hurt. Suspicious, too. No, not suspicious that she’d actually betrayed him. He couldn’t believe that of her. Not his angel; his innocent, big-hearted, sweet wife.

Yet what could have been the inspiration for such extraordinary bedroom antics? Antics that she had boldly initiated.

Only to reject him. That’s what it all came down to.

For the first time since he could remember, Cressida had not been at breakfast this morning. Though he’d endured a hellish night, he’d forced himself to take his seat at the usual time, hoping to glean something over their habitual haddock and toast, even if no actual allusion were made to the previous evening’s several extraordinary encounters.

But he couldn’t dwell on that when there were other matters to attend to and he had a job to do.

Mariah came to stand beside him, bending to look over his shoulder. Her still lovely face bore a pallor and tightness that hinted at her stress, and Justin reached up to squeeze her hand.

“I agree with you, Mariah, that the most likely candidate is this Miss Madeleine Hardwicke, Lord Slitherton’s betrothed. As you know, I am Patron of Sedleywich, and Miss Harwicke’s sister-in- law, Annabelle Luscombe, is on the committee.”

“Which makes muddying the trail all the easier.” Mariah sighed. “Miss Hardwicke looks just as I did as a young girl, Justin, with her blue-black hair and Castilian features, yet she has Robert’s strong nose.” She twisted her hands. “Surely you can trace her origins and reveal the deception? I’m going insane, unable to think of anything but the growing suspicion my beloved Robert’s evil mother retrieved our child from the Sedleywich Home for Orphans and somehow engineered that she be brought up as the child of Robert’s sister.” She covered her face with her hands and turned away, her words muffled as she continued, “Lord knows I was in no position to keep the child, I know that, but I was used, deceived, abandoned. Where was Robert when I needed him? We were so in love.”

Justin reached for her hand and squeezed her fingers tight. When he saw the tears running silently down her cheeks, echoing the sadness and confusion in his own breast he was not able to speak of, he got to his feet and put his arms around his old friend. “Hush, Mariah, you are overwrought,” he murmured as she clung to him and her body convulsed. “Do not blame Robert. You think men are all-powerful creatures? They are equally at the mercy of women when the balance is not in their favor.” A frisson of despair speared him at the thought of Cressida and the power she wielded over him. “Love is a wonderful thing when two people are of one mind and that love is sanctioned by those around them who wield the power. Remember that Robert was not yet of age. He could do nothing in the face of his mother’s opposition.”

Mariah drew back, sniffing and attempting to smile, then she resumed her seat on the sofa while Justin returned to his desk. “You are a sensible man, Justin. Of course, I know what you say is true.”

He drummed his fingers upon the document. “But I have to tell you that another possibility has presented itself.” His smile failed to banish the rawness of her feelings. He knew desperate hope hovered beneath the surface of her restraint.

Wearily, she said, “Who is she, Justin?”

He shook his head. “It would be unfair to divulge names until her identity is confirmed.”

Mariah rose and trailed to the window.

“If you have narrowed down the list to two, and indee

d you know Miss Hardwicke’s family, tell me if your investigations have concluded this at least...” She closed her eyes and the whitening of her knuckles, which matched the pallor of her face, tugged at Justin’s heartstrings. “Will she want to know me?”

Justin pondered the question. Although he was navigating these dangerous emotional waters as best he could, he felt close to being overwhelmed.

He shuffled the papers, wishing he’d been able to confide in Cressida from the start and cursing his promise to Mariah that he not breathe a word of her affairs to his wife. Cressida’s wise counsel would have helped ensure he was dealing with the matter as sensitively as possible.