He read the first note. “That is an odd letter from Harry.”
“I know. Read on and you will understand more.”
“What?” he suddenly said, holding one page out in front of him. “Why should Candelstone care whom we marry?”
“Not you,” she said, pointing at him. She turned her pointing gesture toward herself. “Me.”
“I don’t understand.”
“He wanted me to work for the War Office, deciphering coded messages. But he wouldn’t hire me. He decided it would be better if I were married to someone who was already associated with the War Office.”
“Harry,” Aidan said.
“Yes. But Harry wasn’t keen to the idea, for in the next letter from Candelstone, he acknowledged that, but pressured Harry to do what he could do to break up our relationship, to give Candelstone time to find someone else in the War Office who would marry me!”
He frowned, looked back at the letters he held and began to read again.
Bella leaned back in her chair and stared up at the ceiling. “When I read that letter, I cried. I had never felt so used… and useless in my entire life,” she said as he read.
She looked back at Aidan. “To learn someone could think so little of me. I mean, I know I am not a beauty; however, I am not ill- favored. And I was not an heiress, but not totally penniless, either. I don’t believe Harry liked the choices Candelstone named as husband for me. Does that show a slight bit of care? I don’t know. But I like to think that is why Harry finally told him he would marry me.”
“With Lord Kasper suggested, I would like to think even that match would prick what little conscious Harry had.”
“Perhaps. Candelstone’s last letter in the stack was a congratulatory letter for a job well done. He told Harry he would have a valuable asset in me. It was an excellent decision to marry me. Tidied things up nicely, and how soon before we could leave for Portugal?”
“Harry was like a brother to me,” Aidan said. “He knew how I felt about you. He was the only one who knew. Ultimately, that didn’t matter.” He stopped with a deprecating laugh. He shook his head. “You know, I don’t know what is worse. The betrayal I felt from you three years ago or the betrayal I feel now from Harry.”
Bella nodded. “I understand, I really do. If it is any consolation, I have the same conundrum. Storytelling to both of us. About that bet on the books at White’s… that crushed me. He said he knew it would, and offered me his shoulder to cry on. Which I did. He was so gentle and kind to me in those early days. So sorry for what his good friend was planning. He had to tell me.”
“But how could you have so little faith in me? I thought you knew me better than that!”
“I could say the same of you! Me with wanton behavior? I was so young and naïve I didn’t even know what wanton behavior was! Harry reminded me you were the youngest of the Nowltons and inherited little from the old Duke, your father, and that as a consequence, you needed a wife with funds. You couldn’t afford to marry me. He said, quite sadly for me, you were playing with me.”
Aidan nodded. “An odd use of truth and lies,” he said grimly. “I did not inherit from my father. That is true. However, Harry knew I had inherited money from my grandmother, Lady Margaret Sudbury. I did not, and do not, need an heiress for a wife. But why did you marry him?”
“He asked,” she said simply. “I was so depressed. If someone had suggested I jump in the Thames, I might have.”
“No!” Aidan looked at her helplessly. He’d spent years thinking the worst of her, at times hating her. He had a hard time getting his mind around these revelations. To be the author of such misery for her because of his lack of faith shook him.
“I’m really quite foggy in my mind about that time,” Bella continued.
She exhaled deeply and stared off; her gaze was unfocused when she spoke again. “I felt punched in the stomach and breathless. I went on with life like a wound-up music box, pasting a smile on my face and doing the twirling motions of the same dance over and over and over again,” she softly said. “And his promise of leaving England sounded so welcome right then.”
She looked at Aidan then as she smiled wryly. “When Harry turns on the charm, he is hard to resist. He drew both men and women to him and they clamored to be his friend.”
Aidan shook his head. “Everyone except my mother. I should have paid more attention to her observations. I wouldn’t say she didn’t like him,” he said consideringly. “That might be too strong. However, she never trusted him, and felt it fitting he would work for Silly Willy, as she sometimes called Candelstone. I suppose I was one of those charmed. I wonder what he wanted from me?”
“Connections,” Bella said flatly.
“Connections?”
She nodded. “Yes, Harry once told me, in one of his odd fits of confidences, that his family had money; however, they were reclusive, and he didn’t have the opportunity to meet people until he went to school. That is when he realized there was a world beyond his family’s estate and the village nearby. His family did not socialize. He continued to be oddly bitter about that, though he was a center of any social group.”
The door to the Duke’s study opened. “Finally, I’ve found you. What are you doing in here?” demanded Captain Andrew Melville, striding into the room.
“Talking,” replied Bella. She glared at her brother.
“But you are in here alone. With him,” protested Captain Melville.
