“The Duke of St.Albans seems to have been swayed by a beautiful face and curvaceous body?—”
“I sincerely hope you are not meaning to imply anything of an untoward nature having occurred between myself and the duke.”Angry color bloomed high in her cheeks.“Because if you are, let me assure you?—”
“I was referring, as he adores them both, to the influence his new bride and daughter might have had on him.You have already admitted, under the umbrella of the Spinsters Alliance, that both those ladies are close friends of yours,” Julian refuted.
“Oh.”She drew in a deep breath before continuing.“Lily and Chloe are also innocent of exerting anyinfluenceover the duke.Indeed, they are both under the misapprehension, as is my family, that it is my intention to stay in the country for the foreseeable future with two of the other ladies in the Spinsters Alliance.”
Julian’s eyes widened.“Do you think it wise, in the circumstances, to have told me that in so much detail?”
Her brows rose.“What circumstances?”
He held up the file in his hand.“Gossip has it that I killed my wife before disposing of her body.”
* * *
Well…yes, there was that, Georgiana conceded.
But, having now met the blunt and arrogant Duke of Moreland, she could not see this haughty gentleman ever feeling the need to hide any of his actions, murder included.
Besides, she had taken a brief glance at the contents of the file withAnnabelon the front.She now knew that the papers and letters collected inside were all related to Moreland’s continued efforts to find his missing wife.Indeed, the majority of those missives came from several different agents he still had searching for the duchess in England and abroad.
Moreland would hardly still be wasting his time and money two years after the disappearance if he already knew his wife was dead and had been buried on the nearby fenland.
An argument against that assumption, Georgiana knew, was that Julian Sotherby was merely keeping up the appearance of continuing to search for his missing wife as a way of diverting blame from himself for that disappearance.
Having now met and spoken to that gentleman, it was an argument that Georgiana could not agree with.In her opinion, those reports inside the file, dating back almost two years and starting just weeks after the duchess’s disappearance, showed Julian to be genuinely searching for the missing woman.
“I am the last one to ever listen to, let alone believe, idle gossip,” Georgiana dismissed briskly.
“You class the rumors that I killed my wife as beingidle gossip?”
She calmly met his gaze.“Is that not the case?”
His nostrils flared.“It is true I did not kill my wife.”
“I am already aware of that.”
He eyed her incredulously.“How can you claim that with such certainty?”
Georgiana shrugged, having promised St.Albans she would not reveal their own conversation on the subject.“Firstly, because a gentleman such as the Duke of St.Albans would not consider you as still being one of his closest friends if he believed you to have killed your wife.”
“I am not revealing any secrets when I say my friends knew of my unhappiness in the marriage,” he allowed.
Georgiana already knew that too, but again, as promised, she would not admithowshe knew that to this man.
Even if Julian’s own admission of that being the case had caused a feeling of warm elation inside her.
Because, she dared admit to herself, she found Julian Sotherby, the Duke of Moreland, even more attractive this morning than he had appeared the night before, now that most of the mud had been wiped from his handsome visage.
His hair was now clean and swept back from his face, revealing several strands of gray amongst the darkness at his temples.The harsh angles of his features appeared even more handsome in full daylight, dominated by eyes the color of emeralds.His muscular body was clothed in a perfectly tailored dark green superfine, a dark gray brocade waistcoat, black pantaloons, and brown-and-black Hessians.
At six and thirty, he was fully seventeen years older than Georgiana, but she had never been a giggling and flirtatious young miss.Indeed, she was often tasked with suppressing her younger sisters’ more impetuous behavior.As such, Georgiana already knew, from her previous conversations with Julian, that the two of them were well matched in both maturity and intellect.
She nodded.“All the more reason for them to suspect you of having killed your duchess, and I know St.Albans certainly does not.Lily’s and Chloe’s potential wrath aside when they learn the truth of where I am and with whom, the duke would not have allowed me to come here if he had the slightest doubt as to your complete innocence.”She felt confident in stating this as fact.“Secondly, having now met you,Ido not believe you capable of killing any woman.”
He gave an incredulous snort.“I assure you, I can think of several whom I might consider doing away with.”
“Me amongst them?”she derided.
