She smiled at him.“If the aunt and maid did not exist, then it is likely that Annabel did not either.”
He recoiled.“Imarriedher.”
“And here we come to the crux of the matter,” St.Albans said with satisfaction.
“Which is?”Julian could barely contain his impatience, even with Georgiana’s steadying hand still gripping his arm.
“That if Annabel Mayweather does not exist,” St.Albans stated, “it invalidates the marriage which took place between her and Julian Sotherby at Gretna Green three years ago.”
* * *
“Steady,” Georgiana soothed as Julian staggered slightly.She kept hold of his arm until he was seated on the empty couch before sitting beside him.
All the while, her thoughts raced, hopped, and skipped, as she hoped that the information the St.Albanses and Hellsmeres related was correct.
Could it really be true?
Because if it was, then it meant Julian would be free of the yoke of unhappiness that had held him frozen in time for two years.
It would leave the way free for them to be together…
No!
She must not jump too far ahead in her surmising.They could all still be wrong?—
“We aren’t,” Lily assured her, alerting Georgiana to the fact that she had spoken her words of self-caution out loud.“Dear Georgiana, whoever those three women were, they were not named Annabel Mayweather, Clara Mayweather, or Mary Jones.”
She was aware of Julian’s increased tension beneath her hand.“Then who were they?”
“I believe I might have an explanation for that,” St.Albans said softly.“One that will be confirmed when my men return from France.”
“France?”Julian echoed gruffly.
St.Albans nodded.“Following Napoleon’s defeat and incarceration, the Prince Regent had several of us looking for any French spies that might still be in England.Their purpose was to garner enough information to assist in their emperor’s escape from Elba,” he explained.“As you all know, this escape was facilitated several months later.But try as we might, we never managed to find the people responsible for passing the necessary information to Napoleon’s loyal followers.”
“We now firmly believe that Annabel Mayweather, Clara Mayweather, and even Mary Jones were all working for and with those loyal French followers,” Hellsmere interjected.“That the reason they all appeared and then disappeared so abruptly a year later was because they returned to France in order to take up their real identity and welcome Napoleon’s triumphant march back into Paris.That triumph was short-lived, of course, because he is now incarcerated on St.Helena, with no chance of escape,” he added with satisfaction.
There was an expression of disbelief, followed by one of horror, on Julian’s face.“Are you saying that I aided—married—a French spy and by doing so helped in the effort to free Napoleon from Elba?”
Georgiana’s heart broke for the look of defeat upon her beloved’s face.“You could not possibly have known she was not at all what she pretended to be.”It seemed that Meggie, with her description of Annabel being “the mean bad lady” had, as Georgiana had suspected might be the case, been the closest to the truth.
Meggie.
Meggie’s opinion of the Duchess of Moreland had been totally correct.Was it possible that Meggie knew even more than she had so far revealed?
“Julian, exactly when did Annabel disappear?”Georgiana prompted.
“Annabel—or whoever the hell her real name is”—anger was starting to take precedence in Julian’s expression and tone—“had decided that she’d had enough of the Season’s entertainments that year and insisted we remain in Norfolk for the summer.”
“Yes, but when did she decide that?”Georgiana prompted impatiently.
“It was only a few weeks before the Season ended…” Julian shrugged.“About two years ago.”
“It was notabouttwo years ago,” St.Albans corrected.“It was exactly two years ago that this woman went for a walk on the beach and then disappeared without a trace.”
Georgiana lifted her chin, having now realized that there might be a different explanation for Meggie’s description of Annabel having gone away.
“Or she simply sailed across the ocean to France,” she suggested.“Think, Julian,” she added when he looked confused.“This mystery woman went for a walk along the beach and has never been seen again since.The easiest way for that to happen would be if she boarded a ship and was transported back to France.”
