“Or used it to try to force you. I suppose if you’d married her, she would have conveniently miscarried and hoped to truly quicken soon.”
“Optimistic, given her history, and it would assume I could bring myself to…swive her.” He smiled as he chose that word.
“Not necessarily,” Genova pointed out.
“Zeus,” he said. “She might not have cared. She’d have had what she wanted, a marchioness’s coronet.”
“And worn it in a cage with a wolf.”
He raised a brow but seemed to catch her meaning. “I might well be tempted to bite in that situation, yes.”
“But why the end play?” Genova asked. “Did she think evidence of a baby would change your mind at such a late date? He was born out of wedlock, so he could never be your heir.”
Ash shook his head. “Impossible to understand a mind like hers. Perhaps she hoped that proof would crush me with guilt. Or that it might cause the king to insist I marry only her. I expect word of the king’s ultimatum prompted her one last attack. We were to be found together, and the Brokesbys were to carry the tale around England.”
“Then why flee at the last minute? I hate the pieces not fitting!”
“Like clockwork,” he said with a look. “I’d like to think that she realized I’d throttle her, but we’ll probably never know.”
Genova smiled at him. “You’d never have touched her, Ash.”
“No? I think you’re deluded about my character.”
“Am I? I don’t forget that she left the baby for ‘Mr. Dash.’”
“So?”
“There would have been no point unless she knew that you wouldn’t be able to abandon him.”
He took out his snuffbox, a mother-of-pearl and diamond one, and flipped it open. She was beginning to recognize a defensive move. “If you remember, I did my best to run.”
“Because I was there, and you thought then that I was Molly’s deputy.”
“I tried to put him on the parish.”
“And planned to leave money for his care. Despite what you said, I know you would have arranged to be informed about his welfare.”
He inhaled a tiny amount. “You are often given to delusions? I am not known as a Good Samaritan.”
“Let’s put it to the test. What are we to do with these two?” She nodded toward Sheena arid Lawrence, who were holding tight to each other’s hands and waiting to hear their fate.
“Put them on the parish,” Ash said, snapping his box shut.
She looked at him, and he added, lips twitching, “We could run away and leave them on Rothgar’s hands.”
Then he smiled in acknowledgment that he’d do neither. “Relentless,” he said. “I suppose we should inform my cousin of these developments under his roof, though I look a fool.”
“It would take a devious mind to see through this one.”
“Are you saying I’m not devious?”
He seemed truly affronted, and she couldn’t help but laugh. His smile became a grin and she knew it was sinking in that this finally cleared him.
It would take deft handling to smooth things with the king, but Ash’s way was clear to what he wanted. He would finally take up his full position as Marquess of Ashart, and do it well.
He tugged the bellpull. “I need to have this arrangement installed at Cheynings. It spares us from servants hovering within earshot all the time.”
“It takes longer to get service,” she pointed out.
