The Madame sauntered into the hall, retrieved her cloak, and then followed the butler to the back.
“At least,” Alicia hissed, “you had sense enough not to bring her through the front door.”
Hester’s mouth set in a mulish line. “I heard you say Ashbey, I am sure.”
“Nothing good comes from listening at keyholes!” She rubbed her head. “Go to bed,” Alicia said. “I must think.”
“I—I am sorry if I misheard,” Hester said. “But you wouldn’t listen to me.”
“You must, must stop this, Hester. The countess is not going to inherit Astonbury—it will go to Simon.”
“Simon?”
“Yes, Simon. The captain told me as much. So you may cease this nonsense about an heir.”
Hester covered her lips.
“Really, Hester, your nephew will hardly force you to the streets.”
“Of course not,” Hester said. “But what about you? What will Simon do when he learns of your bastard child?”
Alicia swallowed, as the answer suddenly became clear. “He won’t. I expect to be long gone.”
After an hour of lists and figures, Alicia may have discerned a plan. Then, the muffled sound of the night watchman’s raised voice brought Alicia to the window. Rain tinged the glass, and her breath mottled the already-limited view.
The watchman approached a dark figure in the square, a black shadow of a man that made her shiver. The watchman held up his lamp, and the figure turned.
Ashbey’s angled features glowed.
The watchman bowed and backed away. Alicia dropped the curtain.
She placed a protective hand over her belly and sent up a small curse.Cheverley.So much for keeping his word. How could she have trusted a man who had given her a false name.
Somewhere amid the thudding of her heart she found her voice, and called for the butler. When he entered, she paused for a moment, stunned at what she was about to do. “There is a man in the square.”
The butler’s brows rose.
“Retrieve him,” she said primly, “please.”
His eyebrows went higher. “You wish to bring a vagabond into the house?”
Her back straightened. “That vagabond is the Duke of Ashbey.”
“Lady Stone,” the butler recovered his usual composure, “why don’t you have a seat in the dining room, and I will bring you a nice cup of tea?”
“If you do not go out there and convince the duke to come to the back door, he’s going to march right up the front stairs in full view of all the neighbors and—”
The great knocker on the front door clanged. Matching the thud of her heart.
The butler opened the door, asking whom he might announce.
Without a word, the duke limped into the hall, dripping with rain and filling the room with an anger that smoldered like sulfur. Vicious purple bruises sagged beneath his eyes.
“If I could take your—” the butler began.
“Leave us,” he said.
Ashbey’s gaze hadn’t left Alicia’s face. Even in his state, to see him was a balm she hadn’t known she craved.
