He tore his arm away. “I know you are feeling emotional right now, but we have bigger concerns at the moment than our personal relationship.”
And that, in a nutshell, was the story of their marriage.
The feeling of betrayal was so strong she did not trust herself to talk to him without saying something terribly hurtful. She let him go. It was better to be uncivil than to say something she might regret.
She was close to tears. She had humiliated herself and risked everything trying to prevent him from being killed, and all the time it was a ruse. How they must have laughed at her desperate attempts to help her husband, when all the time he had been safe. Lord Matlock and his aids had dragged her, thrown her into the cell with de Riquer, and Matlock had accused her of mutiny.
De Riquer was right. They did not deserve her loyalty. And Darcy certainly did not deserve her love.
***
THE COUNCIL MEMBERSwere more subdued than usual. As they all filed in, they kept glancing at the empty chairs where Pickering and Lord Sudbury used to sit. The duel was still on their minds. They did not realize that there was something else far more urgent that they had been called in to discuss. Darcy knew the news of de Riquer’s escape would have the impact of a fireball strike. There would be widespread panic.
“I have called this meeting because I have received dangerous information.” Matlock was not mincing his words. “I am hoping you will react to this news calmly and rationally.”
He drew a deep breath. “Our prisoner has managed to escape.”
Any hope that the Council members would react calmly quickly disappeared. The furor that followed was instant. Darcy was glad he was not Head of the Council as everyone flung questions at Matlock.
Matlock simply sat in his chair, waiting for the voices to die down. They finally did, as the members realized they would not receive answers until the room became quiet.
“How on earth did he manage to get away? And who discovered his disappearance?” Trust Mrs. Belfry to put her finger on the central questions. It was an extremely awkward one, one that directly involved Darcy. Any answer that Darcy may give, would immediately raise the question of what Darcy was doing in the cellar, and why Matlock had chosen to lock up Elizabeth with a dangerous enemy mage. None of the Council members other than Matlock knew there had been a precedent because Elizabeth was supposedly found locked in the conservatory.
That whole business was coming back to haunt them, and Darcy had no idea how they would wriggle out of it. Even if they explained that Lady Alice had been behind Elizabeth’s disappearance, they could not justify having kept the truth from the Council.
It was a tangled coil, and Darcy could not even begin to unravel it. He hoped Matlock would not throw him to the dogs. And he hoped he did not have to confess that his own belligerent attitude had led to de Riquer’s escape.
He looked at Matlock, but for once, his uncle seemed to have nothing to say. He wished they had discussed their strategy before the meeting was called, but the urgency of the situation would not allow it.
Darcy considered what to say. Disguise of any sort was abhorrent to him, yet he could not think of any way he could explain it without lying through his teeth. He could tell the truth, that his uncle had tossed Elizabeth into the cellar, but would anyone even believe it? He had a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. No matter how he tried to explain it, it would not go well.
The expectant silence lengthened. Confound it! He should have prepared an answer instead of talking to Elizabeth.
Then he hit upon a solution that would possibly, just possibly, not force him to lie outright.
“I am the one who discovered de Riquer’s absence, Mrs. Belfry. I recently received an astonishing request from our captive. He wishes to negotiate the possibility of defecting from the Imperial Mages and joining us in the fight against Napoleon. He would like to discuss the matter with Lord Matlock.”
The uproar produced by this announcement would buy him a few more minutes to explain how de Riquer had evaded him. It would be easy enough to blame de Riquer and present himself as the victim, but Elizabeth’s face as she had pleaded with Darcy to give de Riquer a chance rose in front of him. If he implied that, de Riquer would have no chance to prove himself.
“I believe him to be sincere.”
He hoped with all his heart that Elizabeth was not mistaken, because if she was, then heaven help them all.
“So why then do you say he has escaped?”
The answer came from the back of the room as de Riquer peeled himself from his position in the shadows at the back wall and stepped into the light streaming from the windows.
“Perhaps ‘escaped’ is the wrong word. Let us just say that I chose not to be found.”
***
NEWS THAT LADY ALICEhad been disguised as Pickering spread through Netherfield like wildfire. Elizabeth heard it from Jane when they met in their bedchamber. It was particularly galling that everyone now knew what happened, while she had been locked away in a cellar.
Even Emily knew more about it than she did. She was full of excitement as she did Elizabeth’s hair in preparation for the evening meal, and she did not stop chattering.
“They are saying that Lady Alice was Lord Sudbury’s lover. There has been gossip for some time below stairs about a hooded woman who was visiting him, but no one imagined it could be her. And to think, she managed to fool all the mages into thinking she was that old gentleman! I never liked him, mind you. He was always rude to the maid who brought up the coal to the library.”
Interestingly, she did not mention anything about de Riquer. Clearly the Council had put a lid on that part.
