Raoul hesitated, for once thankful for his cousin’s garrulity as she joined them.
“Gracious, what a relief! Now you need not replenish all those little items so indispensable to a female. I am sure you must have all kinds of things in there which are precious to you.”
“Indeed, yes.” To Raoul’s intense dismay, Miss Temple’s eyes grew bright and luminous. “Small mementoes I have treasured for years. I’ve been trying to tell myself I could live without them.”
“Now you don’t have to. Splendid. You are quite a genius, Raoul. How in the world did you find it after all?”
Confronted by two expectant faces, Raoul could prevaricate no longer. He drew a breath and plunged in. “It was by no action of mine. The valise was brought to my house last night by a servant, who thrust it into my footman’s hands and ran away.”
Angelica’s comely countenance exhibited her astonishment. “How singular!”
But Raoul’s gaze was drawn to Miss Temple’s as the glow slowly died out of her eyes.
“Your house?” Her tone was hushed. “But that means…”
He saw realisation dawn and cursed inwardly. Had he not known how it would be? He tried to avert disaster. “Don’t jump to conclusions, Miss Temple.”
Her grip on the valise loosened and her voice became hard. “What other conclusion can there be? I saw him, did I not? He was there. I did not imagine it.”
“Good gracious, Felicity, what in the world are you talking of? Who was where?”
“She is talking of Maskery, Angelica.”
“What? Where was he?”
Miss Temple took the question, moving to set the valise down on the chair she had vacated. “I saw him look into the supper room last night. Your cousin went to see, but he had disappeared.”
“But what has he to do with the valise —? Oh!” Consternation leapt in Angelica’s eyes and she hurried to Miss Temple’s side. “My dear girl, do not be making a mountain out of a molehill. I am sure there is a perfectly rational explanation.”
Raoul took a hand. “Rational perhaps, but not, I venture to suggest, as necessarily vengeful as I suspect Miss Temple supposes.” He hardly knew why he was trying to lessen the impact. He knew as well as the girl just how damaging Maskery’s actions were. To the both of them.
To her credit, she neither broke out in despair nor lost her temper. Only her limbs, peculiarly rigid, gave away her inner agitation as she walked across to the mantel and gripped its edge. Avoiding Angelica’s sympathy?
Angelica turned to Raoul. “What does he mean by it then, Raoul?”
“One can only conjecture, but it seems clear he returned to the party to ascertain just who had won Miss Temple’s company.”
“Then chose to plant the valise on you? Was there no message? No note or explanation?”
“Nothing at all. Though that is not to say a letter will not arrive in due course.”
“There was none delivered this morning, I take it?”
He shook his head, his gaze fixed upon Miss Temple’s unresponsive back. Angelica lowered her voice.
“What do you mean to do?”
“Return Miss Temple’s property to her, which is what I have done.”
At that, she turned, her eyes afire. “You may as well have handed me a live coal, my lord. I am as surely damned.”
His lip twisted. “You mean you may burn in hell? I doubt it, Miss Temple. I imagine that fate is reserved for your guardian. You are an innocent victim in this, I believe.”
Her chin went up. “Not so innocent, sir, as I told you last night. I should have followed my instinct and refused to be tempted by the promise of a different kind of life.” A note of cynicism worthy of his own efforts entered her voice. “Not that I had in mind the sort of life my guardian evidently intended.”
Predictably, Angelica threw up horrified hands. “I will not have you talk so, Felicity! Whatever Maskery meant by this, you cannot suppose —”
“That Lord Lynchmere will snap up the opportunity?” Her tone was harsh, her eyes fierce as they met his. “I acquit him of any such intention. But there is no denying he could. I have been neatly sold into your hands, my lord. In payment, I presume, for whatever vast sum my guardian lost to you at the gaming tables.”
