“Don’t put me off, uncle. I’m not a child anymore, you know.”
“So I see.” He grinned. “Look at her, Connie. She’s the very image of my sister, isn’t she?”
“And to think she could have been my daughter,” Conrad said wistfully.
“Oh, Connie, you too?” Reggie asked softly.
“Everyone loved your mother, squirt, even me,” Conrad admitted gruffly.
“Is that why you took me under your wing?”
“Never think it. You wormed your way into my heart all on your own.”
“Then maybe you’ll tell me what this is all about?”
“No, squirt.” Connie shook his head, grinning at James. “This is all his doing. If you mean to ferret out what you want to know, turn those big blues on him.”
“Uncles James?”
“It’s…some unfinished business I have here. Nothing for you to fret about.”
“But isn’t the Countess a bit old for you?”
“It’s not like that, Regan,” James protested. “And what the devil do you mean, old?”
“Well, she’s not really ancient-old, I suppose,” Reggie corrected herself. “She takes very good care of herself, too. But what business can you have with her?”
“Not her. Her husband.”
“He’s dead.”
“Dead? Dead!” James looked at Connie. “Damnation! He can’t be dead!”
Reggie looked at Connie, bewildered. “He had a score to settle, squirt,” Connie explained. “Now it looks like fate has intervened.”
“When did he die?” James asked harshly. “How?”
Reggie was becoming concerned. “Well, I don’t actually know how. It’s been quite a few years though.”
James’ look of fury turned to one of surprise. Then both men began to laugh, confounding Reggie further. “Ah, sweet, you had me going there,” James chuckled. “But I don’t believe we are thinking about the same man. It’s the young Viscount I want.”
“Nicholas Eden?” she cried.
“Now you have it. Do you know him?”
“Very well,” she said.
“Then perhaps you can tell me where he is. Lord knows no one else can. I’ve looked everywhere. I swear the lad is hiding from me—and with good reason.
“Good God!” Reggie gasped. “You had me kidnapped as a lure to bring Nicholas to you, didn’t you?”
“Not you, sweet,” James assured her. “Those idiots thought you were Eden’s wife.”
Reggied moved closer to Conrad, took a long breath, and then said hesitantly, “Uncle James, your men didn’t make a mistake.”
“They—”
“—didn’t make a mistake,” she finished. “I am Nicholas’ wife.”
