“Celia married a former agent of the crown,” Gray suggested.
Stenfax nodded. Celia was Rosalinde’s sister and his own former fiancée. Their thwarted nuptials had led Gray and Rosalinde to each other, and he considered Celia a friend. Her new marriage to a former spy, one who had until recently been masquerading as a duke, was not known to anyone but their immediate family.
“John Danecouldhelp. At least we know he could be trusted to guide us,” Stenfax admitted. “How long would it take for him to get here?”
Gray shrugged. “A week, perhaps. He won’t like coming to London, though. The case where he met Celia is still fresh and he would likely fear it could endanger her if he was seen here.”
“When I marry Elise, the ripples through Society will be massive. It might be best to do it swiftly and in the country, at Caraway Court. We can regroup there and make our longer term plans.”
“Dane would prefer it, I’m sure. And Celia will be happy to see Rosalinde and offer her support to Elise and to you,” Gray said. “I’ll send Dane word and ask them to meet us there in a fortnight.”
“A fortnight?” Stenfax burst out. “That’s a bloody long time to let Ambrose go unchecked.”
Gray held up his hands. “I understand your issue, but what can we do? As far as we know, he doesn’t have the book right now. He’s still searching and until he has it, anything he says or does will only make him look like a fool.”
“So you bank on the even-headedness of man who tried to rape my fiancée.” Stenfax gripped and ungripped his fist at his side.
“I think we have to be even keeled if he will not. That means taking our time and doing what we need to do with the proper thought,” Gray said, softer, to counteract Stenfax’s loudness. “Your special license will take some doing, we must move to the countryside and Dane must have time to do some research so he can come to us with his ideas on the subject.”
Stenfax bent his head. Of course his brother was right. If he railed and roared and caused chaos it would not help anyone. “In the meantime, Elise can help us assemble a list of names of people her late husband abused. It might help us trace the book.”
“Yes, the more we know, the better it will be for us.” Gray stopped pacing and looked at him. “And so you’ll really marry her?”
Stenfax stiffened. Gray had had so little reaction to the announcement in the parlor a few moments before, and now his voice was calm and collected. Lucien had no idea if his brother was shocked or horrified or angry or supportive. He didn’t like being in the dark.
“To protect her, I feel it is the only way,” Stenfax said, his own voice just as noncommittal.
Gray gave him a half-smile. “And it has nothing to do with the fact that you love her. That you never stopped loving her.”
Stenfax sucked in a huge breath. Now that it had been said out loud, the truth of it weaseled past the walls he’d built so long ago to protect himself. He leaned with both hands on his desk as his head swam and his body swayed.
“Yes,” he admitted at last. “There is also that.”
“I did not think getting you to admit it would be so simple.”
Stenfax almost laughed, even though this didn’t feel funny in the slightest. “I wouldn’t say it is simple, just too powerful to deny.”
Gray tilted his head. “Yes, it always is when it’s so real and so strong. But you’re not happy about the marriage, it seems.”
Stenfax stared at his cluttered desktop with unseeing eyes. “Elise and I have spent years not trusting each other. How could we possibly build a happy life on that bad beginning?”
Gray’s laugh was swift and unexpected. “I suppose I am the perfect person to ask, aren’t I? After all, Rosalinde and I started out without any trust between us. I thought her sister a title hunter, she thought me cruel and manipulative. Despite all that, we worked it out.”
“But it’s not the same,” Stenfax said, even though that reminder of Gray and Rosalinde’s start was somewhat comforting and hopeful.
“No?” Gray asked. “I suppose not. After all, you’ve been in love with Elise for what…over a decade?”
“No—”
“And you planned to marry her once before, under very different circumstances.”
Lucien huffed out a breath of frustration. “But—”
Gray tilted his head, unrelenting. “And she sacrificed herself to a marriage that sounds only slightly less awful than our own sister’s to save Felicity. To saveyou.”
“I know!” Stenfax burst out when Gray let him have a word. “But if I’d known—”
Gray held up a hand. “But we don’t get to walk that path, Lucien. The path where you knew the truth from the beginning is gone.Thisis the path now. You can live in what might have been or could have been or should have been and I don’t think anyone would blame you. But if you have any hope to be happy, not just with Elise, but with yourself, you must live in what is now,today.”
