He pressed his lips together. “Sit. This is…well, I don’t know how you will take the news I’ve come to share.”
She retook her place on the settee and he put himself next to her. Close enough that his leg brushed hers and set off a torrent of reaction through her body. He merely stared at her, though, as if he didn’t know what to say.
“Did your meeting with Winstead go poorly?” she asked, hoping she could encourage him to explain.
He rubbed a hand over his face. “No, that actually went fine. You have nothing to fear from him, so it isn’t that.”
She rested a hand on his leg and squeezed. She felt his thigh muscle tighten against her hand and his pupils dilated slightly.
“What is it?” she whispered. “Trustme.”
He caught his breath at the use of that word again. That word that hung between them. He nodded. “Yes, I must in this case. You deserve it. I know I agreed not to go to your dower house, Elise. But…I did.”
She caught her breath. “Oh, Lucien. Was Ambrose there? Did you have a confrontation, did—”
“He’s dead, Elise.”
She stared at him a moment as his words sank in. Then she scooted back, as if she could separate herself from this horror. “No,” she moaned, the sound low and pained and not expressing half the agony she felt. “Oh, please tell me you didn’t, Lucien.”
He caught her hands and held tight. “I didn’t,” he vowed. “I may have wanted to, but I wouldn’t have for I knew it would only complicate this terrible situation. No, when Gray and I arrived, he was already…dying. He’d been stabbed. By his cousin.”
Her lips parted. “Roger?”
“It seems their fight over the inheritance of the title was not yet finished.”
She covered her mouth with both hands. “Oh God,” she murmured through them. “When Toby died, their battle was terrible, yes, and they nearly came to blows several times during the legal proceedings that determined who was born first. But I never would have thought…”
“Apparently neither would Ambrose,” Stenfax said softly.
“Then are we…safe?” she asked, a tiny flare of hope in her chest. She was embarrassed by it, that a man’s death would inspire relief. Even a man she despised.
“Not exactly,” he said. “Ambrose had found Kirkford’s book.”
She stared. “He found it?”
Stenfax’s face grew even more grim. “And Roger took it.”
She leapt to her feet. “No! No, that cannot be. So the secrets are out? We are lost?”
“No.” He stood and moved toward her, catching her and pulling her into his embrace. He smoothed her hair, tried to stay her trembling. But she couldn’t stop, no matter how much his warmth pierced her and surrounded her.
“How could we not be?” she asked when she could find her words. “Roger is as cruel as his cousins ever were. In fact, he is a cold and calculated cruelty, not as wild as Toby and Ambrose were. Much more dangerous.”
He winced at that assessment, but drew her back and looked down at her. “There was a page left behind in the struggle and it turns out Toby’s book was encoded. Right now we don’t believe Roger has a way to break the code. So that gives us some time.”
She wrinkled her brow. “Coded?”
He nodded. “Yes. It seems your late husband wanted to protect the secrets he collected.”
She bent her head. “So what do we do now?”
He smoothed a hand across her cheek. “The same thing we planned in the first place. You and I will marry, and we will look for the book. Roger is under suspicion for the murder of a duke. He’ll be on the run. But we’ll find him, and we’ll find the book and destroy it. Nothing has changed.”
She let out a shuddering sigh. “It doesn’t feel like it. This whole day has been shifting sands beneath our feet. One enemy becomes another, truth becomes lies. Will we ever feel safe again?”
Suddenly his mouth was on hers. At first the kiss was gentle, but as she wound her arms around his neck, it grew more heated, more passionate. She sank into it, sank into him, and sighed as his tongue slid across hers. She felt the evidence of his desire for her, pressing firmly to her stomach, and wanted nothing more than to give in to it, give in to him.
After all, there was little she knew when it came to this man, but that they could connect so passionately, so sweetly, was one fact that had never changed.
