Hugh let out a long breath. This would be the first time he said these words out loud and it seemed to require courage to do so. But it was good practice, at any rate, for his plans for later.
“I have…fallen in love with Amelia,” he said. The words rang in the air around him and felt more true and right than even in his own mind.
Diana clasped her hands together and then pivoted to Lucas on the settee, where they sat together. “Oh, it is just as I told you. Isn’t it? Isn’t it?”
Lucas laughed as he settled a hand on her knee. “I never doubted you—you are ten times more clever than I am.” He turned his attention to Hugh. “In love with her, eh? I cannot say I’m unhappy this has happened. She seems a lovely woman and you will make her very happy.”
At that, Hugh’s smile fell and the joy he felt at the confession of his heart faded. “That is the part that keeps me from being content.”
“You don’t know her heart?” Diana said softly.
He shook his head. “No, I don’t. We are connected, I know that to be true. There is much between us that makes me thinks she could care. But when I forced her to be my bride, she believed herself in love with someone else. So that is one thing.”
Lucas nodded. “I can imagine that would weigh on a man’s heart.”
Hugh sighed. “Worse than that, she has no idea the lengths I went to in order to secure our marriage. The lies I told. Or the connection between Walters and my own sister.”
Diana’s lips parted. “You haven’t told her?”
“At first it was because I knew she wouldn’t believe me,” he explained. “She was determined to think the worst of me. And I didn’t trust her. Lizzie’s secrets are so delicate, I couldn’t tell a stranger, even one who shared my bed and my title and my name. As I grew to know her better, to care for her more, I…was…afraid. Iamafraid.”
“That you’ll lose her,” Lucas said.
Hugh nodded. “Yes. The longer I wait, the more I fear that will be true. Lizzie even confessed her past to Amelia, who has become my sister’s champion, but I was not able to tell her thatWaltersis the man she despises so deeply. Now that we’re back in London, I intend to do so.”
Diana let out her breath. “You should. And sooner rather than later. She may not be happy with you about what you withheld and the lies you told, but it will be better than if she were to discover the truth some other way.”
He bent his head. “I imagine her reaction and it chills me to my very bones.”
Lucas reached out and tangled his fingers with Diana’s. He met Hugh’s gaze evenly. “She may well react poorly. I think she’s earned that, even. But at least you will have given her your whole heart along with the truth. She is your wife, Brighthollow. You’ll have the rest of your life to make it up to her.”
“That is my plan,” Hugh sighed. “To win back her trust and earn her love with every day of the rest of my life.”
“Well, if you love her, it will be worth it,” Lucas said. “It seems you’ve already realized that, though.”
Hugh pictured the past two weeks with Amelia. How she had so easily stepped into his life, changing him for the better with every touch and word and deed. He knew he needed that in his life as much as he needed food or breath.
“At any rate, that leads me to a far less pleasant subject. You sent word that you wanted to see me about Aaron Walters.”
Lucas’s expression hardened and he released Diana’s hand as he got to his feet and paced away from them both. “Yes,” he said. “I spent the time since you wed and left the city looking into this man. I still have contacts in the War Department, and Diana has been a great help.”
Hugh glanced at her in thanks. It was a wonderful thing, really, what good partners his friends were. He longed to find a way to share the same trust and connection with Amelia someday.
“Was there anything to uncover?” he asked.
Lucas set his jaw. “He’s involved in a great many things, I fear. I’ve followed trails that connect him with robbery and moving money from one bad debt to another to keep ahead of prison. But he’s cunning—those trails implicate him, but might not be enough to make him go away. I was digging deeper and I…I found something that could.”
Hugh stared in shock at his friends. He’d seen Walters as merely a mercenary bastard with a collection of bad friends. This was all far more serious, indeed. “What is that?”
Diana leaned closer. “Walters was not always called by that name,” she said. “Three years ago he was called Stephen Monroe and he lived in a rookery in the West End. He was known for his card manipulations. His pickpocketing.”
“And you think that might end him in prison?” Hugh asked.
“No.” Diana’s voice shook. “He married a girl above his station. He probably seduced her the same way he did your sister, the same way he did Amelia. He found her because she was vulnerable, wanted love, and he became what she desired. When they married, it became clear she had less money than he’d thought.”
Hugh gritted his teeth. “Bigamy then, that would be the charge? Since he intended to marry my sister and Amelia when he was still wed?”
“He wasn’t still wed,” Lucas said. “He killed his first wife.”
