“I take your point,” he said with a wry smile. “All right. Yes, I’ve worked for the Crown in one capacity or another since the Peninsula Wars. It started when I was very young and reckless. As you can imagine, my mother was not too happy with me. It was just after my father passed, and she was driving me mad with her demands that I marry and produce an heir. But then you had to go and throw yourself in my arms…”
“I’m sorry about that.” Her admission was a sharp prick to his chest.
He leaned forward and gave her a lingering kiss. “The matter has been settled and I for one couldn’t be happier, my love.
James pulled away but couldn’t drag his gaze from the wonder emanating from her. It filled him with that same sense of astonishment. Her cheeks turned pink.
“James,” she whispered.
“Right,” he said on a raspy huff. He looked up and caught sight of Lady Harlowe with Ladies Kimpton and Brock. Their husbands were standing nearby in a strand of trees.
“Good afternoon, Lady Huntley. Lord Huntley. “Oh, that is the cutest dog. What is her name?” Lady Harlowe asked.
James lifted a sardonic brow at his wife. He was in luck, however.
Lady Harlowe didn’t await an answer. “Come. Walk with us, Gabriella. We must speak with you.”
He stilled, surveying the situation, not yet comfortable letting her out of arms’ reach. Gabriella remained seated, surprisingly patient. He pulled the phaeton to a stop and indicated for Connor to alight and takeover. “I’ll assist her ladyship. Return for us in two hours,” he said, jumping down.
“Yes, milord.”
James moved around the carriage by way of front of the horses and held his hands out for Lady Macbeth, then assisted his wife. He set the pup on the ground and held out her lead for Gabriella.
He squeezed her hand. “Run along, darling. You should be safe enough with your friends.” It was a struggle to get the words out, though he could hardly hear them over the pulse thrumming in his own ears.
He stepped back and tipped his hat to the other ladies. With his hands clasped at his lower back he followed behind Lady Harlowe and the others to where Ryleigh’s duchess waited near the others of their immediate friends. He’d stunned himself by spilling his heart all over his sleeve. There wasn’t time to tell if the risk had been worth it. Devil take it. Of course, it had been worth it. She was worth his life.
He broke away from the ladies and meandered his way to the Earl of Kimpton and party that included the Marquis of Brockway and Viscount Harlowe, along with Ryleigh.
Kimpton inclined his greeting. “Afternoon, Huntley. I understand Bentick threatened your wife.”
James’s jaw tightened. “Yes. Anyone seen the bastard?”
“No.” Harlowe tipped his hat at a couple of women passing. He lowered his voice. “Heard he did in Stanford. Rumor, of course. Perhaps he’s been detained.”
Huntley very much doubted it or the whole of the ton would be atwitter with the information.
“Saw his wife milling about with Lady Ingleby. I walked away with much haste, I can assure you.” As would anyone. The Ingleby’s were Harlowe’s in-laws and Lady Ingleby was the busiest body in Mayfair.
James scanned the area and spotted the Ladies Ingleby and Bentick at some distance, speaking with Baron Ingleby. The man looked to make his excuses and his hurried escaped, his eyes on the ground.
“Heard tell the knife that killed Stanford was a pearled handle. Almost too small for a man to use.” Brock looked at James. “Though the man’s a sot and likely couldn’t stand long enough to make his aim, unless, of course, he’d tripped into him and hit his mark by sheer accident.”
“We couldn’t be that fortunate,” James muttered.
“Liverpool sent over a missive this morning,” Ryleigh said. He looked at James.
James held back a groan as the rest of his cronies turned one by one to stare at him.
Ryleigh squinted through the leaves above at the bright sun. “The conciliatory conclusion is that Miss Groves murdered Stanford. Seems the logical explanation.”
Except as Gabriella so poignantly pointed out, the girl was only seventeen and Stanford was a peer, James wanted to roar.
The entire group took in the duke’s words, where the only noise was the trees ruffling in a slight breeze.
“And convenient,” James said with a bitter laugh.
“Er, Lady Huntley seems no worse for wear after her harrowing ordeal,” Brockway said.
