“I could hardly leave her destitute and without shelter.”
“No gentleman could do that.”Puff.“It goes without saying.”
“Crippin was told to watch her, and abduct her.”
“Abduction now! What for?”
Ives explained his conversation with Crippin. “He implied I should help, so she can be questioned.”
“Do you think she is an accomplice? If there is any chance of that at all, perhaps you should arrange it so those questions can be put to her.”
“Of course she isn’t an accomplice.”
Strickland paced in a circle, smoking and thinking.
“Why do you know of course she is not? Have you been investigating her?”
No, damn it. He had taken her at face value, hadn’t he? Because he wanted her. Today and tonight he had realized just how much he had accepted on faith.
He still did. A few questions had arisen, however. Small ones, but they had lodged in his head beneath the desire. They were why, he supposed, he had not taken things further tonight when he knew he could.
“That position she had at that school left her no time to be an accomplice to anything or anyone. Nor was she recognized by another resident of her father’s building when she first visited.”
He had no trouble giving a list to support his claim. He had parsed through it all many times. Yet, despite these pieces of evidence, the prosecutor in him couldnot eliminate those small doubts, nor the tiny suspicion that Miss Belvoir might have been leading him in a dance ever since she intruded on his peace that first night.
“Ah, well, if youjust know...” The cigar’s glow made an arabesque in the air as Strickland gestured.
“I did not seek you out to discussher. I want you to deliver a message for me to your colleagues.”
“I am not going to like this, am I?”
“Say you saw me tonight and I was looking for blood over the insult to my family. Tell whoever is behind this that if I see Crippin within a mile of that street again, I will tell Lance, and he will take it up with the prime minister and the regent and inform the other lords.”
Strickland sighed. “I would rather you wrote a letter. There is this problem with being the messenger of such a threat.”
“I count on you to make sure the threat is heard. Someone went too far, Strickland. A duke’s home, no less. The lowest baron will feel the insult worse than Aylesbury. Tell them to call Crippin and his sort off, or the House of Lords will demand that heads roll.”
CHAPTER11
Padua faced the morning in a muted mood. There were those who claimed sleeping on a problem brought clarity, and her view of the last evening’s events loomed awkwardly lucid in the light of day.
Besides concluding that years of abstinence had made her a sitting duck, she drew no conclusions and placed no blame. She did, however, admit that she had to leave Langley House.
At least she had some money now. She had promised not to use the money found in her father’s apartment yet, but spending her own savings would be easier now that the other money resided in her valise. She enjoyed one more elegant breakfast, nostalgic already for the luxury. For a brief while she had felt importantand notable. Just walking through these spaces made one stand tall and proud.
She asked to eat in the dining room. She took her time, then went to her chamber and called for her servant. At her instruction, the girl began folding up the few garments.
They were almost finished when the door opened. Ives walked in. Padua wished her heart did not jump at the sight of him, but it did.
No wonder she had been so reckless yesterday. He exuded a masculine power that demanded compliance with whatever he wanted. She had always been at a disadvantage, and fighting a rear-guard action against the effects his presence had on her. It would only be worse now.
He saw the valise, and the stack of clothing beside it, on the bench near the window. “You are almost packed, I see. Good. I came up to tell you to do so at once.”
She asked the girl to leave, then began stuffing her garments into the valise herself. “How gracious of you. I suspected your glib words about taking all the blame were just polite cant, but I did not think you would throw me out like so much bad baggage.”
A touch on her shoulder drew her attention. She conquered her humiliation before looking at him.
“I am not throwing you out, but you cannot stay here. I have no guarantee that you will not be followed, or interfered with, as was tried yesterday.”
