Which suited the desolation he felt perfectly.
Estelle had left the castle nearly a half hour ago, her departure the worst momentof his life.
Andstillthe tall grandfather clock in the corner of the room continued to taunt him, each tick taking Estelle further away from him. God help him, how would life ever make sense again without her?
“If anyone comes by, Robert, tell them I wish not to be disturbed. Thatespeciallygoes for Hortense.”
“I understand, my lord.” As if realizing there was nothing more he could say ordo, Robert quietly excused himself and left the room.
Which suited Valentin perfectly, too.
He needed to be alone, the overwhelming impotence he felt melded with hopelessness close to choking him.
To think there was nothing he could have done to alter the hated course his half-sister had set him upon—nothing! He was surprised she hadn’t come knocking upon his door already to insist that hemust select a bride at once. What could be keeping her? She had never been reluctant about pressing her demands before—
“My lord, forgive me, but you have a visitor.”
Hortense! Cursing under his breath, Valentin lunged from the chair to face Robert, who stood in the doorway. “I said I didn’t want to be disturbed.”
“I know, but the guards opened the doors before I could stop them. He’s waitingjust outside.”
“He?” Startled that his visitor wasn’t his half-sister, Valentin strode toward the door. “A member of my privy council? I’ll tell him myself that I don’t wish to see anyone—”
“Please, Valentin, I must speak with you!” came a familiar voice as his brother-in-law, Edward Bertrand, pushed his way past Robert to enter the room. His bald pate as red as his face, the baron clearly hadcome in quite a hurry as he fought to catch his breath. “It’s of the utmost importance, you must hear me!”
Valentin had stopped short and stared at Edward, who pulled a handkerchief from his waistcoat pocket to mop his damp brow. He couldn’t remember a single occasion when his brother-in-law had come to his private apartment to discuss anything with him. Clearly the man was distressed, whichmade Valentin gesture to a nearby chair, but Edward shook his head.
“I saw Miss Easton’s carriage pass by my home, Valentin, I’m so sorry. So truly sorry! I have so much to answer for…so much for which I must ask your forgiveness.”
“So much to answer for?” Valentin demanded, though a niggling of intuition gripped him as Edward bowed his head as if in contrition.
“While you were imprisoned,I knew what was happening and I did nothing to help you! Hortense and I were already under house arrest. I feared our situation would only grow worse if I spoke up, and I’d lose everything, my wealth, my home—ah, God, forgive me, Valentin! So I stood by and said nothing, but no more. No more!”
Weeping now, his face flushed with anguish, Edward wrung the handkerchief while he rushed on. “I knowof only one way to make amends and that’s to tell you all. Hortense paid that footman to spy upon you and Miss Easton. Bastion’s his name. She’s given him refuge in our cellar until the search dies down—”
“I already suspected as much about Hortense,” Valentin broke in, stunned that the baron would so readily implicate his wife...but then again, perhaps he wasn’t so surprised. “I’ll send soldiersto apprehend Bastion so he can be questioned, though he’s committed no punishable crime.”
“Thank God it hadn’t yet come to that!”
Valentin went very still, staring intently at Edward. “What are you saying?”
“Hortense saw Miss Easton, too, from our dining room window—we had just sat down to breakfast. I’ve never seen her so elated. She got up at once and I sensed she was going to the cellarso I followed her. I stood at the top of the steps and heard her say to Bastion that she was finally rid of Miss Easton and there was no longer any need to take things further, and that he must leave town at once. I knew how much she disliked Miss Easton for interfering with her plans, but never that she intended to do her harm!”
Sickened by this revelation as Edward began to weep in earnest,babbling apologies, Valentin was already striding to the door. He needed to call for his soldiers to apprehend that footman before he could flee, as a witness against his half-sister! Yet Edward stumbled after him and grabbed his arm.
“Those two aren’t going anywhere, Valentin, I locked them in the cellar and told the servants not to dare open the door. But what I’ve told you isn’t all of it—”
“Dammit, man, what else could there be?” Valentin had spun around to roar so vehemently at Edward that he heard the front doors to his private apartment slam open and the sound of his guards’ boots running toward the drawing room. “Speak!”
Wide-eyed, Edward blurted, “Princess Ophelia’s family promised Hortense a huge sum in gold if their daughter became your bride, and so did the families ofLady Ingrid and Countess Alicia, though none of them know she made the same agreement with the others. It didn’t matter to her which one married you, only that it wasn’t Miss Easton. God forgive me, all the wealth I preserved by my cowardice wasn’t enough to satisfy her…”
Suddenly turned pale as if overwhelmed by the depth of his complicity, Edward sank into a chair while Valentin turned to thegrim-faced guards who had appeared at the door.
“Summon my privy council!” he ordered the first, while to the second, “Send soldiers to the baron’s home to escort Princess Hortense and her accomplice without delay to the council room. Tell the men they’ll find them locked in the cellar.”
As the two guards rushed from the room, Valentin turned to his valet, who still stood by the door lookingwholly astonished by everything that had taken place. “Robert, I believe the baron could use a brandy.”
Robert nodded and hastened to oblige him, while Valentin went to where his brother-in-law sat so forlornly, and clasped his shoulder.
“You’ve my thanks,” he said simply, his judgment that Edward had suffered enough married to his half-sister more solidified than ever. “And my forgiveness.If you’d spoken up to my uncle, you might have found yourself thrown into the dungeon, too. It was a brutal time for all of us—”
“Valentin, you must go after her!” As if he hadn’t heard anything Valentin had said, the baron rose shakily to his feet. “Miss Easton was so kind to me, a lovely girl. She didn’t deserve what happened to her and neither did you. Surely your privy council will alterits decision to bar you from marrying her once they know the treachery behind my wife’s actions—and if not, you must bring the matter before your people and let them judge!”
Swallowing hard, Valentin nodded, the hopelessness that had gripped him fast fading.
All he needed was for Bastion to confess in front of his privy council to what Edward had told him—
“My lord, a brandy for you as well,”Robert said, handing him a brimming glass and another to Edward. “Something tells me that a celebration is in order…and soon, a very fast horse.”
