“You found her, didn’t you?”
Rhys turned at the sound of Clayton’s measured voice. “What?”
“You were the one who brought Lady Julianna back after the storm,” Clayton continued.
Rhys lowered his head and scratched at the back of his neck. “How did you know?”
Clayton shrugged. “It was a simple process of elimination. Everyone else had returned with no luck. I couldn’t find you.”
“I took Midnight,” Rhys admitted.
“I suspected as much. Where did you find her, at any rate?”
Rhys pressed a fist to his forehead. His head had been throbbing all morning. “The gamekeeper’s cottage.”
Clayton nodded. “Ah, the one place none of the rest of us bothered to look.”
Rhys put his hands on his hips. “I’d shown it to her and her friends on their tour.”
Clayton lifted both brows. “Tour? Friends?”
“Yes, Julianna had been coming out here quite a bit. To…” How could he possibly explain what she’d been doing? “Rile me.”
Clayton left one brow arched. “Torileyou? Or to visit you?”
“Visit me?” Rhys frowned. “Not at all. She’d been trying to get me to quit, to forfeit the bet.”
“And…” Clayton replied quietly, “did she succeed?”
Rhys pulled himself away from the window and strode toward his friend. “You know, I believe she did. As of this moment, I’m officially resigning my position as a groomsman. Bell wins the bet.”
Rhys clapped his friend on the back and continued walking toward the staircase. He intended to empty his berth and leave this blasted house party once and for all.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
He should have known that Bell would appear. No doubt Clayton had rushed back to the manor house to find him. The marquess was standing next to Rhys’s berth, leaning his shoulder against the wall, his arms folded negligently across his chest, when Rhys finally looked up and noticed him.
Damn, spies were bloody silent.
Rhys had been tossing his few belongings into the bag he’d brought with him.Blast. He would have to borrow one of Clayton’s carriages to get back to London. His own wasn’t due to arrive for him until after the house party ended.
In the meantime, he staunchly ignored the spy standing only a few paces away.
“You’re forfeiting?” Bell finally drawled.
“That’s right,” Rhys said, kicking the ungodly mattress that he wouldnotmiss.
Bell contemplated his fingernails. “Care to explain why?”
“No, actually, I don’t.” Rhys gave his friend a tight smile and immediately changed the subject. “How’s the hunt for the traitor going?”
Bell shrugged. “There’ve been some…complications.”
Rhys arched a brow. “Complications?”
“Nothing I can’t handle,” Bell assured him.
“Of course,” Rhys replied, “because you can handle anything, can’t you, Lord Bellingham?”
