The question now was whether or not there was any chance to fix it.
Disappointment pulled at Adrian’s muscles. He sent Murry a hard look. The woman hired by Murdoch, an employment agent with a vast network of stealthy informants, had reached them well before Samantha stepped through the front door. Although she’d overheard less than a third of the conversation Samantha engaged in with her errand boy, it was enough to confirm that she knew he’d been on to her for a long time.
He’d actually hoped she’d confront him about it when he’d inquired about her outing. Instead, she’d continued the pretense, nurturing the layer of lies beneath which they’d both been buried. The preposterousness of it was swiftly beginning to grate. It wasn’t fair. She’d done this, yet she lacked the courage to face him squarely, choosing instead to leave the confrontation to him.
Well, it wouldn’t be long now. He’d made up his mind.
“I can’t go on like this.” The words were spoken without even thinking. “Or rather, I don’t want to.”
“You’re certain you’ve no wish to get a divorce?” Murry asked, so careful and quiet.
“Such things can take years. The cost is astronomical, besides which I’ve no wish to suffer the scandal or the image it would paint of me.”
Since one large aspect required in cases of divorcement was proof of the wife’s infidelity, it would only make him look weak. The last thing he needed right now was for those who feared him to think him the sort of man who lacked the strength to manage his wife, or even worse, the virility to keep her satisfied.
“There’s also the option of sending her off to Deerhaven Park for a long sojourn.”
Adrian arched an eyebrow and crossed to the sideboard. “You’re full of bright ideas.”
“I’m only trying to help,” Murry grumbled.
“And I appreciate it. Brandy?”
“No thank you.”
Adrian poured a small measure for himself and savored the bite as he took his first sip. He wouldn’t get the same advice from anyone else, not even his secretary, Cummings, who was well versed in all the family’s dealings both past and present.
But it took courage and grit to be brutally frank with one’s employer. In this regard, only Murry would do.
“There’s a benefit to keeping her close,” Adrian said. “Allows us to see what she gets up to.”
“While that may be true, she’d probably get up to less if she were a few hundred miles away from London, cut off from the people she knows.”
No arguing that. Mouth flat, Adrian crossed to hischair, sat, and invited Murry to take a seat on one of the vacant chairs. “I think it’s time for me to demand an explanation. Anything less is ridiculous at this point.”
Besides, he wanted to know what her end goal had been since nothing about her or Harlowe suggested they were anything other than normal citizens quietly making their way through life.
Yes, Harlowe had worked as a naval officer decades ago, later as an emissary traveling with the East India Company, and finally as an investor who’d done well by purchasing shares in steel manufactories and cotton mills. He’d taken in five orphaned girls whom he’d raised with his now-deceased wife, and spent as much time as he could these days on the study of Greek literature.
As for Samantha, he could not fathom what she might have hoped to accomplish by working with Kendrick of all people. It was baffling, to say the least. In his opinion the man defined incompetence, his effort to solve the series of murders that also included his sister unimpressive at best.
“How do you suppose she’ll react to the confrontation?” Murry asked.
“I’ve no idea.” It was the truth. She might go on the defensive and try to continue the lie, or she might choose to meet him head first with aggression. It could go either way, he realized.
“Maybe you ought to conduct the interview in the basement. Just to be safe.”
The very idea…
“I’ll pretend you didn’t suggest that,” he told Murry darkly. “Whatever the case – whatever she’s done – she is my wife. I’ll not put her in the same room where I had Newton killed.”
“My only thought was privacy. No one will hear you in there. If things get heated.”
“Then I’ll bloody well send you and the rest of the servants out for a couple of hours.” He polished off the last of his brandy. “Make no mistake, I will get my answers, Murry, but I’ll do so without disrespecting my vows.”
“Forgive me, sir. I meant no insult.”
Adrian’s gaze remained on his valet until the tightness pulling his muscles taut eased. Only then did he shift his attention elsewhere, to a stack of papers he’d meant to go over later. He began leafing through them, but was interrupted by a knock at the door.
