“In her last one, she writes of bringing a surprise. Was it a baby or some innocuous lovers’ token?”
“Phoebe sounds like someone you and I would befriend. There has to be something we’re missing.” The duchess stood and paced. “The man who freed us, who has helped so many of the Widow’s Grace to regain custody, who deals with prosecuting all manner of crime, wouldn’t lie about the woman he loved, but could he be tricked?”
I eased back into the pillows of the sofa. Soft and velvet and colorful, like one of Daniel’s waistcoats, I felt the comfort, the give-and-take of the padding like lyrics of his poems. “At least I am not crazy, for you have leaped to my conclusion.”
Patience sat beside me again. “Ashbrook couldn’t have known Hope wasn’t Phoebe’s, could he?”
Her voice was barely audible, but I heard her. “That’s the question I need answered, but I hope, wish, pray that he did not know. That’s why I left. I have to prove him innocent. Someone else is to blame.”
“There’s a possibility that he knew, Jemina.”
Hated that notion, that he’d lied to everyone, including me. My head dropped against the pillows. I pulled one over my eyes. “I heard voices in Portsmouth. Men had decided my fate. I heard them in the hall saying I was a St. Maur. I had no child. They kept prodding and poking me, wanting me to accept that I was crazy and my baby didn’t exist. My amnesia left me without defense. Who did this? Not Ashbrook. Who’s my villain? Who am I to believe?”
Patience held me and rocked me, soothing me like Lionel. “You have to have faith, that belief in the unseen. You know Ashbrook loves you and Hope. He’d never hurt you or anyone.”
“I need to prove him innocent, to acquit him in the court of my mind. My peace is important, because it’s mine.” Setting down the pillow, I stood. “I’m not going to sit around waiting for my life to come undone. I’m going back to the Lincoln’s Inn. The answers are there.”
“Lincoln’s Inn. Scaling trees?”
“I’m dressed for it.” I pushed the hem of Daniel’s frilled shirt back into my borrowed pantaloons.
“It’s too risky. Lady Shrewsbury says there is too much scrutiny on him because of your rushed marriage. She’s fretful of how the Lord Mayor, his superior justice, treats him.”
With a shrug, I stood and smoothed his shirt that smelled of cedar and lilies and my tears. “I’m going tonight, by myself.”
“You have lost your mind if you think I’d let you do this without me. Someone has to be there to keep you from falling. Let me dress.”
I paced in front of my fruit bowl art, thinking of my husband’s mash. My faith was low, and I hungered for proof that kept Daniel as my hero, the man who rescued me and Hope.
CHAPTER 46
DANIEL—OUT THEWINDOW
Daniel rolled up the cuff of his Saxon blue robe. The warm bluish-gray cloth took away the chill of his empty bed.
The pillow, the lone pillow he’d entrusted to Jemina when they’d climbed out of his love nest, otherwise known as his closet, looked untouched.
She wasn’t there, not on the left side she’d claimed nor the right.
Knocking on her door produced no answer.
Yet, he didn’t know what to say.
Had he ruined things more?
He told her how he felt. Was that wrong? Was it foolish to tell a woman he loved her? Was it foolish to let her seduce him?
Noooo, that was his best idea.
This pique made no sense.
Max waggled into the room. His head raised, looking at Daniel, condemning him.
“Max, do your lady friends treat you well?”
The dog sniffed and licked Daniel’s toes.
He stooped and fluffed his boy’s coat. “Max, I did my husbandly duties well, better than well. There were no complaints. I know that I—”
