“You are in debt to Chadbourn. He wishes to consult about matters to restore the estate,” Richard said studying his fingernails. “To all of us.”
“I have no way to repay?—”
“Come home with us. We’ll arrange something,” Andrew murmured.
“There are always ways,” Richard said. “Not all of them financial. As it happens you can be of use in London.”
Richard didn’t specify and Jamie didn’t want to speculate about ‘ways.’ He wondered if Nora would wait. He wouldn’t bet on it. She would bar the door if she had any sense. Richard gazed at him, calm and implacable.
The fight went out of Jamie. “Give me a day,” he said, “and I will do what you want.”
“I can’t. I’m needed in London, and a ship sails with the tide before morning.”
Tonight?That gave Jamie no time to repair things with Nora. Hisheart sank.I’ve most likely damaged things beyond repair anyway.He agreed.
Richard’s look implied that he had taken too much time from affairs of state to deal with the petty problems of his friend already. Arrangements took but a moment.
Jamie left Wat to show them out and hurried down the now-darkened corridor to Nora’s sitting room. He found it empty and the door to her bedroom firmly closed.
Jamie hesitated. More than a door lay between them.
“Nora, open for me, please,”Jamie pleaded behind the door.
Nora sat up in bed, hands splayed over the unread book in her lap, and tried to ignore the muffled voice of her husband.
“I know you must be angry,” he began.
Angry? Hurt. Confused. Enraged. But angry? Her heart began to pound again as it had when he left her alone in the drawing room.
“I should have told you in the beginning, but I didn’t think it mattered.”
She married a shabby major. Now she had a duke parading around her drawing room.How could it not matter?She didn’t even know her own husband. She grabbed a book and threw it at the door.
“Go away!” she told him.
“Good. Be angry. You have every right,” he said. “At least I know you aren’t prostrate.”
“You know me better than that!” she yelled back. “I at least have always been authentic with you. I do not collapse when, when faced with a?—”
“A rat-faced lying husband?”
She had no answer for that.
“Open, just for a few moments and then I’ll leave you alone,” he pleaded with her.
She had nothing else nearby to throw.
“Nora, please!” he shouted.
She turned the key and opened the door a crack. “It’s late. What is it you want to say to me?” Jamie pulled the door part way open and looked at her in the dim candlelight.
She met his gaze wearing her old muslin night rail, her much patched wrapper, and a wary expression.
“It’s very late,” she repeated.
“Richard kept me,” he said.
She glared back.Richard. His close friend. The duke. How could I have missed the signs? Of course he had highborn friends. The damned man made a fool of me.
