“No!” The boy shuddered. “Not like that. I heard him come out of my mother’s room.”
Ah. Niki took a breath of cold air to try to clear his head. Tomas was jealous. Niki had noticed it already, but that did not mean the boy had not heard and seen Hart and this man.
“What did they say apart from my name?”
Tomas screwed up his face as he tried to remember the exact words. “They were talking about rallying those who were like-minded. Something like that. Overthrowing the government and marching to the castle.”
It sounded serious. Niki supposed the cloaked man could have been one of Hart’s numerous guards, or one of his spies, but to speak of such matters out here?
Tomas was right. What better way to kill your enemy than to pretend to be his protector?
“There’s nothing to be done now. Let’s go back to bed,” hesaid, leading the way inside the house.
“I was only trying to do the right thing.” Behind him, Tomas sounded anxious.
“I know you were. I am grateful to you for letting me know. I will deal with Hart.”
“Good.”
The word was spoken under his breath, but Niki heard it. He was sure Tomas wanted nothing more than to see Hart disgraced and banished. The boy’s bias made Niki less inclined to condemn the man out of hand. But one thing was for certain—he would be keeping a close eye on Freddie Hart.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Niki sat down in a chair and then immediately stood up again. Freddie, who had been about to sit too, straightened up with a frown. They were waiting in one of the Ashton House sitting rooms and had been left cooling their heels for nearly twenty minutes now. Niki wasn’t sure how much longer he would be able to hold himself together.
“Are you all right, sir?”
Freddie was observing him cautiously. After last night, Niki couldn’t blame him. He felt cautious himself when it came to the other man. He hadn’t decided yet how to handle Tomas’sevidence, but he could not let it go.
When he had come downstairs to try to force down some breakfast before setting off for Ashton House, Freddie had already arrived and was finishing an obscenely large meal. If Niki hadn’t known he had gone home early this morning, he would have thought he’d stayed the whole night. Freddie had dabbed his lips with a napkin and said, “We are going to see Roberta?”
“I am. I have to. I am going to ask her to marry me properly.”
Freddie’s hazel eyes had turned serious. “Are you sure this is what you really want to do, sir? It was never meant to be a permanent arrangement.”
As if Niki did not know his own mind. “I am going to Ashton House, with or without you.”
“Despite what she said last night, I can’t promise Roberta will agree to marry you.” Freddie’s expression had been sympathetic, and Niki really hadn’t wanted his sympathy.
“I will have to persuade her then. Try to,” he’d added irritably.
After that there was silence, and now here they were, waiting on Roberta, and he had had plenty of time to wonder if his mind was disordered after all. What if Roberta ordered him out and swore never to speak to him again? She had agreed to the engagement—partially, at least—from the kindness of her heart, to protect him from danger, and she had said at the time that she had no intention of ever marrying. And now he was forcing her into a union she clearly did not want…
Unless she did?
There was that glimmer of hope again. Sometimes when she looked at him in a certain way, he had felt as if she would genuinely marry him. And then there were the kisses—he couldn’t forget them. It was all very well to pretend they were practicing, but who kissed someone like that if they did not feel something for them? So it was that glimmer that had brought him here to Ashton House, and now hope was waiting with him, somewhat impatiently, for Roberta’s appearance.
The door finally opened. Niki shot to his feet again, and with an audible sigh, Freddie followed. Roberta stood framed in the doorway, pale faced, shadows under her eyes, but as beautiful as ever. She saw Freddie and managed a half smile in response to his greeting.
“I would prefer to speak to Niki alone,” she said.
“Are you certain?” Freddie asked. “I am standing in for your brother in this matter, and I am not sure Gabriel would want toleave you alone right now.”
She smiled more genuinely then. “I am certain, but thank you, Freddie.”
Freddie nodded, shot a glance at Niki as if to warn him to behave, and closed the door quietly behind him. Niki watched his friend and fiancée and future wife—unless she was not—sit down on the sofa by the fireplace. It was chilly enough for a fire this morning, and she stared into the coals and the flames as if they were more interesting than him.
“I want you to tell me why you did it,” she said at last. “Because I cannot imagine what possessed you. Yes, I know the king may have pushed you into it, but you could have shrugged it off. Or told him it was over. I have been awake all night trying to understand, Niki.”
