Page 79 of A Rogue at Stonecliffe

“It is,” Annabeth insisted. “I’m not choosing to devastate her in a different way instead. There’s nothing in there that she needs to know, and I can promise you that she would rather not know disturbing things. Besides, she tells Lord Edgerton everything, and he’s the last person I would want to know that Papa had done something terrible. He already says enough hurtful things about my father.”

“As it happens, I agree that we should not tell her. The fewer people who know, the better. Just your grandmother.”

“And Nathan,” Annabeth said quietly. “I won’t keep it from him. He deserves to know. He stayed at Stonecliffe to help with our ruse even though our engagement was over. He has been an asset every step of the way.”

“Yes,” Sloane had to admit. “We will tell Nathan and Verity as well. We seem to have formed some sort of team, so I suppose we must trust them.”

“A foreign concept to you, I know.” But her dry words were accompanied again by the teasing smile.

He wanted, quite badly, to lean over and kiss the little dimple that formed at the corner of her mouth. But he turned his head and said, “Then after we reach London tomorrow, we’ll go on to Stonecliffe.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

AS IT TURNED OUT, there was no need to travel to Stonecliffe, for when they arrived at Lady Lockwood’s home in London late the next afternoon, they found the mistress of the house very much in residence.

“Grandmother!” Annabeth exclaimed in surprise.

“Yes, yes, it is I. Don’t stand there in the doorway gawking, girl. Come in and sit down.” Lady Lockwood gave a short nod to Sloane. “You, too, Rutherford.”

“What are you doing here?” Annabeth asked, bending down to pet Petunia, who had rushed forward to greet her with a great deal of jumping and high-pitched yips.

It was Nathan who answered, rising from his seat on the nearby sofa. “Miss Cole decided to leave Stonecliffe, so there seemed little point in staying.”

“Hello, Nathan.” Annabeth searched his face anxiously. He seemed somewhat subdued, but showed no other sign of unhappiness. But then, of course, he was always the perfect British gentleman. She went forward, holding out her hand in greeting.

“Annabeth.” He took her hand and bowed to her in the exactly proper way for a close acquaintance.

Why, oh why couldn’t I have fallen in love with Nathan instead of the man beside me? It would have been so much better for all of us.

“Carlisle and Noelle returned,” Lady Lockwood explained. “I didn’t want to intrude on the newlyweds.”

“Or miss all the excitement,” Nathan added with a little grin toward Lady Lockwood.

“Oh, you hush,” Lady Lockwood said almost indulgently. Apparently the relationship between her grandmother and Nathan had improved considerably now that he was no longer engaged to her granddaughter. Annabeth wondered if Nathan had broken the news to Lady Lockwood yet.

“Where is Verity?”

Nathan shrugged. “I’ve no idea. She said she was tired of sitting around doing nothing and she was going to talk to some people she knew, see what she could discover.”

Sloane frowned. “She was supposed to stay at Stonecliffe. Why didn’t you keep her there?”

“Keep her there?” Nathan’s eyebrows shot up. “What exactly should I have done? Tied her to a chair?”

“That wouldn’t have stopped her anyway,” Sloane conceded.

“I did point out that she was directed to remain at Stonecliffe. You can imagine how well that was received.”

“Blast the woman. Why didn’t she do what she was meant to?” Sloane scowled.

“Sloane...” Annabeth said in a worried tone. “Do you think—are you still thinking it could be Verity behind all this?”

“Verity!” Nathan gaped. “What are you talking about? Behind what exactly?”

“Yes, tell us. What happened?” Lady Lockwood demanded.

“Someone has attacked us twice,” Sloane said bluntly. “And we discovered that Hunter Winfield did not die in an accident. He was murdered.”

For a long moment, Annabeth’s grandmother and Nathan stared at him, then began to talk at once.