Page 36 of Lady Arabella’s Reluctant Hero

She let them sit in silence for several moments. But then the duchess continued.

"Pierce is not working alone," the duchess said. "He answers to someone. We do not yet know who, though Lord Blackwood and I have our suspicions. What matters, for the moment, is that you understand the scale of what you have stumbled into."

Arabella nodded, but she still had no words. She understood that the man who had married her at sixteen was part of something that had killed a man and nearly killed a woman. Her stomach turned because…

She also understood that for the past two years she had been an instrument in this enterprise without knowing it.

The tea was definitely cold. She set it down.

"What now?" she asked.

The duchess folded her hands. "Lord Blackwood and I shall continue our work. We are considerably closer than we were a week ago, thanks to you. There are inquiries to make, and I have people making them."

A silence fell in which Arabella became aware that Lord Alderton had shifted in his chair. She glanced at him. He was looking at his hands with a slight furrow between his brows.

"Tell me how I can help," he said.

The duchess regarded him with something like fondness. "Lord Alderton. You have a daughter waiting for you in the country and concerns of your own. I could not ask it of you."

"You are not asking. I am offering." He frowned, and Arabella watched him turn something over. "I promised Lucy I would be home. I shall write to her and make arrangements for her care a while longer. But I'll not walk away from this and leave you to manage a man like Pierce on your own."

Something small and unsteady moved through Arabella's chest. It took her a moment to identify it, and when she did, she was annoyed with herself for feeling it at all.

Because of course he would say that. It was who he was. He could no more leave a problem half solved than he could stop breathing. It had nothing to do with her.

She made herself say it. "You should go."

He looked at her.

"You have been more than generous with your time, Lord Alderton. You've done your part. Our reputations are… Well. As repaired as they are likely to get." She lifted a shoulder and was rather proud of how steady it came out. "Lucy needs her father. The rest is not your concern. It is mine."

For a moment he didn't answer. She kept her face pleasant. Or at least not unpleasant. Adequate, she hoped, for the purpose of reassuring a man that he was free to leave, and giving him no reason to suspect she wished he wouldn't.

The duchess inclined her head. "She is right, Lord Alderton, though it pains me to send away the most useful man I have. Blackwood and I shall manage from here." She turned to Arabella. "If you are agreeable, my dear, I shall write to your father and request that your stay with me be extended. I should like to keep you close while we sort through all of this."

Arabella nodded. It was all very sensible. Very tidy. Lord Alderton would go to the country and be with Lucy, and she would stay here and be protected. Lord Blackwood would investigate, and eventually there would be a resolution of some kind, and she would return to her father's house and resume the life she had been living before any of this had happened.

It was exactly what ought to happen.

So she could not, for the life of her, explain why the thought of it made her throat ache.

"Very well." Lord Alderton stood. "I shall make arrangements to leave by the end of the week."

The duchess rose as well. "I shall send word if there are developments. Do give Miss Lucy our regards."

He turned to Arabella. "Lady Arabella. It has been⁠—"

He paused, and for the briefest of moments she was utterly uncertain how he would finish. It wasn't as though they'd had a delightful time being forced into a false courtship these past few days to restore their reputations.

But then again…

She pressed her lips together as her mind unhelpfully played back every encounter she'd had with the man in the short time they'd been acquainted. Some parts had been rather delightful. He was a remarkably good sport as an escort, and an excellent dance partner—she'd learned that at the Whitcombs' ball two nights prior. And it was undeniable that he made her laugh more than any other gentleman of her acquaintance.

So yes, perhaps it was understandable that their parting left her with some regrets. But then again, not every encounter had been so pleasant.

She dipped her head, but caught herself before she could lift her hand and touch her neck where the bruises had faded.

Lord Alderton cleared his throat and gave her a small smile that she'd come to adore for its sincerity. "I am glad to have been of service."