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"You're in love with her," he barked. "Admit it!"
"I'll do no such thing. You two are fools."
Aidan slowed his mount and let it draw even with Jude's again. He stared straight ahead and said quietly, "She doesn't love you, Jude. This can't end well. You're from two different worlds."
The sympathy in his voice didn't improve Jude's mood at all. Two different worlds. As if he hadn't lived half his life in a duke's household. He clutched the reins too tightly, and the horse shied and bumped Aidan's. Jude murmured something soothing and patted the horse's neck.
A good while later, Edward cleared his throat. "I want to thank you, Jude. Your suspicions were spot on. II you hadn't been here, Aidan and I would have blamed Peter White without exception."
"Once again, my base beginnings prove useful."
Edward cleared his throat again, but couldn't seem to think what to say. Jude wished he could pull the petty words back and swallow them as easily as he'd so often swallowed his pride.
In the end, both he and the horse were saved by the landscape. They topped a small hillock, the drive of their destination came into view, and all three men pulled to a stop to stare down on it.
All uncomfortable visit awaited.
'Jude," Aidan tried again, but Jude held up a hand.
"Whether this story with Marissa ends well or not," he finally said, "I don't doubt there will at least be a moral in it. That's all I mean to say."
Aidan snorted and slapped him on the back, and the horses started down the hill in response.
"So... what if Charles LeMont is here?" Jude asked.
Edward set his jaw. "Then I suppose he will hear an unwelcome truth."
"She'll deny it."
"Of course."
When they readied the doors, Edward instructed the boy to walk their mounts. They didn't anticipate a long visit. Still, they found themselves pacing the morning room for a good half hour. The mistress was still dressing, the maid explained, seeming nervous in their presence. Jude supposed they must look forbidding, at best. He certainly
felt as if he were attending a hanging.
Edward was right. Mrs. LeMont would deny it, and none of them were relishing the prospect of browbeating a woman. The maid had been a trying experience. What to do with a gentlewoman with a child in her belly? If she feigned illness, they had no defense against that. He had a sneaking suspicion this ambush would end with all three men gathered around the fainting couch, fanning their enemy and offering strong tea.
His stomach burned at the thought, and it wasn't alleviated by the sight of the smiling Mrs. LeMont breezing into the room. She rested one elegant hand on her rounded belly. "Gentlemen! What a pleasure to see you again so soon."
She was, as Aidan had said, a handsome woman. Dignified and glowing with good health. But as Jude moved closer, he saw that the flawlessness of her skin was enhanced by powder that did only a passable job of hiding the circles beneath her eyes. And though she smiled in happy welcome, her eyes glittered a bit too brightly. She was nervous, and no wonder. The maid had disappeared, and now there were wolves in her morning room. But he could understand that the York brothers had not been able to see past her belly. It was a distraction, and a sympathetic one.
"My husband is off this morning to oversee the clearing of a field, so I'm embarrassed to say you've missed him once again! You did find him last night though, right? Yes, of course, you did. I remember now."
"We did," Edward said.
"Has your horse not improved, then?"
"Mrs. LeMont..." Edward's voice was too serious to mistake it for anything less than somber, but her smile did not so much as fade at the edges. If Jude hadn't known the truth already, he would have suspected her involvement now. Edward cleared his throat. "We are not here about the horse."
"No?" That simple word rose at the end like a bird taking flight. "Oh, forgive my rudeness, gentlemen. Let us all have a seat. Let me pour you a cup of tea."
Tea had been delivered upon their arrival, but the cups sat empty and untouched, and even after she waved them to the gathering of chairs, she did not reach for the pot.
"Mrs. LeMont," Edward tried again, "We have spoken to Tess."
"Tess?" she asked.
"The maid."
