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Teddy raised himself onto one elbow and stared into her eyes. “You seriously wouldn’t grieve if your husband…were no longer around?”
Araminta shrugged. “I’ve been called heartless, but I don’t believe in pretending something I don’t. I’m not pretending when I say I adore you, Teddy. Why should I have to pretend I’d mourn my husband since he tricked me into marriage and is cruel to me?” She stroked his neck. “I only feel safe with you, Teddy darling.”
“My dearest, you seriously mean that? That you adore me and want to be with me forever?”
“Of course, I do!”
“And you’d be prepared to suffer privation and scandal?”
“Well, I wouldn’t have to if I were widowed.”
“But if Debenham were found guilty of gross wrongdoing, then you’d be placed in an intolerable position. His estate would be forfeited and he’d go to prison, or worse, and you’d be neither wife nor widow.”
“Well, that’s not going to happen,” Araminta said lightly. “But if I were widowed…” She let the idea take root in Teddy’s mind. Really, the way Debenham carried on she couldn’t see him outlasting her. As for the alternative, she certainly wasn’t prepared to suffer privation and scandal, which meant she certainly wasn’t going to let Debenham stupidly walk himself into danger.
“I probably shouldn’t tell you this, darling—”
There was such an ominous edge to his tone, Araminta’s happy contemplation of Debenham’s demise was replaced by sudden, all-enveloping dread.
“What is it, Teddy?” She rolled onto her stomach and flung a leg over him, as if to cement him there and force out the truth for he suddenly looked evasive.
“I really shouldn’t say it, dearest.” He held her more tightly to him. “I will look after you. Wha
tever happens.”
“Look after me! That’s what I want. I want to be your wife! You asked me a year ago but…but then you raced off on your foolish quest to help someone else you hadn’t seen in years, and look what happened to me. And now I’ve made the greatest sacrifice a woman could make. Look at me! Look what I’ve risked to be with you.”
“Hush! Everything will be all right; I promise you,” he soothed. “We’ll find a way out of whatever trouble might arise.”
“You haven’t had reason to suspect that Debenham knows about us?”
“Dear Lord, I’d be quaking in my boots if I thought he suspected anything. But with Ralph keeping such an eye on him, I feel safe in reassuring you on that score.”
Araminta started to breathe easy again.
“And Silverton has the matter in hand. Now there’s a chap I trust. He and Tunley are well on the way to making up a case that’ll get Debenham out of our hair, eh. Spencean, blackmailer. You said it yourself. Thought you’d be happy to be reassured, though I shouldn’t have come out with it like that. Ralph wouldn’t be at all pleased, but you mustn’t fear the future, my angel. Like I said, I’ll look after you. We’ll go abroad, perhaps. Find a little place—”
“What are you talking about?” Araminta sat up and shook back her glossy dark hair as she stared at him. “Debenham isn’t about to be…?” She couldn’t say the words. All her worst nightmares were closing in on her. She thought of her reduced dress allowance. Debenham could be generous. Even if he was floating in the River Tick he always managed to find a way. If it came from some of the demands he made for secrets, that only served the victim right for having secrets in the first place.
Teddy, looking concerned now, sat up also and tried to comfort her. “You won’t say anything to him, will you?”
“About what, Teddy?” She tried to keep the panic out of her voice.
“They are organizing a search warrant to search his townhouse tomorrow night, but you must promise you won’t say a word. I wasn’t supposed to say anything, but I heard Ralph and Silverton talking when they thought I wasn’t attending. Anyway, they know how I feel about you and that whatever happened to Debenham you’d be in safe hands. With me, that is.” He seemed oblivious to the turmoil in her breast as he smiled and tenderly stroked her brow. “Debenham’s heir will be provided for. Everything will be for the better. You’ve married a bad chap, but that’s not your fault. It’s a good thing I’m around, dear heart. Truth is, I’d never have gotten this far—he gave a short laugh as he indicated their nakedness with a nod” —had I not known what was in the offing. Now, I daresay we should talk practicalities.”
“Practicalities? What do you mean?” Araminta felt ill. Debenham was going to be apprehended? Dear God, she needed to warn him—fast! She was not going to be left stranded, pregnant, and without the financial support of a husband who was at least duty bound to provide for her. Teddy was a love, but he’d already proved unreliable. If he’d only succumbed to her charms and taken ownership of that wretched baby a year ago, they’d have been blissfully joined as husband and wife.
But that hadn’t happened. Araminta had had to make a bold and daring plan to get her life on track, and now it looked like—thanks to the information Teddy had just provided her—she was going to have to do it again.
“How, exactly, is this going to happen?”
He looked evasive. “I really shouldn’t tell you, my darling. It’s a very important investigation, and I only mentioned it to forewarn you so that you were prepared. Having ascertained the ill-will you bear your husband for his appalling treatment of you, and the fact that you are so distressed that he has been operating outside the law, I’d hoped to reassure you that whatever happens, you can rely on me to look after you.”
“So, you say this is going to take place tomorrow? Is there no more warning than that?”
“No, I heard that…well, I really shouldn’t say, but because a certain young lady had ascertained the whereabouts of a great deal of incriminating documents and other material, and had announced plans of laying her hands on them, my brother had felt compelled to act at the earliest, even though the investigation has been ongoing for some time.”
“A certain young lady? Dear God. Connected with my husband?”
