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“Dearest, these are things I’d meant to keep from you so as to save you distress. You already know the kind of man your husband is. It serves no purpose to paint him even blacker. Where are you going? I thought you were staying?”
Araminta gathered her shawl about her and tried to hide her urgency as she smiled at him. “I know I said I should stay, Teddy, but the bliss I’ve just experienced has made me feel anxious about poor William, who is cutting a tooth and needs his mama. You know how I dote on him.”
“Really?”
“I think one can’t help a mother’s instinct. I hardly see Hetty these days; she’s forever with her baby.” She knew she was prattling, but it helped to discuss inane and unimportant matters when her fingers were shaking so badly, and time was of the essence. “Please help me with my fastenings? Thank you, darling.” She stroked his cheek before seizing her pelisse and rapidly doing up the buttons in the front. “And now for my hair. Untangle it for me, please, and I’ll fashion it into a semblance of order which will be perfectly acceptable beneath my bonnet. There…how do I look?”
“Like a goddess. Some women would take hours to look as you’ve managed before I have time to…click my fingers.”
Araminta thought this a very pretty compliment and bent to kiss Teddy, feeling much more charitable toward him than she had when he’d said such dreadful things about privation and no dress allowance and losing her reputation. None of those things were going to happen to her, and furthermore, she was going to get her man. Yes, she was going to enjoy a blissful and worry-free union with Teddy, who would love and indulge her, but she was not going to do it wearing last season’s castoffs as the wife of a traitor and living in penury.
She snaked her arm around the back of his neck and rubbed her body against his, pleased at the instant response she received. Teddy was like soft clay in her hands, and that’s what she needed him to be if she were to find the happiness she deserved.
“Who is this young lady? Please tell me, Teddy, for you know how I hate being the last to know, and of course, by tomorrow it’ll be all over and…and I will be yours forever.”
He pursed his lips. “I suppose it’s all right to tell you since you are sisters…”
“Hetty?” She jerked forward as fury bubbled up inside. “Why, she pretended her argument with Debenham was in the past. I know she hates him, but she pretended so well during my birthday.” Her brain raced. “No, it can’t be Hetty. Surely Sir Aubrey is behind it!”
“No, neither. Please, darling!” Concerned, Teddy tried to cool her anger by holding her to his chest, but Araminta would not be comforted. The knowledge that someone who would do Debenham harm, that might in turn damage Araminta, was beyond bearable.
“Dear Lord, Lissa? Lissa is the traitor? That mousey, mealy-mouthed—”
“No! Not Lissa—”
Perplexed, Araminta stared. “Then who? I have no other sisters.”
“My dear, did you not know?” Teddy pushed back her dark hair and regarded her with a look of concern and uncertainty. “Ralph mentioned it once. I was sure you knew…”
Chapter 25
“My dear, has anyone told you how exquisitely diamonds and rubies become you?” Kitty fingered the necklace Debenham was admiring, and which she was going to have to sell before long if she were to pay her rent and purred, “Many.”
“I believe it sets off your fine coloring better even than it did my wife’s.”
“Yes, Lord Nash told me it had once belonged to Lady Debenham,” said Kitty. “In fact, had it not been for this very necklace I may have married Lord Nash.”
In response to his enquiring look, she added, “I learned he’d acquired his so-called wedding gift to me fr
om a brothel he regularly frequented. How he came to discover it there, I do not know. There’s no telling what items of value one will surrender if the bargain is good enough.”
“Everything has its price, eh, Miss Bijou?” Debenham patted the sofa onto which he’d just lowered himself. “And what is yours?”
Kitty raised her eyebrows. “Surely such important negotiations are conducted over the finest champagne?”
“Of course.” Debenham leaned forward and pulled on the bell rope, his summons answered by a young footman to whom he dispensed the requisite orders. Once the door had closed behind the lackey he moved his hand to Kitty’s, trailing it up her arm to fondle her neck.
“You have very soft skin, Kitty La Bijou. And quite a reputation. In fact, you are beyond rubies, I’m told.”
“And who tells you that?” Kitty was feeling distinctly uncomfortable at the close proximity, and the sudden fear that her plan may not yield the results for which she was hoping. The footman had returned and uncorked the bottle before discreetly withdrawing. Kitty glanced over her shoulder to see the light, fizzing liquid in the glasses, and her chest constricted as she wondered how she could dispense the contents of the vial of powder she’d obtained from Mrs. Mobbs. A distraction, of course; she was an actress. She could do that.
A shout of anger from his Lordship was not what she’d been expecting. She startled as he rose and snatched up the bottle.
“This is not what I would have for such an occasion!” For a moment Kitty thought he was angry with her.
“I wouldn’t foist this on my worst enemy. My pardons, Miss Bijou. I shall procure something more suitable.” In a moment, he was out of the door and Kitty was suddenly alone in his private sitting room. Just through those double doors was his bedchamber. The bedchamber Dorcas had described where he kept the box. Lord, was this the God-given opportunity for which she’d dreamed? And without her having to suffer any more of his caresses?
His footsteps suggested he’d hurried to the end of the passage. She might have a few seconds, or she might have longer. Battling the conflict between desire for the right outcome and necessary caution, she rose and pushed open the doors to a large, spacious bedchamber decorated in blue and gold. Rich carpets added an air of sumptuousness, but also promised good sound protection. A small adjoining anteroom suggested the possibility of a study.
