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“If I paid attention to you as I want to, we would be abed twenty-three hours a day.”
“Liar.You couldn’t publish theDaily Informerif you did.Or do all the other secret things you do when you aren’t home.”
Matthew answered Rose by slipping his hand between her legs and finding the slit in her unmentionables.“The secret things I do at home are much more important.”
“Home?”
“Well, wherever your legs are.”
She chuckled.When he slid his finger back and forth before neatly tucking a digit in her body, she gasped and arched.“We can stop talking now,” he said.He gripped the back of her thigh and with the other hand took hold of his cock.She wiggled a bit until she felt the head of his cock at the entrance of her sheath.She relaxed over him, and he slid inside easily.
“Now, remind me why it’s good to be Matthew Hardy on such a day as this,” he said.
She braced her hands at his shoulders and surged upward.“Hmm,” she hummed, feeling the gentle stirring of pleasure.“I was hoping you’d forget your name altogether.”
The carriage rocked, Rose rode him, and they kissed and whispered and stroked their way to mutual release.Her thighs burned.She rested her head against his shoulder while he rubbed his hands over her back.
“Rose, I paid Madame DuPuis.I wanted you as my wife.”
She leaned back; his hands still braced at her waist.“What?”
“You were right, it was about improving my social position.I was in possession of certain information about activities at Sandhurst.I found out about your pregnancy and, in another of my convoluted schemes, I discovered Anne VanLandingham had taken you to Alice DuPuis hoping to resolve your situation quickly and quietly via the leverage of her gaming tables.”
Rose set her feet to the carriage floor and removed herself from Matthew’s lap, swishing her skirt into place.“You bought me?”
“Not like that.”
“Like what?And how did you find out I was pregnant?I only told my sister.No one else knew until I confessed to you the night we married.”
“I was clear about who I am, and youdidaccept my offer.”
“But you have been less than candid about the circumstances surrounding the event.How did you find out about my condition?”
“The letter you wrote to you sister.I read it.”
She shook her head.“That’s impossible.”
“Not impossible.Difficult.Improbable.”
“Why?How?It doesn’t make any sense that you would read the one letter I wrote to Rachel about this.”She rubbed a hand across her stomach, a reminder of the cause that led to Matthew.
“Did you never wonder how a boy—a young man—like me, was able to parlay a few confidence tricks into a massive fortune?”
“You said you worked.Don’t try to avoid my question, Matthew.It is time you told me the truth.”
“Oh, I worked.The dirtiest, filthiest jobs to begin with—jobs I don’t want to remember—until I had some money in my pocket.I bought and I sold.I slept four hours a day.I went to bed with the town’s filth on me.
“The truth is, one day, I had the idea that to be successful, I only needed to emulate other successful people.How I dressed.What I did.How I did it.I started paying household servants for information.Which horse is Lord Harry backing?Where is Lord Westphalia investing his money?That sort of thing.Then I started intercepting letters.From numerous households in London, including yours.”
“And you used it in your newspaper?”
“Not just there, but yes, in the paper.That is why I can rightly claim nothing I publish is false.I had the original information.”
“Good Lord.Oh, good Lord.”She rubbed the back of her neck.A sharp pain developed from there through her shoulder.
“The value of such information was priceless.I understood where to invest, where and when to buy land and estates, who was in debt, who desperately needed money.Which banks were in jeopardy.Where new docks were going to be built.Which ships were bringing invaluable products into London.Which man could be trusted and which man couldn’t.Who was bribing one man for personal benefit.Who was a murderer.Who was a thief.Who was liar.Do you see how a man could grow wealthy with such information?Don’t you see?”
Rose had never seen this wild-eyed gaze in Matthew before.She’d also never seen such fervor.Well, except when Sandhurst acted so irrationally.No, she could not compare them.She understood the force of Matthew’s desires, but she’d never understood Cyril’s.
