AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A footman scooped up the fan and dropped it onto Guy’s outstretched palm. The fan looked fragile. One delicately carved stick was broken.
Careful of the fracture, he eased the fan open; the silk was painted like twilight to match her gown. He closed it again, gently, as much as the broken stick allowed. When he glanced up, guests were gawking at him; his glower made them look away. Speculation must be rife, with Arabella’s broken engagement, and Guy, the big, brash marquess who had already spurned her, now acting like a slavering, devoted swain.
After tonight, they would not see each other again, not for months or even years. He would attend house parties over autumn and winter, and if that did not find him a bride, he’d find one when society gathered in London in the spring. The next time he saw Arabella, he would be engaged or even married; she would look right through him, but by then this mad infatuation would have passed and he would not care.
After everything, they needed a farewell. He was not doing her bidding. He was simply returning her fan, and bidding heradieu.
* * *
Arabella did not acknowledgeGuy when he joined her on the terrace. She was studying the night sky as intently as if it had flaws and she was personally appointed to fix them. Gooseflesh gathered on her upper arms, on the inches of bare skin between her long gloves and short sleeves. If she were Matilda Treadgold, she would shiver pointedly and he would offer his coat, an intimate offering she would demurely accept. But this was Arabella Larke, and she stood tall and tense and ignored the cold. He was of a mind to offer his coat anyway, just to make her snarl.
“Your fan,” he said.
She unfurled a gloved hand. Without touching her, he laid the fan across her palm.
“It’s broken,” he added.
She made that dismissive sound in the back of her throat and returned to studying the sky. Before, it had been overcast, but she had frightened the sky into a picturesque scene, with ribbons of silvery cloud floating around the bright three-quarter moon.
He would not take back his unkind, ungracious words, because they were true; Arabella was those things, but he could tell her she was other things too. Things he could not yet imagine. That behind her eyes lay a whole solar system, to be discovered by the man who was brave enough or foolish enough to look.
Before he could speak, a footman arrived and handed Arabella a piece of paper. She thanked him, and once they were alone again, she held out the paper to Guy.
“This was taken from Sir Walter’s belongings. He is not yet aware it is gone.”
“You are stealing now too.”
“I am always seeking new skills.”
Unfolding the paper, he found enough light to read it by. The meaning was clear on the first read, but still he read it twice more: a special license permitting the immediate marriage of Freddie to Sir Walter’s son, Humphrey.
“Freddie knows nothing of this,” Arabella was saying. “But it explains why Sir Walter has hastily recalled his son, and why they make no effort to find her a husband. You were seeking his scheme; that is it.”
“How did you know?”
“If I were Sir Walter and I wanted to get my hands on your sister’s wealth, that’s what I would have done.” She raised one brow. “Those of us who areunscrupulousthink like that.”
Guy slipped the license into a pocket. “We have evidence that he embezzled from his charitable organizations. We were seeking embezzling.”
“Why steal Freddie’s wealth when he can get it legally by marrying her off to his son? I wasn’t certain until we found that. Had you listened to me in London, you could have asked the archbishop directly, as I cannot, and I would not have had to take up stealing.”
“Do you want an apology?”
“Guy, the list of impossible things I want is so long there is no room for anymore. Just make sure that Freddie is not forced into a match against her will for someone else’s benefit.”
He shook his head in frustration. “But I have no legal power to stop the marriage while Sir Walter is her guardian. The only way I can gain custody is to prove mismanagement.”
“Which this is.” She rapped his chest hard with her fan, her own frustration clear. “There have been numerous court cases in which Chancery removed guardians for arranging an unequal and improper marriage for their wards. Your solicitors were negligent in failing to mention them. Humphrey Treadgold is Freddie’s inferior in every way, in status, wealth, connections. This, you numbskull,isevidence of mismanagement, because Sir Walter is using his guardianship for his son’s benefit and to Freddie’s disadvantage.”
“How do you know the case law?”
“I read it. I can read. Or is that a crime now too?”
“You’re irritable.”
“I’m always irritable.”
“No. This is different. What is the matter?”
