Regency 03 - Deception (27 page)

Since this had not occurred to Levi, the idea that
Rhiannon was just scared had him feeling immensely relieved. Until
he thought about what that poor child had been put through. He felt
an unreasoning surge of anger toward his bride. Had she confided in
him, he might have been able to protect the child. He at least
could have put Desmond Forester out of their misery.

Tamping this anger down lest he go in search of his
wife and thrash her soundly, Levi asked, “So now what?”

Tiny answered, “I have two men watching the
residences, my lord. I will watch myself tonight. He will not
escape unscathed, I assure you.”

“
How did you find all this out so
quickly?”

“
Followed the blighter,” responded
Tiny. “He has a habit of appearing suspicious, you know. It was too
easy. He’s dangerous.”

“
Why do you say that? I mean,
other than for obvious reasons?”

The door to the study opened suddenly to admit the
Duke of Derringer. “Because a lunatic who is careless is far more
unpredictable and therefore, far more dangerous,” the duke told him
simply. “He might kill the girl if he thinks he is about to be
thwarted.” He sat down behind the huge desk, leaning his elbows on
the desktop and sitting forward, smiling at the other men. There
was nothing pleasant about his smile, as usual. “Hello, John, Tiny.
You have told him everything, I assume?”

“
Nearly, Heartless, nearly,”
replied Tiny. Levi wondered if these two gentlemen even knew
Derringer’s rank. He had only ever heard them call him
Heartless.

“
What else is there?” inquired
Levi.

“
All the details,” Tiny said
cryptically.

~~~~~~

Apparently, the duke already knew every last detail,
having discussed it all with his hired men before sending them to
Levi’s. He watched Tiny inform the earl of everything, right down
to the color of the child’s clothing nearly every minute of the
day, the look on her face when she saw Forester, the look on her
face when she was with the Millers, and the little doll she carried
with her constantly.

“
You did not tell me before that
you ever saw the girl,” pointed out Levi a trifle
shortly.

“
I was getting to it,” Tiny told
him with infinite patience.

Levi glanced at the duke. “Am I to suppose that,
judging by Rhiannon’s reaction to Forester, she does not like him?”
The duke nodded. “But she seems to trust, or at least know, the
Millers.”

“
Call your wife in, Vi,” commanded
Derringer.

Levi raised his brows at this request, not trusting
his friend’s frighteningly gentle tone. “Do you have bad news for
her? Perhaps I should hear it first.”

“
Call your wife in,
Vi.”

The earl rang for the butler.

“
The two of you may leave,”
continued the duke, casting meaningful glances at his hired
men.

With a smooth bow from Tiny and a mocking salute
from John, they exited the room. The butler entered as they left
and bowed before the earl and the duke.

“
You rang, my lord, your
grace?”

“
Fetch Lady Greville, please,
Parsons. That will be all.”

The butler bowed again at Levi’s carefully uttered
command and left.

“
Why do you want Aurora here?”
asked Levi, turning to study his friend, determined to know at
least something before his wife arrived.

“
She needs to know that the
Millers have her.”

“
Why?”

“
That is something you’ll have to
ask her, Vi.”

The duke’s tone suggested that he would reveal
nothing about it, so Levi clamped his mouth shut. Derringer’s face
revealed nothing, making Levi all the more suspicious. Just how the
devil did Derringer manage to know everything about everybody? It
was…unnerving.

His eyes narrowed. “What kind of secrets are you
keeping about me?”

The duke’s grin flashed impishly. “That’s for me to
know and you to find out, my dear friend,” he told him.

“
You frighten me,
Hart.”

~~~~~~

Aurora walked into the room, unsure how her husband
would receive her. When she saw the duke, she scowled in his
direction, unaware that her pixie face made her look as dangerous
as an angry kitten. Derringer stood up with a smile of welcome,
both actions odd for him since he seemed to go to some trouble to
appear every bit the conscienceless rogue Society named him.

“
Good afternoon, Lady Greville. I
trust you are well?” he asked solicitously.

Aurora viewed this strange behavior askance. “I am
well, all things considered. But I fear you may have some sort of
brain fever,” she couldn’t help adding. “You are acting all out of
character. Would you like to lie down? Perhaps a rest would do you
some good.”

This observation made the duke laugh with genuine
mirth. “I assure you I am well, my lady. Don’t trouble yourself on
my account.” He moved toward her, keeping an eye on her husband in
a way that Aurora couldn’t like. “I am convinced that you don’t
care a rap for my health anyway,” he told her mockingly. He bowed
over her hand in a courtly gesture.

As he straightened, Aurora drew in a sharp breath at
the sudden, unaccountable anger in the duke’s black eyes. She
stiffened in preparation for whatever he was about to say.

In a voice as caressing as silk but as deadly as a
rapier, the Duke of Derringer asked, “Why do the Millers have your
daughter?”

Aurora reeled back as if struck. Levi hurried toward
her and slid his arm around her waist to support her as she swayed
unsteadily. The duke released a sharp, humorless laugh and returned
to his seat behind the desk.

“
There is hope for you yet, Vi,”
he commented. He settled himself in the chair and leaned back,
swinging his booted feet up onto the desk and crossing his ankles.
He linked his hands behind his head and looked for all the world as
if he owned the place.

Aurora sagged against her husband, relishing his
strength, but her eyes never left the duke’s. “It was not Desmond?”
she asked weakly. “It was the Millers?”

“
It was both,” replied Derringer.
His voice was once again blank, although the mocking look remained
in his eyes.

This statement snapped Aurora out of her shock.
“They are working together? How can they be so utterly horrid? She
is just a little girl.”

“
You are very observant,”
commented Derringer, his scorn grating on her nerves. “What is that
cousin of yours thinking, Vi, poking her nose around in Cheapside?”
he asked Levi in a swift change of subject.

“
Bri?” said Aurora and Levi
together.

“
Yes, Lord and Lady Featherhead.
Lady Brianna Prestwich, Countess of Rothsmere. Tiny saw her with
Northwicke’s wife asking questions that are likely to get Rhiannon
and themselves killed. I assume Prestwich and Northwicke are
unaware of their actions?”

“
They would have to be,” Levi
agreed. “If Adam, I mean, when Adam finds out, he’ll kill her
himself.”

“
And Lord Connor would lock Doll
up if he knew she was aiding Bri,” inserted Aurora. “I cannot
believe Doll would even consent to such a mad scheme.”

“
She is probably trying to keep
Bri from attempting something even more foolish,” Levi told them
dryly.

“
That is how I saw it,” agreed
Derringer, his eased pose behind the desk belying the rigidity of
his face. “I’d feel better if it was Prestwich poking around. Even
though he’d likely get in the way, he would be a good deal more
able to handle himself when Forester’s hired cutthroats ambush us
all during our first rescue attempt.” He paused, his expression a
mixture of speculation, annoyance, and consideration.

“
Our
first
attempt?” Levi
uttered in accents of disbelief. “What do you mean,
our first
attempt?
”

But the duke appeared not to be listening. His brow
cleared suddenly. “We need Prestwich and Northwicke after all.” His
tone suggested that he liked the idea not at all. “Do you think
they’d be willing to act as decoys?” he inquired of Levi, who
seemed to be having trouble processing all that had been said.

“
That is it!” Derringer exploded
before Levi could answer. “You are right. We should make only one
attempt. Forester wants Aurora to deliver the money personally. So
we will need her to accompany us, as much as I hate the idea. No,
Vi, listen before you fly up into the boughs. She will not be hurt.
She’ll have you and Northwicke watching her, you see. I trust that
you can sufficiently keep her out of harm’s way?” he asked with
thinly veiled insolence. He chuckled at the earl’s outraged
countenance. “I will have Prestwich and Tiny watching the Millers’
house since I am positive Forester will not take the child with him
to meet Rory.”

Aurora started at this. “He will not? But I thought
you said…”

“
He will not,” Derringer replied
firmly. “He will leave her with the Millers, who will then extract
the rest of your fortune from you by threatening to haul you before
the magistrate charged with kidnapping.”

Aurora gasped. She hadn’t thought of that. “Why do I
have to be the one?” she asked in a choked voice. Levi tightened
his hold on her and she gripped his lapel.

“
Forester’s orders. Likely, he is
counting on your continued silence in regard to your sins. He
thinks you will go alone, without even telling your husband or your
friends, thus giving him a chance to take from you all that he
wants.” The duke paused, studying Aurora’s face. She stared back
questioningly. “What he has already taken, actually.”

Confusion crossed Aurora’s face. “You speak in
riddles,” she told him. “He wants my money and he has taken
Rhiannon. What are you talking about?”

She glanced at her husband.

Levi knew. Perhaps it was because he was a man or
perhaps it was because he could suddenly read the duke’s face. His
look was pitying, sad almost. That was a very bad sign.

“
A fallen woman and yet so
innocent.” Derringer’s voice was soft. Aurora bristled at the
insult.

“
He wants
you
, Aurora,” the
earl informed her harshly. “He wants what he has already had, that
which he believes he already owns. He means to have you by force if
necessary. The money was a ruse and he no doubt instructed that you
go alone.” He glanced at the duke for support of this theory.
Derringer nodded.

“
But why?” she exclaimed in
confusion. “He could have married me three years ago but he
refused. He could have had me forever. Why must he resort to
this?”

Her words caused a look of jealous rage to suffuse
Levi’s countenance. Aurora stared up at him in complete shock,
unable to understand why he should be jealous now.

Derringer’s next query seemed to stem more from
simple curiosity than need. “Would you have actually married
him?”

Aurora didn’t bother to look at the duke. She
continued to stare up at her large husband. Her reply was so soft
she wondered if she spoke aloud or simply thought the words.

“
I don’t know. The naïve young
girl I once was might have leapt at the offer. I did not know what
love truly was, or the feeling one gets when in the presence of the
one person who understands and loves beyond all
transgression.”

She paused, searching for some sign from Levi, some
tiny inkling that there was a softening in his features. “I am not
that naïve girl now. I have been stupidly blind and willfully
ignorant, believing I could keep secrets and keep you separate from
what I’ve done. I am so sorry, Levi.”

Her voice broke, and tears started to her eyes but
she refused to look away. Everything in her warned that she had to
make him see, make him understand how wrong she knew she’d
been.

It was all in his hands now.

~~~~~~

Levi studied his wife’s face. The sincerity of her
words blazed in her eyes along with all the love she felt for him.
He drew in a ragged breath. His anger dissipated and he raised a
hand to cover hers where it still clenched the lapel of his
coat.

Staring into her luminous turquoise eyes, Levi knew
he could never let her go. She could tell him a dozen more lies and
he would forgive every last one. He couldn’t bear the thought of
life without Aurora, his little sea sprite. She was everything to
him, his reason for living.

Some may have called him a fool but he would rather
be a fool with her than the lonely, broken man he’d be without
her.

“
Aurora, when this is all over, I
think we should leave Rhiannon with Adam and Bri for a few weeks,”
he told her softly.

Her hand seemed to clutch him even tighter and her
face took on a half-fearful, half-hopeful expression. “Why?” she
asked on a tiny breath.

Keeping one hand tight around her waist, he moved
his other hand up to gently cup the side of her face. “Because I
don’t think she would enjoy accompanying us on our wedding
trip.”

A radiant smile touched her face and her husband,
oblivious to the watching duke, kissed those smiling lips with all
the love and tenderness he felt for her.

“
Touching,” drawled Derringer with
such acidity that neither of his companions noted the underlying
pain. He rose to his feet and walked to the door as the couple
broke apart, annoyed and embarrassed. “Now that you have worked out
the details of your relationship, perhaps we can take care of more
important matters, hmm?”