Tempting Bella (Entangled Scandalous) (24 page)

It had the desired effect. The man’s chest inflated as if to match Bella’s display of self-importance. “I am Mr. Roper, the manager, at your service, my lady.”

He ushered them into his office, a tidy, nondescript chamber with just enough space to contain the plain wooden desk and a couple of chairs. An elaborate French-style clock hung on the wall behind the desk, the only adornment in the otherwise colorless chamber. Seating herself on a spindle-backed wooden chair opposite the desk, Bella explained her interest in the particular numbered account.

“Very good, my lady,” Mr. Roper said. “I presume your name is on the account.”

“Not exactly, but it is a Traherne account and I am the Traherne heiress. Consequently, the minor matter of whose name is on the account is hardly pertinent.”

She held her breath as Mr. Roper shifted with obvious discomfort. “My lady, that is most unusual.”

Her heart skipped a couple of beats, but outwardly she firmed her tone. “I am certain you will find a way to accommodate my request.”

Darting a glance at Monty, and seeing no hope of assistance in his coolly courteous expression, the manager said, “Perhaps I’ll go and see what can be done.”

Bella gave what she hoped looked like a gracious nod. “Yes, please do.”

“Poor bugger,” Monty said, after the man left. “You’ve put him in a deuced difficult situation.”

“It can’t be helped. I have to know the truth.” However much it might hurt. Too nervous to remain seated, she stood and paced the small office.

Mr. Roper returned, his smiling face now clear of any previous unease. “Well, now, this is a happy development.”

“What is?” Bella swallowed the end of her question when Sebastian’s commanding frame filled the doorway.

“Bella.” Surprised delight filled his face and he flashed a heart-stopping smile. “What brings you here?” She froze, her heart flailing. Sebastian’s glance moved to her companion. “And Monty as well. Have you business with Barclay?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Monty answered easily, showing no sign of the discomposure gripping Bella. She sent up a silent prayer of gratitude for her friend’s quick thinking.

“Lady Mirabella asked to see the numbered account, sir,” Mr. Roper said eagerly, obviously thinking he was being helpful.

“Oh?” Sebastian turned to her with a slightly puzzled expression, but what he saw in Bella’s face made his smile fade away. “Did she?”

“Yes, indeed,” Mr. Roper sounded quite cheery, now that Sebastian’s appearance appeared to have neatly solved his own dilemma. “It is a most happy coincidence that you are here.”

“What is your interest in the account, Bella?”

“Traherne funds are regularly placed in the account, are they not?”

“They are.”

“One thousand pounds per month, I believe it is.”

“You are very well informed.”

Disappointment cramped her belly. He hadn’t bothered to deny any of it. “Would you tell us, Mr. Roper,” she said, hoping he wouldn’t discern the wobble in her voice, “precisely how much money is in Sebastian’s account?”

The bank manager, now sensing something was amiss, darted a troubled look between the two. “About forty-eight thousand pounds, my lady.”

“A secret bank account,” she said softly to her husband, the pressure of unshed tears building behind her eyes. “I presume His Grace knows nothing of it.”

“No, your father has no idea the account exists.” He regarded her with a hooded gaze. “Do you have any further questions?”

There was no turning back now. Expelling a rickety breath, she said, “I understand you’ve acquired three profitable Traherne properties at well below what they’re worth.”

The dark slash of his brows inched upward in surprise. “That is true.”

Monty shifted on his feet. “Perhaps we should allow some privacy,” he said pointedly to the bank manager. Roper seemed happy to oblige, anything to escape the suffocating tension in the chamber.

“Mr. Roper,” Sebastian said with quiet gravity. “Whose name is on the bank account?”

The bank manager halted at the door. “I just examined the paperwork at the lady’s request. It seems she is the owner. You see,” he said to Bella, “your name is on the account after all.”

“That’s not possible—”

“And who is authorized to remove funds from my wife’s account?”

“Just the lady, sir.”

Sebastian held Bella’s gaze. “Please tell us if any funds have been removed from the account since it was opened five years ago.”

“Not a pence, sir. The guineas come in, but they don’t go out.”

Tension banded around her chest. “I don’t understand.” But she feared she was beginning to.

“Thank you, Mr. Roper. I am much obliged,” Sebastian said, dismissing the bank manager. Monty followed, closing the door behind him. Sebastian turned to Bella. “You gave me your word you would come to me with any questions or concerns.”

She bit her lower lip. “I was gathering information before presenting it you.”

“I’ve gravely underestimated you, haven’t I?” He picked up a paperweight from the desk and examined it. “This pretense of vapid gaiety with your friends was meant to put me off the trail while you conducted your investigations.”

“Don’t expect me to apologize for my interest in the duchy’s concerns.” She swallowed down the lump in her throat. “I am the Traherne heiress. It’s my duty to protect the estate from unscrupulous business practices.”

“I’m curious. How do you know so much about duchy concerns?”

“I’ve studied the estate ledgers.”

“I do recall Perkins mentioning you’d visited my study once as he was leaving for the day.” He wore an expression of avid curiosity, like a scientist trying to classify a fascinating new specimen. “You are able to make sense of the numbers?”

“Yes. I spent my time abroad visiting estates in Spain and France learning about farming practices and how to read ledgers.”

Something like admiration glinted his eyes. “To what end?”

“Traherne is my birthright.” She firmed her chin, yet her insides were feeling flimsy at the moment. “I won’t let it fall to ruin under my watch.”

“I see. Do you now have all of the information you seek?”

“No.” She forced the words out. “Why is the bank account in my name?”

“His Grace spends a great deal of time at the gaming tables. I don’t have the power to limit his access to the Traherne accounts. The private numbered account was to protect you in case he drained the estate of everything.”

She gasped. “My father plays that heavily?”

“He does.”

Her scalp tingled as the immensity of her mistaken assumptions set in. “And the unentailed properties that now belong to you?”

“He was going to sell them off to settle a debt.”

The pieces began to snap into place in a way that made awful, perfect sense. “So you acquired them to keep them with the estate.”

“Yes.”

“And whose name are they in?”

“Yours.”

Hot confusion swirled within her. All of this time, he’d looked out for her interests, while she’d assumed the very worst of him. “I had no idea.”

“It was my duty as your husband to protect your legacy.”

“Oh, Sebastian. I have judged you most unfairly.” She moved to him, but the icy wall of reserve around him stopped her.

His face drawn tight, he turned a disquieting gaze on her. “You promised to bring your concerns to my attention.”

“I am sorry. I thought I could uncover the truth on my own. I didn’t want you to know I still had doubts.”

He fell silent. Only the ticking of the wood-carved wall clock filled the punishing silence, but even it seemed to condemn her with every harsh click. “I had your word.” The soft words rang through the room.

“I know,” she said miserably, feeling completely unworthy of this strong, honest man.

“You disappoint me,” he said before turning and leaving the room.

Chapter Fifteen

“Where is Sebastian?” Josette asked. “He has been absent of late,
non
?”

“Business matters.” Guilt nibbled at the edges of Bella’s stomach again, as it had almost continuously since the bank debacle a few days past. “Today he meets with His Grace, a matter involving the lords.”

Which gave him the perfect excuse to avoid her. Since learning of her lack of faith in him, Sebastian had retreated back into a polite shell, at times joining Bella and her friends for supper, but otherwise keeping his distance, especially at night. She missed him terribly. He hadn’t visited her bed since that awful encounter at the bank.

They were ensconced in the morning room, where Tabby preferred to paint because it offered good light. The cheery chamber had walls the color of sunshine and a wide bank of windows that opened onto the small garden.

“I should like to take a walk,” Josette said. “Will you come with us, Tabby?”

Tabby added a dab of midnight blue to her watercolor’s already sweeping swirls of blues, greens, and silvers. Her portrait of Monty was taking shape. “Perhaps later. Just now the light is perfect and I should like to finish this in time for Monty’s birthday.”

Over Tabby’s head, Bella and Josette exchanged raised eyebrows and knowing curves of their mouths.

…

Sebastian spent the same morning in his study tending to business matters. Just before lunch, he received a visit from the Bow Street runner he’d hired to investigate Bella’s friends.

“Nash, this is unexpected,” he said as the man entered. He gestured for him to sit. “You have news?”

“It’s about the gent who calls himself Monty.”

Sebastian stilled. “Calls himself Monty? Is that not his real name?”

“I don’t know about that,” Nash said, wiping his upper lip clean with a kerchief. “I do know that he did not go to his estate a few weeks ago as he claimed.”

“If you don’t know his name, how do you know whether the estate he went to is his?”

Nash’s mouth quirked. “Because I do know who does own the estate he visited.”

“And?”

“It belongs to none other than one Baron Edgemont.”

“Lady Tabitha’s former betrothed.”

“It appears your friend met with the baron at the estate. He spent just one night there before returning to London.”

He pushed up from his desk and walked to the window. “So Monty met with the baron, a development which suggests he’s working for the man.

“I don’t know to what end.”

Sebastian strode to the door, anger stirring in his chest. “I intend to find out. Thank you, Nash,” he said, walking through the doorway. “Please see yourself out.”

He passed the morning room, where Bella and the ladies were apparently discussing something quite amusing, if their giggling was in indication. Taking the stairs two at a time, he rounded the corner leading to Monty’s room and tapped on the door to the guest chamber.

“Enter.” Monty—or whatever his name was—stood up from an escritoire as Sebastian entered. A hint of surprise registered in the otherwise polite expression on his face. “Sebastian. This is unexpected.”

“I’m sure.” Sebastian watched the man slip a note into the escritoire drawer as he spoke. Despite the gentlemanly facade, the cove was definitely hiding something and he was damn well going to find out what it was. “I was wondering if you are you up to a bout at Gentleman Jack’s later this afternoon?”

“Why ever not? I could use a good workout.”

A slow smile widened across Sebastian’s face. “Excellent.”

He arrived at the boxing saloon a couple of hours later to find Monty already waiting for him on the floor. Sebastian observed the man as they both muffled their fists. Monty stood tall and rawboned, with dark, close-cropped hair and a receding hairline. A cold fury niggled his gut at the thought of this man insinuating himself into Bella’s life for nefarious purposes.

They stepped into the ring. He started with a harmless jab to the left. Monty saw it coming and blocked it with little effort. What he didn’t see was the blind jab that Sebastian shot out to his right side. Sebastian withheld a grunt of satisfaction when his gloved fist connected with hard jaw. Monty appeared surprised, but quickly recovered, bouncing lightly on his feet.

He had to give it to the man. The traitorous rogue moved well on his feet. “So tell me, Monty, where did you go on your most recent jaunt to the country?”

Monty aimed for his gut. Sebastian allowed the barest connection before easily avoiding the complete impact of the blow. “My estate.”

Another jab to Monty’s right side. This time a little harder. “And where is that?”

“Oxford.”

“A neighbor to Edgemont then?” Taken by surprise, Monty stopped, leaving himself defenseless when Sebastian went for the soft spot of his belly.

With a loud “Omph!” he buckled over from the impact and backed away. Sebastian watched with grim satisfaction. Fueled by anger, he bounced around on the balls of his feet, ready to expend his anxious energy on the lying lout.

Monty straightened and resumed the boxer’s stance, both fists up, his eyes watchful. “What do you know of Edgemont?”

Bastard. “Not as much as you apparently.” Sebastian swung hard but this time Monty was ready for him and deftly danced out of the way. “Does he hope to steal Tabby away against her wishes? Or does he wish Bella harm because she helped Lady Tabitha escape from him? That’s taking hurt pride a little too far, wouldn’t you say?”