as the guests arrived; he didn’t have to wait long. He felt all his muscles tensing as she came in. She was so breathtakingly beautiful. No wonder everyone in the room turned to stare. No wonder his father had fallen in love with her so irrevocably.
Though the dancing had begun, Alec resisted suggestions that he might lead some fair maiden on to the floor. Likewise he refused invitations to a game as his friends moved through to the card room. Really he was just waiting for the moment he’d come here for.
He heard, at last, her silken voice at his shoulder. ‘Alec, my dear. You got my note.’
The feline purr was all too familiar. Alec turned slowly to see Susanna, with her gleaming dark curls, her porcelain skin and sultry, dark-blue eyes.
‘I got your note, yes, Susanna,’ he said. ‘You wanted to see me.’
She put her hand on his arm. ‘And so you came. But they tell me you have not been to any affairs of the ton for, oh, many months! I remember you when I first set eyes on you, Alec. Dancing, laughing, surrounded by beautiful women, always—’
He drew his arm away abruptly. ‘Susanna. I didn’t actually come to enjoy the party.’
‘Ah,’ she sighed, ‘the ennui of the times. You military men weary quickly, I think, of London’s frivolities after the adventure of war.’ The candlelight was glittering on her pale-pink satin gown, on the stupendous jewels—Aldchester heirlooms—that she wore to emphasise her allure. She toyed with her pearl-encrusted fan. ‘Or perhaps you simply avoid society wherever you think I might be.’
His eyes grew harder. ‘Perhaps I’ve come tonight because I heard rumours. And perhaps I wanted to know if they were true.’
She shrugged her gleaming bare shoulders. ‘Ah—rumours, maybe, that you have brought my better nature to the fore, Alec! But you know, my dear, you always do that.’
‘I wish I didn’t know that was a lie,’ he said quietly.
Her eyes glittered. ‘If you are not careful, I vow I shall look for someone else to dally with!’
He put his hand swiftly on her arm. ‘Don’t, Susanna,’ he said tersely. ‘Don’t for God’s sake lower yourself with light and stupid jests, especially when you were perhaps starting to raise yourself in my estimation.’
She went still. ‘So you’ve heard, then? That I have put an end to my—dalliance with your brother? It is indeed true. Alas—’ she wafted her fan ‘—Stephen was becoming tedious. He visited us at Carrfields and I told him it was over.’
‘Searching for fresh entertainment, Susanna?’
Her exotic eyes narrowed. Then she said, ‘Can we move somewhere a little quieter?’
He guided her to the back of the room, away from the musicians and the dancing. And she began to tell him. ‘Your brother came to us at Carrfields, for two days. But of course that man of his, Markin—’ she shuddered ‘—was with him and my maid overheard them whispering. Something about a child, a little girl, that Stephen is desperate to get hold of.’
Alec froze.
‘And do you know, Alec,’ she went on, ‘that changed my mind about everything.’ She gazed up at him, her beautiful eyes for once clear and transparent. ‘Men like you, women like me, we can look after ourselves. But I am worried about this child—I believe Stephen really intends her some harm—and I thought that you, of all people, might have the resources to do something …’ She shivered suddenly. ‘There. That is all. Take me into the dancing, will you? People used to say what a handsome couple we made.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m afraid I must go.’
He was already turning when she laid her gloved wrist on his arm. ‘Alec. Can’t you forgive me? It’s how I was brought up, you know, to take what I wanted, and believe me …’ she touched his cheek ‘… often I heartily wish it were not so! I only took up with Stephen to make you jealous. But I didn’t succeed, did I? You are a good man, Alec, perhaps the best I’ve known.’
‘I am a damned fool,’ he broke in bitterly. He was suddenly finding the odours of perfume and pomade almost overbearing. His jaw clenched, he made his bow to Susanna and went to find Lucas in the card room. His friend was standing watching a game, but came quickly over to join him.
‘News, Alec?’
‘Yes, and not good. Lucas, the woman and child that I told you about, that I’m sheltering at Two Crows Castle—they could be in danger. And some day soon I may have to bring them to you and Verena. It seems the peril is greater than I thought.’
Alec was back at Two Crows Castle less than an hour later. Deuce take it, he thought, but he almost found the ruination of this old place a relief after the glitter of the ton.
Garrett came up to him as Alec heaved off his coat. ‘We tracked down that oily cove Marchmont at his theatre today, Captain, like you asked us to,’ Garrett announced. ‘He told us—after a bit of persuasion—that he gave the girl Linette the push because she wouldn’t—oblige him like he wanted.’
‘Yet he suggested,’ grated Alec, ‘that she find work at the Temple of Beauty?’
‘It was Mr Marchmont’s opinion—’ and Garrett’s voice, too, was full of contempt ‘—that the experience would stand her in good stead.’
Alec ground out some words beneath his breath.
‘Then we got into the Temple of Beauty, Captain—we bribed a footman who made sure the way was clear. And in the office we found that little green book what you told us about, hidden inside a heavy great thing called The Myths of Ap—The Myths of Aplo—’
‘Apollodorus.’
‘That’s it, Captain. It said that your brother, Lord Stephen, had indeed been there three years ago. The summer of Vittoria. In fact, he visited several nights in a row—it was in Dr Barnard’s notes. Here you are, McGrath wrote it down: Paid particular attention to the young blonde innocent from the country. Reckon his lordship took her away for his own purposes …’
Alec was breathing hard. That must be it. His brother, Stephen, had seduced Rosalie’s sister. Was quite possibly Katy’s father. That was why Stephen had been after Rosalie that night at Dr Barnard’s; why he had hunted Rosalie down at the poetry reading, after setting fire to her home; why Stephen had sent that threat and offered the underworld reward for her. His damnably craven brother wanted to stop her search. Perhaps more.
How in hell was he going to tell Rosalie?
His next question—should he tell Rosalie?
Rosalie didn’t even know that Stephen was Alec’s brother. Hell’s teeth, she would fly at Stephen, she would go for him hammer and tongs; she wouldn’t care that Stephen, as well as being despicable, could also be
