Page 14 of The Taming of a Wicked Rogue

Maybe it was just a symptom of his vows to his mother. Really, he should still be angry at her. Perhaps he was. But that did not prevent him recalling the heat between them, even when they had been young and innocent. It had been palpable, and he suspected it remained, only bolstered by the fact they were both fully grown adults now.

She was going to leave, though. Again.

She could not make it any clearer. She talked of returning to Florence, of finding no welcome here. He had his doubts her welcome would be as frosty as she suggested but it should not matter to him either way. Once this blasted scandal business had passed, he would return to Town and slip straight into his old life of debauchery and pleasure. He did not need to let his head get muddled with thoughts of what might have once been.

“So what exactly do you believe you can do to make up for your father’s behavior?”

Not that he believed she owed anyone anything. Her father had paid for his crimes and Rebecca had been an innocent, but even when younger, she had always taken care of others, from nursing a young stable hand better to bringing him every wounded animal she ever found.

To have caused hurt to others no doubt pained her. He glanced sideways at her and gave her a grudging smile. She might have left him with no word and shattered his heart, but she still held those qualities he had much admired.

Frustrating really. Could she not have turned into an ugly, selfish hag and allow him to be grateful he had escaped a future with her?

She pursed her lips and lifted her skirts to step over a large rock in the middle of the path. “My father...he left behind something of value.”

“Something?”

She glanced at him.

“It’s not as though I am going to rob you, Rebecca.”

“A diamond,” she blurted.

He lifted his brows. “A diamond.”

She nodded. “When we left with such haste, he hid a box of belongings in the hopes he would be able to come back for them. I believe that is precisely why he was in Cumbria when he was captured.”

“How did you know about this?”

“A few old letters I finally read after his death—they mentioned this diamond and his desire to retrieve it.”

“And you believe it to be true.”

“My father made up a great many stories to hide the truth of his life—”

“Including pretending to be the cousin of Lord Phillips,” he added.

The one crime that had been the unravelling of him and had ensured he would face the noose. Why the man had tried such a bold act of crime, he did not know, but it had become known since his trial that Rebecca’s father was nothing if not ambitious and appeared to believe himself entirely immune to the law.

“Indeed.” She grimaced. “So many that he left behind a trail of wives and children.”

“I heard,” Leo said solemnly.

“The woman he married after my mother had no idea his first wife still lived. She thought him a fine, upstanding gentleman, but he spent all of her dowry and left her penniless—and with child.”

“Lord,” he muttered. He’d avoided reading of Roger Fortescue. It reminded him too much of Rebecca.

“So when I found mention of this diamond, I knew I must find it. It will be worth a fortune and I can aid her and my half-siblings.”

“And if the diamond is not real?”

She set her jaw. “It is, I’m certain of it.”

“What if he already found it and moved it?”

“If he had it, it would have been mentioned when he was arrested. If he moved it, it cannot have gone far. He never left Langmere.” She shrugged. “I did not understand my father when I was younger, but I understand him well enough now. Riches were his primary motivation, and greed controlled him. No doubt he thought he could marry Miss Young, take her wealth and sell the diamond after they were wed.”

Leo shook his head. “If he had but left the lakes, he would likely still be alive today.”

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