Page 34 of A Bride for the Forbidden Duke
“It is possible. The timeline fits, and you mentioned in your earlier report to my father and I that your business was only supposed to be conducted for a week. Yet it has been a year, and the Englishman did not show up for his boat journey back to England after that week.”
“Stranded, though?” Henry muttered. “And on a Spanish island? He was conducting a meeting in Nanterre.”
“I know,” Thomas stressed. “But I have tried to follow up that business meeting. The Earldidshow, but when I looked into his lodgings, he did not come back from that meeting.”
Henry frowned. The possibility of recovering both his business partner and freedom from a married life drained away very quickly. His guilt tried to eat at him—it had been the reason he’d offered Veronica the security that he had. After all, he had sent Robert out there in his place, insisting that he prove himself a loyal business partner. London had enough crooks.
And now…
“A Spanish island,” he mulled over. “What on Earth is he possibly doing in Spain?”
Thomas shot him an apologetic look. “I have not stopped looking for more clues. I have been searching since before your wedding, should the heir return to provide for his family. I do hope he has not fancied himself a Spanish holiday with asenorita.”
Henry glared hard at him. “He is not the type of man to abandon his family.”
“But for money?” Thomas asked. “You did mention he chased money to prove himself responsible and able to provide.”
“Just…” Henry paused, shaking his head. “Keep following that lead, yes?”
“Very well.” Thomas finished one of his pints and started on his second. Henry took another sip of his first beer. “Now it is my turn to question you, I believe.”
“No.”
“Oh, but I must!”
“No.”
“What is she like, the Duchess of Westley? Is she as beautiful as the Ton says? An angel sent from God himself?”
“Thomas,” Henry warned.
“Does she set your loins alight with passion?—”
“Stop,” he growled. “It was a marriage of convenience. I proposed only out of duty. It is my fault that her brother is not there to provide. She was… tangled in an unfortunate situation,so I offered my assistance. I do not love her. I am not attracted to her. It is simply to provide for her.”
And yet as his insistence of not being attracted to her left his mouth, Henry thought of how he had kissed her. How he had pushed her into that chair, and his thoughts had raced to wondering how she felt beneath her skirt.
How he had let his eyes track over her chest and neck earlier that day.
He shook himself off and polished off his drink.
“It sounds as though your wife has rather unnerved you.” Thomas grinned, all jovial again.
Henry sent him a scathing look.
Thomas simply laughed and patted him on the back, but Henry flinched back, giving another glare.
“My friend, you need a way to vent,” Thomas spoke up. “It is clear to me that you have a lot on your mind. So, either turn to alcohol and finish those beers I so generously bought you, or lie with a working lady of the inn.”
Henry just sipped at his drink, ignoring Thomas, but the other man simply laughed.
“Well, if you will not enjoy your time with a lady, then I shall once we are done here.”
Henry drank faster.
Chapter Twelve
“Is there somebody at the door?” Veronica asked herself, bleary-eyed and fatigued from a nap, awoken by the rattling of the main entrance. She glanced at the footman outside the room, angling her head to regard him.
