Page 39 of When the Rogue Returns
“Since there was no evidence for a week that anything had been stolen, I thought you’d left me and that was all. Out of embarrassment, I kept quiet about the reason for your disappearance. I told the jeweler that you and your family had gone to Brussels to take care of an ill relative.”
He clenched his fists at his sides. “I couldn’t accept that you’d deserted me. I thought—I hoped—you might still return. I would have gone to look for you, but aside from the fact that I didn’t know where to look, and had no money for the search, there was the problem of my position. The jeweler had kindly allowed me to stay on—so I didn’t dare risk that, when I thought the entire reason for your leaving me was my lack of a post.”
“Oh, Victor...” she murmured, regret stabbing her yet again.
Ignoring her sympathy, he glanced away. “Besides, your family had supposedly gone to look for you, and I was certain that they would convince you to do your duty by your husband.” He muttered a curse. “I should have known better. They’d left no address, no way to reach them. The whole thing had the markings of a nefarious scheme. But they’d also left their furnishings behind in their house, so I assumed that they would return eventually.”
“It was all mortgaged to the hilt, even the furniture,” she admitted sheepishly.
“Yes, I found that out later, when the creditors came looking for your family and thought I might know where they’d gone.” His jaw went taut. “They weren’t the only ones.”
Her heart began to pound as the ramifications of that sank in. “Because the imitations had been discovered.”
His gaze was bleak and accusing. “Yes.”
“So theydidblame you.”
“What do you think?” he snapped, echoing her earlier words. “I was the guard. Either I or the jeweler was in charge of the diamonds until they were taken to the palace. And I’d never told anyone that I’d left the shop briefly in Jacoba’s care. I’d had no reason to; I thought it was a private matter between my wife and me. So I became the main suspect—the one they were convinced had made the switch and kept the real jewels.”
“Oh, Lord, no.” She ached over how that must have mortified a proud man like him. “But once you told them about Jacoba, surely they shifted the blame to her.”
He gave a bitter laugh. “Perhaps they would have, if I’d told them. But I didn’t.”
“Why in heaven’s name not?”
“Because it would also have shifted the blame toyou, since all three of you were missing.And you were my wife. They believed you to be under my control. If there was any suspicion that you’d stolen the jewels, then it would become my responsibility, too.”
“But that’s not fair!”
“Perhaps not, but the law is rarely fair.” He threaded his fingers through his hair. “In any case, I would have seemed even more culpable if I’d admitted that I’d left Jacoba alone in the shop at night. And that would have led to questions about why I’d done so, and the truth would have come out about your leaving me, which would have led them to think there was some plot afoot...”
His gaze fixed on her. “I couldn’t risk it. Especially since I wasn’t sure that you’d stolen anything. I was still praying that the three of you would return to defend yourselves. It didn’t make sense to risk my life—or yours, for that matter—on my uncertain suspicions, when I knew the authorities couldn’t prove anything.”
“So you covered up Jacoba’s involvement?” she said incredulously. “And mine?”
A steely note entered his voice. “I did what I had to, to save myself. I told them the same lie about your going to visit a sick relative in Brussels. I knew they had no evidence linking me to the crime. They searched our apartment, the Hendrix house, and your father’s shop and found nothing—no tools for creating false diamonds, no money, nothing to incriminate any of us.”
“Jacoba took all of that with us,” she said quietly.
“Of course. And without evidence, and the real diamonds, they couldn’t very well prosecute anyone—not when there was still the possibility that someone had broken into the palace to make the switch. I figured it was better to be taken for a dupe than for a complicit dupe. Holding firm and pretending ignorance when they questioned me was the only way to save myself.”
“And us.”
He dragged in a heavy breath. “Yes.”
In all her wondering about what had happened to him, she’d never imagined that he’d been fending off authorities who’d tried to blame him for the theft. No wonder he’d looked fit to throttle her when he’d first seen her. “And they believed you.”
“Eventually.” There was a wealth of bitterness in that word.
“What did they do to you? Did they put you in gaol?”
The ache in her voice must have registered, for he got a lost look on his face that sent a dagger to her heart.
Then his eyes iced over. “I don’t want to talk about it. It’s in the past.”
“Clearly not, given the things you’ve said.”
He walked up to snag her about the waist. “It doesn’t matter.”
