Page 56 of When the Rogue Returns
“And do you honestly think hewouldbe happy with my niece?” he asked earnestly. “She’s not you.”
“I know. But even if he may have... fancied me a little, I think his affections are already shifting. They might shift more if she gives him any encouragement. And it’s not as if there could ever be anything between me and him.” She met Mr. Gordon’s gaze. “I will never marry him.”
Mr. Gordon searched her face. “Because of Mr. Cale?”
She blinked. “Why do you say that?”
“I’m no fool, Mrs. Franke. Any man with eyes can tell that the two of you have known each other before. I would even venture to guess that you have known each other very well.”
The sudden clamoring in Isa’s chest made it hard for her to breathe. She should have realized that Mr. Gordon would start to wonder about Victor’s interest in her.
Perhaps it was time she revealed the truth. He deserved to hear it, especially when so much was at stake. And she’d prefer that he heard it from her. Then he could prepare himself for whatever consequences came of Victor’s thirst for vengeance, if she couldn’t convince her husband to be cautious.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” she said softly. “Years ago, I lied to you when we first met in Paris.” She drew a steadying breath and prepared herself for his shock. “My name is not Sofie Franke. It’s Isabella Cale. Victor Cale is my husband.”
♦♦♦
IT WAS PAST6P.M.by the time Isa closed up the shop, long after Mr. Gordon had left. He’d been surprisingly understanding of her situation. She’d told him everything—even down to informing him of her family’s crime.
He hadn’t seemed as shocked as she’d expected. Victor’s odd questions had partly been responsible for that, but unbeknownst to her, Mr. Gordon had also had suspicions of his own, born of her insistence on keeping her life so private. Having worked in the diamond industry, he knew how many unscrupulous characters were out there. He said that he also knew she wasn’t one of them.
Tears sprang to her eyes. He was so good to her, and she’d been so lucky. It humbled her that he could take her past in stride. And that he believed her when she said she’d had nothing to do with the theft.
He’d been no help, however, in advising her what to do about Victor. He saw her side, but he also saw Victor’s side of the problem.
The truth was, so did she. And the more she was near Victor, the more she wanted what they’d once had. But her life was entirely different now. And she didn’t even knowwhathis life was like.
She locked the door, then jumped as a man stepped from the shadows. “Rupert!” she cried. “You nearly gave me heart failure. What are you doing here?”
“We have a problem,” he said in a doleful voice.
“What sort of problem?”
He followed as she walked toward the livery that boarded her horse during the day. “Mr. Cale isn’t really my cousin.”
As if that were any great surprise. “He wasn’t inDebrett’s?”
“Yes. No. I mean, he was in an addendum that was shoved into the copy ofDebrett’s.But it was not formyfamily. It was for the Duke of Lyons. It turns out that Mr. Cale is the duke’s first cousin once removed.”
Her heart stumbled. How could that be? And why hadn’t Victor just said that? “Is he really?” she managed.
“It gets worse.”
“I can’t imagine how.”
“When I saw the listing for the duke, I remembered where I’d seen Mr. Cale’s name—in a newspaper article some months ago, about him and the duke. The minute I remembered that, I had the librarian help me find the article. It took half the day, but we finally uncovered it.”
Her pulse began to pound. “What was in the article?”
“It seems that my cousin—I mean, Mr. Cale—was discovered in Antwerp by some company called Manton’s Investigations. I gather that it has connections to Bow Street as well as to the Duke of Lyons. They call it the Duke’s Men.”
Bow Street. Oh, heavens. Even she knew about the Bow Street Runners.
“It seems that the duke didn’t know Mr. Cale existed until five months ago. Apparently, Mr. Cale’s father was an English soldier estranged from the Cale family, though the article didn’t say why. But this Manton’s Investigations went looking for him on behalf of Lyons and brought him back to England. He’s been in London all this time with his real cousin, the duke.”
“Until he came here,” she whispered. Victor must have hired the same people who’d found him to find her. He would finally have had the money and resources to do it.
But how had they found her? Victor claimed he hadn’t even known she’d gone to Paris, and he’d certainly been unaware of her life in Scotland. These investigators must be awfully good.
