Page 116 of You Only Love Twice
Charlie snapped the cuffs on him.
"Byrnes and Ingrid, could you wait for the next elevation booth?" Malloryn murmured as they strode toward the brass box.
Byrnes's eyebrow arched, but he pulled his wife aside. "As you wish, Your Grace."
Gemma waited until the doors to the elevation chamber closed before taking a slow, deep breath. Isabella settled at her side, staring directly at the door. She'd barely spoken since they embarked in the carriage.
Malloryn turned upon Gemma. "Just because you trust him doesn't mean I do. We are speaking of the queen's safety, damn it." He paused. "Gemma, you heard what he said about the implant. Were you not the one who told me you didn't think he recognized you when he shot you?"
"It's fine. I understand." She squeezed her hands tightly together. "I just worry they'll kill him before we have a chance to examine the device in his head. It's different to the one used on the Chameleon."
"One has to ask why they put a bomb in the head of their best assassin," Malloryn said, staring at the wall.
Gemma's mind raced. "They didn't trust him."
"And it happened right after Russia, you said."
Sweet lord. Further proof Obsidian's feelings for her had been real all along.
"Perhaps I was wrong, Gemma. I think you compromised him more than we realized. He loves you," the duke said quietly. "I never thought I should step aside when it came to Obsidian and you, but I'm certain of it. He loves you."
"I thought that word didn't exist," she said lightly, her heart pounding like a rabid badger in her chest.Just breathe.
"It doesn't." The baroness trembled.
"Are you all right?" Gemma asked.
"I'll be better once I'm out of this damned box," Isabella snapped, placing a hand to her temples.
"Your head aches?"
The baroness was not a blue blood, after all, able to recover from the blow to her head so easily. She'd insisted upon coming, however, snapping at Malloryn that she had a job to do and he could take his false concern elsewhere and shove it up his backside.
"I'm fine."
The doors opened with aping. Due to the way the tower was designed, this was the highest one could go via the elevation chamber. They had to take the glorious double staircase that swept along the interior of the hollow core, leading up three stories to the throne room.
Isabella burst out of the elevation chamber as if she needed fresh air.
Gemma gave Malloryn a sharp look. "Have you said something to her?" she hissed under her breath.
"I haven't said a damned thing." He stared after Isabella, and then glanced down at his hand, splaying his fingers.
Gemma's breath caught when she saw the wedding ring on his finger.Oh. It all made a great deal of sense. "You married Miss Hamilton?"
"I amnotgoing to be a laughingstock," he said tightly.
"When?"
"Quite frankly, Gemma, it was a private ceremony, and I don't feel like sharing the precise moment." He stormed out of the box. "That way no one wins your bloody bet."
She followed a little more slowly.
The bet had clearly rubbed him a little rawer than he'd have liked, especially in the wake of his disastrous "wedding" day.
Poor Isabella.
The baroness strode ahead of them, her skirts swishing over the carpet. They were practically running after her to keep up.
