Page 54 of From London, With Love
“You need to bathe and get out of that bloody dress,” he murmured. “I’ll send for some tea and supper for you to have in your rooms.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
He bit off the words he was about to say, meeting his wife’s eyes. Adele nodded, kneeling by the queen’s side and taking her other hand.
“Your Majesty, you are wet to the skin and suffered a great shock today. You cannot watch over Sir Gideon if you take ill. And I am certain he would not wish you to put yourself at risk. I will sit with him while you bathe,” Adele promised. “I’ll make sure he’s not alone.”
The queen opened her mouth as if to argue, then glanced at Gideon’s face. “Please,” she whispered. “Please come and fetch me if his circumstances take a turn.”
“I will send one of the maids immediately,” Adele promised.
Malloryn bustled her into the arms of her ladies-in-waiting before pinching the bridge of his nose the second the door was closed behind her. “What a fucking catastrophe. I should never have let her go riding off alone with only two of her guards and Gemma.”
“You cannot control everything, and how were you to know someone had gotten to one of the guards?”
“I should have known,” he bit out. “I personally vetted them myself after Lord Balfour’s attack.” He scrubbed the back of his neck and paced the Aubusson rug. “If it wasn’t for Sir Gideon, she’d be dead. But no, I wanted her to have a nice rendezvous with the man.”
Adele sighed, wrapping her arms around him from behind. “You are not omnipotent, Auvry. You took every precaution you could have done with the knowledge you had. And both she and Sir Gideon are alive, and the physicians seem to think he will survive. Obsidian did most excellent work.”
“We were lucky.”
“Yes, we were lucky. And now you’re not going to be doing anyone any favors wearing a hole in that rug.” Adele turned him around, then straightened his coat. “The Duke of Malloryn does not wring his hands and bemoan the past. He does not wear his guilt like a cape. You made a mistake. Gemma made a mistake. The queen made a mistake. But there’s no point waffling on about it.”
“I amnotwearing my guilt—”
“You’re being practically Byronic, my love.” Reaching up, she tweaked the front of his hair into a curl. “Careful now, or they’ll start whispering at court about the single stoic tear they saw sliding down your cheek.”
“I’m a blue blood. I cannot cry. I do not cry.”
“No? Nor do you lament the past. You have the guard in the dungeons,” she pointed out, “and you’ve not made a single comment about interrogating him.”
“That’s because Byrnes is doing so as we speak. He’s a trifle irate with him, after catching a glimpse of what the bastard did to Gemma.”
“And the prince?”
His face hardened. “Certainly knows more than he first claimed. Though Charlie was keeping an eye on him, and said he managed to slip into the city.”
“Then find him and encourage him to tell you all about it. Now go and find out who paid that guard to murder his queen. And don’t come back until you have found him.”
Malloryn glared down at her. “I hate being managed.”
Adele rolled her eyes and laughed. “Don’t I know it.”
But he kissed her on the cheek and made his way to the door to do as he’d been told. Adele was right. He was hovering over Sir Gideon’s sickbed like a nursemaid. “Send for me if his condition changes. I shall see you tonight for dinner.”
* * *
Byrnes looked disconsolateby the time Malloryn reached the dungeon.
“What’s wrong?” he demanded.
“See for yourself.” Byrnes swung the door open.
Inside the cell, a man hung from the ceiling, his face purple. Malloryn swept the room with a glance, then gestured for Byrnes to shut the door. “What the hell happened? You allowed him a length of rope?”
“Do I look like some sort of amateur, Your Grace?”
Malloryn surveyed him again. “No.” Generally speaking, when it came to information-gathering, he would have preferred to use Gemma—who had an absolute knack for stealing secrets from a man without having to even touch him—but Byrnes was no slouch. And he didn’t make mistakes like this. “What happened?”
