Page 53 of A Proposition for the Comte
‘Stephen Miller? Who else?’
‘A.W. and J.C. Then there was a blank line with only anAwritten on it.’
‘Did you show it to anyone else at all?’
She shook her head. ‘It seemed a dangerous thing to do.’
‘Don’t tell, then, not even Charles Mountford. I am not sure how far he would go to make sure you really are safe.’
‘He wanted me to go to Rome.’
Lian tried to school his face, but she must have seen something for all the blood simply drained from hers.
‘It is a trap?’
‘I don’t know. To be sure I had Amaryllis Hamilton and the children rerouted.’
‘To where?’
‘Greece. My family has a house there. They will want for nothing and her letters will come through me to you.’
‘It’s more than the gold you are searching for, isn’t it?’
‘Treason sets men to lengths that seem unmeasurable, but I think Mountford is trying to do his best under difficult circumstances. I just don’t know how secure his office is. The first objective of myministèreis to retrieve the gold, but the British Government and the Home Office are much more interested in the names of those who had some hand in treason here.’
‘You think it’s Cummings? You think he is the one behind it?’
‘In the park he saw the man who tried to kill you and directed his men in the opposite direction. At the time that made no sense, but now...’ He tailed-off. ‘He also visited you at your town house the day after the incident in Hyde Park and you told me he had not. Why?’
Turning away, Violet walked to the window, pulling the curtains back and looking out. Her reflection showing in the glass made her seem slight and still.
‘Douglas Cummings came to plead for my hand in marriage.’
‘Merde.’
She spun around at that and faced him directly. ‘I said no and he was furious and I suppose I thought his feelings were hurt so...’
‘You didn’t want to tell me of it.’
‘It seemed...tarnished. He tried to kiss me. Then he began to cry.’
‘Come with me to Sussex, Violet. My house there is safe and I can watch for enemies. We could leave in the morning.’
‘Why? Why would you do this for me?’
He stopped her words by placing his fingers across her lips and feeling the breath of the words falter.
‘I was married once a long time ago and my wife died when I failed to protect her. But I can protect you for we can be married tomorrow. I procured a special licence three days ago just in case.’
‘Married?’ The word wound around them. He had not asked. He had not wanted her opinion. He’d merely told her without giving her any inkling whatsoever about what was going on in his head or in his heart. A pragmatic proposal to assuage the earlier guilt of his wife’s passing. Nothing more?
‘You do not think we can continue on like this, surely, Violet, without...?’ His glance went to the bed. ‘What if I get you with child?’
Should she tell him of her barrenness? Could she?
With absolute care she told him something else entirely. ‘I married Harland a month after meeting him and I regretted it by the time the second month rolled around.’
The anger in her words was very easy to hear, but she did not care for it was a sorrow she had never learnt to bear, her stupidity and hopeless rush. ‘So it is not a state I wish to enter into again. But—’ her bruised eyes directly met his own ‘—I shall not refuse to come to your bed without it.’
