Page 100 of Lord Ashley's Beautiful Alibi
Because the last was more a question than a statement, Kane was happy to affirm it. “None other than that,madame.”
She flicked a hand. “Let us dispense with formalities. We are too much in each other’s pockets to be otherwise. I am Amber. You are Kane. Save for Godfrey here, who remains Ram.” She gave the man a small, intimate smile that told Kane she had more affection for him than her words denoted. “Let me begin by telling you that we’ve seen the scandal sheets. Our servants collect them each morning. It is how Ram and I have avoided thegendarmesof Vaillancourt. A very thorough job done on that man in those broadsheets today. I assume the work is yours.”
Kane would never admit to such a thing. What little others knew protected them as well as him and his wife. Besides, he did not yet know Amber as well as his wife, or even as well as Ram. He had no reason to trust her until he gauged her dedication to her former role. Even Ram might now know more than Kane on that subject. Kane would not learn it by intuition. Not in a few minutes.
“What you read in those sheets is rumor,” he said as he braced his hip on his desk. “Not all is to be trusted.”
“Very well,” she said, brushing aside his failure to admit guilt. “Define it as you will. I am not here to argue with you about your work.”
“My work is to negotiate commercial contracts for British citizens and, when I can, to buy agricultural products for them.”
“Of course it is,” she said with a smile.
“Amber!” Gus flew into the room, her morning gown of white muslin aflutter beneath her banyan as she ran to her friend, arms out.
*
Gus could notbelieve Amber was real. She gazed at her, her hands to her cheeks. “Oh, you look wonderful. Healthy. I was so worried about you.”
Tears clouded her vision of her friend. But Gus could see the shine of her bright red hair, the clarity of her dark brown eyes, the perfection of her pale complexion, and the smattering of freckles on her nose. She hugged her…and felt the resistance in her body.
Whatever Amber’s reason to appear here today, she expected an argument about it. She would fight for herself—and do it fiercely.
Gus stepped backward.
Kane put his arm around her waist. “Join us.”
She nodded, agreeing as she saw Amber resume her chair. She welcomed Ramsey and took a seat across from Amber. “You come unannounced,” she said to her, and a quick look at Ramsey told her he was not pleased to be here.
Amber pressed her lips together and glanced down a moment to trace the folds of her pale yellow cotton gown. She wore a pelisse of forest green, which meant she had not stopped at the front door to allow Corsini to take her wrap. Ramsey, too, looked like he had just flown from hell to keep up with Amber. His dark brown hair fell over his brow and his gaze was clouded with some torture.
This next, whatever it was, would not be pleasant. Gus wanted this over and done. “Tell us quickly why you are here, Amber.”
“I know what happened to you last night.”
Gus inhaled. “News sheets on the street, I suppose?”
“A new song by the rabble, too, tells the tale of the Englishman who married Nugent’s niece, both of whom were attacked by peasants hired by Vaillancourt.”
Gus added nothing.
Neither did her husband. Kane sat beside her in his own chair, his gaze never wavering from the woman whom he and she had sought for so many months.
“This,” added Amber, “comes on top of the reports that you Augustine did away with a fellow in Varennes. He, sad to say, died of a severe cut to his groin. He bled to death.”
Gus held her tongue.
“I see neither one of you will admit to these acts.”
“Why should we?” Gus asked. “You seem to have the answers you want.”Or not.
Amber’s dark gaze slid from Gus to Kane. “I have a plan.”
No one urged her on.
“I will return to Society. Open up my house again. Announce I am ready to receive once more. Then I will send out my invitations to dinner parties and balls.”
Gus said, “No.”
