Page 107 of Lord Ashley's Beautiful Alibi
Kane went to the door and opened it. “What is it?”
Countess Nugent met him with wide, worried eyes, but swept past hismajordomand around him. “I’ve come from the Tuileries, Ashley. Good morning, sweet girl! How are you today, hmm?”
“Well, Aunt,” Gus said with a resigned laugh. “Very well. And you? Do sit, Aunt. Kane, tell Corsini to send us another pot of chocolate for Aunt Cecily.”
“Ashley, do not bother. I am here only for a minute.” Cecily marched over to sit in the wing chair near Gus and, much as he had moments ago, took Gus’s hands in hers.
Gus smiled, and within it was consolation and much sadness. “We know what’s happened. Kane told me the ambassador and Bonaparte had words.”
“More than words, dearest. I hate to say it, but—”
“We are leaving, Aunt.”
Cecily sat back in the chair, her resignation to circumstances evident in her collapse. “Thank heavens.” Her gaze flew to Kane. “When and how will you go?”
He’d been at the preparations for days now. He’d not breathed a word to his wife because he would not burden her with the worry of it all. He’d found the planning as perilous as the journey would be for a woman who was nine months gone with child. A very big child.
“We will go up the Seine by barge.”
“Barge? Are you mad? Augustine must have privacy, warmth, and comfort. What if she goes into labor as you travel? What of her nourishment? The baby’s? No, no. You cannot, Ashley.”
“Madam.” Kane approached them both and leaned against the footboard of their bed. “I assure you I have taken care of all of that. Bed, chair, cradle, and food. If I could summon the god of wind and water, I would command the air to stillness, and the Seine and the Channel to serenity. But in the meantime, I haveprepared so that my wife may board her vessel to England and not worry a moment for the hazards of the unknown.” He smiled at his adoring wife and sent her a wink.
“There, you see?” Gus waved a hand. “I am in the best of hands. Fret not at all. But I worry for you. Tell me, my dear aunt, what of you? What will you do?”
“I am in no peril.”
“Madam, you are English,” declared Gus with stern trepidation. “Your special friend loses her influence daily beneath the self-importance of her husband.” Kane crossed his arms and stared at his wife’s dear aunt. “Gus is right, madam. Come with us. Home to England. There you will be safe. Live with us. You can be our witness to our wedding.”
“Another one?” Cecily trilled a laugh, and for a moment the air was bright with comic relief.
“Yes,” he said, “Gus and I will marry again.”
Gus joined in. “I wanted to marry him—little did I know it would take so many tries!”
Cecily chuckled. “For such a sight, I might even be tempted to join you. But no. I remain.”
“Oh, Aunt! What is there here for you? Your influence is only as strong as those who are your friends. And in this atmosphere, friends who have sway today can be dead and gone tomorrow.”
“A man as self-important as Bonaparte will do whatever he wishes, when he wishes,” added Kane. “Make no mistake, madam. Stay at your risk. A very large risk. Sail for England with us. Our countries are on the march to war, and you know it. Once this treaty is declared null and void, you will be the enemy. Come away.”
Cecily set her teeth. Her green eyes, so like Gus’s, grew harsh and sad. “I cannot.”
“Friendship is one thing, Aunt.”
Cecily arched both black brows and, with a stance as staunch as a cannon’s, stared hard at her niece. “I do not stay for friendship, Augustine. I never did.”
Kane felt the earth shift beneath his feet. The growing look of astonishment on his wife’s face was one he sent to indelible memory. Gus did not gape. She did not gasp. But in a flash, she wore her heart on her face as she stood and reached to take her aunt in her embrace.
They held each other as if statues molded from the marble of the earth. Time stood still. Then, as tears wended down his wife’s cheeks and her aunt’s, they drew away from each other, neither looking in the other’s eyes—for fear, Kane surmised, that each would see too much truth there.
“I must return,” Cecily said, sniffing back her sorrow as she dug a handkerchief from her dress pocket. She gave Gus a thorough once-over and grinned at her. “My beautiful girl with the heart of and courage of a lioness. I am so proud of all that you are. Go and be happy, my dear. Have many perceptive, stalwart children and tell them who you are, all that you are.”
She looked at Kane with more adoration and benevolence than he had ever seen her reveal to any man. “I love you, Kane. You are more than I expected. Far finer than I predicted. I know you will take care of my girl and your children. Continue to secure all our futures, please. I depend upon you, sir, to save what I treasure most in this world and the next.”
Then she glided from the room.
Kane and Gus were left to regard the empty space she had vacated, but filled with all the tiny revelations that would leave them both questioning all they had known and all they would never know about the English Countess Nugent.
