Page 143 of The Viscount's Seduction
“Here, here,” Charley said.
Shaldon fixed him with a look, and he took the glass away from his lips.
“And,” Shaldon said, “We’re not only celebrating an heir’s wedding. We are celebrating an heir’s restoration. Raise a glass with me to the true heir of Glenmorrow, Roland James Hollister. God save the King.”
Around her the room buzzed, and she found herself squeezed amongst these men, her husband, his brother, his father, and Jamie.
Bakeley handed off both their glasses and his arm came around her.
“No swooning,” he said. “We shall leave that to Father.”
She laughed heartily and looked up. Shaldon was laughing too.
Sirena stifled a yawn, as she and Bakeley saw the last guest out.
“Finally,” she whispered. The rest of the family and Lady Jane had already gone up. “I thought they would never leave.”
Bakeley bent for a kiss, and a throat cleared near by. Kincaid stood in the door, now dressed in shabby dark coats.
“What news?” Sirena asked.
A footman passed by within hearing distance. Kincaid’s gaze tracking him sent a shiver up her spine until she recognized him. Phillip was one of the Shaldon regulars. The man passed down the corridor and she pressed a hand to her neck where the knot rested, where the bruising had begun to ache.
“Father is in the study,” Bakeley told Kincaid. He held out his arm to her. “We’ll follow you there.”
“My lady.” Phillip appeared again. “One of the grooms thinks he’s found your brooch.”
Lady Shaldon’s diamond brooch. She pulled away from Bakeley. “In the garden?” she asked.
“I don’t know. He’s waiting by the ballroom terrace door.”
“Get it from him, Phillip, and give it to Lloyd,” Bakeley said. “Come with me, Lady Sirena.”
Order her around, would he?
“No,” she told the footman. “I’ll be right along.” The man nodded and stepped back.
Bakeley cupped her shoulder in his big gloved hand. “You want to be included.”
She fingered the ribbon. She did.
And yet, she’d lost a brooch with diamonds that would feed all the Glenmorrow tenants for five years, one that had belonged to her husband’s mother. She couldn’t just let that go. What if the groom ran off with it?
“Will Shaldon and Kincaid talk freely in front of me, Bakeley? No. Not likely. Can I count on my husband to tell me the news?”
His brows furrowed, his lids worn down by fatigue. “Of course.”
Truth to tell, she was just as tired, and with her cousin dead she wasn’t sure she wanted to sit through Kincaid’s blathering about Donegal. Find the man and be done with it.
“You go. Lloyd has a crew at work in the ballroom. I won’t be alone. I’ll just get that brooch and meet you in the bedchamber.”
His eyes darkened. “Hurry then.”
“I will. You do the same, or I’ll come fetch you in my nightrail.”
He leaned in and touched his lips to hers.
Her breath froze. Fear laced through her, and a vision of Bakeley, trapped.
