Page 71 of A Lady's Heart Deceived
Piers nodded. “You are correct sir, she wasn’t. Miss Radley and I crossed paths after I had left London. As she was travelling unaccompanied, I felt obliged to offer her my protection.”
“Well at least her virtue wouldn’t have been at risk from you.”
The ugly taunt went unanswered.
“You have been gone for two weeks; don’t tell me it took you all that time to figure out that Miss Radley had been duped. What the devil have you been doing?”
Piers hated hearing Major Hall utter Maggie’s name. It made his skin crawl.
“Miss Radley took ill in Coventry. We had to stay until she was recovered. As she is the daughter of Lord Hugh Radley, I had to make certain she was well when I returned her safely to her family. His grace the Bishop of London was most grateful for my efforts,” he replied.
I also have powerful friends.
“Just make sure the final report is on my desk by end of day,” snapped the major. The door of Piers’s office rattled in its frame after his commanding officer left.
“Self-righteous prig,” he muttered.
He finished up the report, lies and all, then handed it to a private who delivered it to Major Hall.
By the time Piers left the Horse Guards, it was late in the afternoon. One day, back in London and he already missed Maggie something fierce.
When he had returned home to Denford House the previous night, it had been with a heavy heart and a deep yearning to hold her in his arms. The night when he had come so close to claiming Maggie still burned brightly in his mind.
He had taken himself in hand as soon as he retired to his bedroom. Laying on his bed, stroking himself while thinking of her, was the only way he was able to find a modicum of peace. It had taken the memory of watching her while he had brought her to completion in the barn for Piers to finally achieve his climax. Mercifully, sleep had soon followed.
I want her. I need her.
So much now hinged on him meeting with Will Saunders and them finding a successful way out of this situation. For the first time in a very long time, he was filled with resolve and purpose.
He was going to make Maggie his wife and hold her love forever, and no one, not even Major Hall, was going to stop him.
“Someone has to know something to prove my innocence.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Newport Street, London, wasn’t somewhere that Piers regularly frequented. It didn’t have quite the same luster as the area around St. James’s. But it wasn’t too far from Denford House in Park Place—a mere fifteen-minute stroll.
Arriving home from his day at the Horse Guards, Piers shed his Grenadier Guards uniform and replaced it with his ordinary about-town clothes. It had been two days since he and Maggie had last seen one another, and it seemed an eternity. It wasn’t the proper thing for an officer to be seen out and about in civilian dress, but he had reached a point of not giving a care about it.
They think they have enough on me already. They may as well throw a charge of being out of uniform in with the rest.
From Park Place, Piers took a short walk via Jermyn Street, past Leicester Square, and then turned right into Newport Street. From out of his coat pocket, he retrieved the note he had received from Will Saunders, and checked the address.
Number forty-three was close to the end. The house sat behind a high brick wall. Piers pushed open the iron gate and made his way to the front door.
He checked his coat, brushing off a stray piece of lint from its left sleeve, then paused. His heart was pounding hard. This wasn’t just a friendly chat with Maggie’s cousin. Piers’s whole future might well hinge on the outcome of this appointment.
“Come on, Denford. You can do this. Ask the man for help.”
Taking a hold of the brass knocker, Piers rapped it hard. He took a polite step back and waited.
The sound of shuffling came from within, and then the glossy black door slowly opened. On the other side was an elderly butler, who peered at Piers over the rim of his spectacles. “Captain Denford?”
“Yes. I have an appointment with Mister William Saunders.”
The butler ushered him in and upstairs to an elegant sitting room. As Piers entered the room, his gaze fell on two men who were standing warming themselves by the fireplace. One, a tall dark-haired man, stepped forward and immediately thrust out his hand.
“Will Saunders.”
