Chapter 20

20

“Something is different about you, Joanna…”said Charlotte the next morning. “Don’t you think, Gideon?”

Charlotte bit her buttered toast and squinted her eyes, studying Joanna, who lifted a chipped white teapot with yellow flowers and poured more tea into Gideon’s cup, which had a crack running through its blue flowers. The breakfast room was gray in the light of the rainy morning. The noise of Gresham Street near Cheapside was loud with horses’ hooves clopping on cobblestones, the rattle of carriage wheels, and the occasional call of the coachmen. Cleaners scraped horse manure from the street. Church bells rang.

Early morning light filtered through two slightly grimy sash windows and fell on the plain wooden table standing in the center of the small but tidy room. Comforting aromas of tea and toasted bread filled the air. On one wall, a small fireplace with an old grate with chipped black paint stood cold. Above it hung a gilt-framed portrait of their late parents, one of the few remnants of their former wealth. The mantelpiece was sparsely decorated with a couple of ceramic figurines and a brass candlestick.

Gideon lounged in his chair, one leg casually thrown over the other like a man used to taking his pleasures without concern. He lowered his newspaper and scanned Joanna.

“You do look good, sister,” he said with an encouraging smile.

Joanna felt different. She had returned home last night after hiring a hackney from the small street where Spencer had dropped her off so that she wouldn’t be seen climbing from his carriage without a chaperone.

Her shoulders were squared. Her neck straight. She’d felt like dressing in her favorite gown, which was of a very pretty green and highlighted the green of her eyes. She glanced at the newspaper Gideon was reading, The London Gazetteer, and saw that he chuckled as he read her story. She itched to tell her siblings it was her story and that the food they were eating was not bought by Gideon like they thought, but by her.

She even considered going out and finding a proper modiste to order herself a new frock.

And yet, deep down, a sense of impending disaster had her shrivel, the fear of upcoming disappointment made her tense, waiting for the blow to strike. Her uncle was a traitor to the country.

And that meant the end of her alliance with Spencer. Treason was a sure death sentence, even to peers as high as dukes. And Spencer wanted revenge. He’d want vengeance not just for himself but for the men who’d fought alongside him.

Would he keep his word to her and respect their alliance?

Or would he betray her?

And how was that possible after she’d willingly given herself to him, after she’d realized she was feeling far more for him than she wished?

“Do I?” asked Joanna and didn’t even feel a blush creeping onto her skin. “How so?”

Unlike just over a week ago, before she’d met Spencer, there was a shift in her mind. She deserved to feel good about herself. She shouldn’t feel guilty or shy. She had become a woman, she’d had the most intense and beautiful experience of her entire life, she’d defeated a proper thug, and she’d told Spencer the deepest, most vulnerable thing about herself…something she’d never thought she would tell anyone.

And he hadn’t run away.

She felt like she finally had control over her own life…

Except for Spencer. The hours of pure bliss she’d had in his arms were crushed the very next morning with the news of her uncle’s true crime.

Charlotte licked her lips thoughtfully. “Yes. You do look better. Did you reduce? What did the Hodgeses have you do? Gather harvest?” She snorted a little, but her smile fell as Gideon stared at her. “I thought you just watched after the children.”

Her sister must be getting more and more nervous, with only six days left till the day she was expected to meet the prince regent and make her decision. That must be the reason for Charlotte’s sarcasm. Joanna was nervous and agitated, too. They’d made a significant advancement in the investigation, but was it enough to confront her uncle? Probably not enough to convict him of treason yet.

“I think I look just fine in any shape or form, Charlotte,” said Joanna, not recognizing her own cool tone. “And I don’t need to reduce to look better. It’s not only one’s looks that matter in life. As the older sister, you’re the one who should be telling this to me.”

Charlotte stilled with her mouth open, blinking. “Joanna…”

Gideon stared at her with respect and a smile on his lips. “Is this even you, little sister? And she’s absolutely right, Charlotte.”

Joanna’s chest felt like more air had been sucked into it.

Charlotte’s face reddened as she laid the remnants of her toast on her plate and picked up her cup with a shaking hand. “The old you wouldn’t have been so mean, Joanna.”

Guilt weighed in Joanna’s stomach. Charlotte’s looks had gotten her into trouble with the prince, but Charlotte couldn’t be blamed for that. She had done nothing to encourage his advances nor had she shown any sign of immorality.

Joanna had just opened her mouth to offer an apology—something she’d always have done before as well—when the door opened and their housekeeper, Mrs. Parr, came in with a long face and wide eyes.

“Lord Spencer Seaton and the Duchess of Grandhampton for Miss Joanna.”

Shock snapped Joanna’s mouth closed, and then it fell open again. The thrill at seeing Spencer again—and at having him come here to her family home…openly, without hiding, without meeting in Whitechapel or in the backstreets—made her body buzz like it was filled with bees.

But then she realized Mrs. Parr had also said the Duchess of Grandhampton… Penelope, the woman he loved, was also here! Her bones filled with pain. Why did he bring Penelope here? To rub Joanna’s nose in his feelings for his sister-in-law—after everything they’d been through?

Gideon laid the newspaper to the side and looked at her with an amused expression. “Ah, the tangled webs of nobility. Always a delightful spectacle.” He lifted his eyebrows. “Do you know Lord Seaton and the duchess, Joanna?”

Joanna opened and closed her mouth a few more times, unable to find anything to reply to that. She couldn’t tell her siblings she had made a scandalous bet and lost her virginity to Lord Seaton! They couldn’t know he and she had spent the last few days chasing each other, spending countless hours alone without a chaperone, kissing, making love, and fighting goons!

Charlotte stared at Joanna with suspicion. “Why are Lord Seaton and the duchess here, sister?”

Joanna blinked rapidly. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

At least that was true.

“I suppose we will find out,” said Gideon as he glanced at his pocket watch. “I have to make haste to be at work, but please let them into the sitting room. Quite early for a lord and a duchess, too, is it not?” he asked his sisters as he stood up.

The three of them proceeded into their modest sitting room, and in the next few minutes, the doors opened and Spencer came in, stealing all the air from Joanna’s lungs.

His gaze locked with hers right away, dark and intense and glistening. Even though she was sitting, she felt like the floor careened under her feet at the sight of him. Alive…unharmed… The scratch and the bruise under his lip from the attack in Tilbury had reddened on his face, only highlighting his perfect features.

She could barely take another breath when she glanced to his side and frowned. She didn’t recognize the older woman standing next to him. She could see the similarities between them even despite the age difference. She had perfect silvery-gray hair under her intricate bonnet, flushed high cheekbones, and kind blue eyes. She was dressed in the fashion of the last century, though her gown was beautiful and immaculately made for her stately figure. She was leaning on a walking stick.

This was most definitely not Penelope, not the love of his life.

“Good day.” Spencer nodded.

“Um,” said Joanna. “Gideon, Charlotte, may I present Lord Spencer Seaton.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” said Spencer. “And allow me to introduce my grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Grandhampton.”

Ohh, his grandmother…Joanna’s anger and jealousy dissolved in a blink. That made sense, she was the dowager duchess, while Penelope was the current one.

“The pleasure is mine,” said Gideon, all manners and kindness. “Please, do come in. Would you take tea?”

The dowager proceeded into the room and sat on the sofa next to Joanna, giving her and Charlotte a kind smile. “I would. We apologize for coming so early. I’m afraid it is very impolite of us to visit during breakfast.”

Gideon nodded to Mrs. Parr to indicate that she should prepare tea. “Not at all. We are pleased to receive you.”

“Thank you,” said Spencer. “I regret we did not have a chance to meet sooner.”

“Though you know my sister… How?” asked Gideon.

“We met at your aunt’s ball,” said Spencer, and his dark gaze pinned Joanna. “And we had a riveting conversation, which I’ll never forget.”

Riveting?Charlotte mouthed to Joanna, making large eyes at her.

Joanna ignored her, her heart drumming fast. What did Spencer have in mind? Why had he brought his grandmother?

“Oh,” said Gideon, frowning at Joanna with confusion. “I was not aware.”

“Spencer talked at length of Miss Joanna’s keen awareness of literature,” said the dowager. “Quite a talent, are you not, Miss Joanna?”

“Joanna is quite a reader!” said Charlotte.

“And her writing talent,” added the dowager. “I am quite impatient to read your stories.”

“Oh yes, Jo used to write when she was an adolescent,” added Charlotte helpfully.

The dowager frowned at Spencer. “I had an impression it was recent?”

“Is there an urgent matter, Lord Seaton?” asked Joanna, breathing quickly yet not getting enough air to calm down. Her head spun. He’d talked about her with his grandmother? Had he betrayed her secret pen name? Why was the dowager talking about Joanna’s writing, threatening to spill everything to her family?

“Yes, there is, actually,” Spencer said. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have intruded so rudely on your breakfast.”

Her heart pounded harder. “What is it?”

“I need your assistance, and I hoped to ask your brother’s permission to let you accompany my grandmama and myself.”

Gideon’s eyebrows glued together. “Accompany you where?”

“There’s a property I seek to acquire, and the seller needs my reply by eleven this morning. As Miss Joanna has a keen eye for architecture and a good knowledge of the area, I wanted her opinion.”

No one said a word. Both Gideon and Charlotte knew Joanna did not have a keen eye for architecture at all. Perhaps she knew her way around Cheapside, but she was certainly not as knowledgeable about it as any hackney driver would be. As for her opinion… No man asked a woman’s opinion on buying property unless they were married.

What in the world was Spencer doing?

Gideon cocked his head as he was clearly suppressing an amused smile. “Now that’s a novel way to court a lady, Jo,” he murmured so that only she could hear. “I must remember that one.”

While Joanna fought with her urge to slap him silly for such nonsense, Charlotte was blinking, looking between Joanna and Spencer. Joanna shriveled, the confidence she’d felt just a few minutes ago quickly disappearing.

What was he doing? Surely not courting her. And if he was…her heart was doing some sort of vibration, the buzzing as urgent as bubbles in boiling water.

But he said marriage was out of the question. And she’d never say yes to him while he still loved Penelope.

The door opened and Mrs. Parr came in with a tray full of cups, a teapot, and biscuits. While she set down the porcelain tea set, Gideon turned to Joanna, his gaze asking her if she wanted this…what it meant…and what she wanted him to say.

“It is an urgent matter, I’m afraid,” said the dowager. “I am sorry for such haste.”

“Not at all,” said Gideon again. “If you think Joanna can help…she may go.”

Joanna gave a quick, polite smile, her heart beating so fast she could faint. “Of course. Anything I can do to be of assistance.”