Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

“ I ’m sorry to leave you, but I see several men that I need to speak to about business.”

The look in the Duke’s eyes had changed slightly, and Rosalie was a bit surprised by the serious tone his voice had taken. They were halfway across the ballroom floor to where her cousin and his wife were greeting guests, but the Duke’s eyes were fixed on a group of men not far from them.

“Oh, all right,” she said, glancing at them as well. “Do you want me to come with you?”

“No, you go to your cousin,” the Duke replied. His voice had a tone of finality to it that she didn’t dare argue with, so she nodded, and he moved off in the direction of the men.

She watched him go for a moment, feeling confused.

One minute, he’s saying I should write a book then the next, he’s abandoning me at this ball! To talk business? What could be so important right now?

She forced herself to turn and continue on to Niles. As she did, however, doubt began to creep into her mind.

Nathan doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He doesn’t read the books I read, so he doesn’t know what’s good and what’s bad. Anyway, he has no reason to think I’d be any good at writing! Coming up with romantic situations is very different from actually writing a book! I’m sure he’s just trying to be nice, but getting my hopes up only to have them dashed when publishers realize I’m a terrible writer will feel even worse!

By the time she reached her cousin, Rosalie had convinced herself that there was no way she could become a writer and that her husband was getting her hopes up for no reason at all.

I wish he hadn’t even mentioned it! she thought despairingly. He can’t have any idea what kind of writer I’d be or even what good writing is!

“Rosalie, my dear, you look piqued!”

Rosalie started and looked up. She had reached her cousin, Niles, and he was now looking down at her with an amused expression. Next to him, his new wife was smiling shyly. She was very pretty, Rosalie noted, with a round face, pink cheeks, and kind brown eyes.

“Oh, Cousin Niles!” Rosalie exclaimed. “I’m sorry, I was lost in my own thoughts and didn’t even realize where I was going!”

“No worries at all, my dear,” her cousin said jovially. “I am just glad you are here! I haven’t spoken to you all night, and I wanted to introduce you to my new wife, Genevieve, the new Viscountess of Carfield!”

“It’s very good to make your acquaintance,” Rosalie said, curtsying to the Viscountess. “I’m sorry I missed your wedding. I was on my honeymoon at the time otherwise I would have been honored to have been there.”

“We very much wished you could have been there,” Genevieve said, “but we were delighted to have your sisters there instead. And I must congratulate you on your marriage also! It was the talk of the town when you were married, and I am sure you looked very beautiful on your wedding day because look at you now! You’re so lovely! Oh, all of you sisters are so lovely! No wonder you married dukes! Not that I wanted to; I couldn’t imagine being happier with anyone but Niles. I mean, the Viscount. He is my whole world, you know; I can’t imagine life without him!”

She giggled and pressed a hand to her cheek. “Goodness me, I am talking a lot, aren’t I? I get like this when I get nervous. But you see, I just want you to like me, Your Grace. I want all of Niles’ family to like me. I was ever so nervous to meet you, but now that I have, I feel as if we are family already!”

Rosalie had to laugh. The Viscountess’ voice was high and squeaky but sweet, and although she seemed nervous, she was also charming. Rosalie liked her immediately. There was something naive and kind about the woman that reminded her of Cousin Niles. They were a good match in that way.

“I am very happy to meet you as well,” she said. “And I also already think of us as family! I’m sure that we will get along very well and become fast friends.”

“Oh, I do hope so!” Genevieve gushed. “That is my dearest wish.”

“And you did such a lovely job on the decorations tonight,” Rosalie said, gesturing around at the ballroom. “You throw a very delightful ball—one of the best I’ve been to, and I am quite discerning when it comes to balls.”

“Oh, you are very kind.” Geneive blushed, “and your approval means the world to me.”

“How are you settling into your new home with the Duke?” Cousin Niles asked her.

“Oh, it’s been easier than I thought it would be,” Rosalie said truthfully. “And I must thank you for sending over all of my things! When I first arrived at the Duke’s home, I couldn’t believe how familiar and cozy it felt with all my books and small furniture there! It was very thoughtful of you to think of that.”

Cousin Niles raised his eyebrows in surprise. “I’m glad you thought so, but truthfully, I cannot take credit for that. The Duke requested that I send over all your things, and I would never even think to refuse the request of the Duke of Carramere!”

He and Genevieve exchanged looks that told Rosalie they were very familiar with his reputation. However, this was not her primary concern.

“What do you mean?” she asked swiftly. “The Duke requested that my things be sent over? Before we were even married?”

“But of course. Did you not know?”

“No…” She swallowed. “I didn’t know.”

“I was just glad to know that you had married a man who was so concerned with your happiness and comfort,” Cousin Niles continued. “It seemed to me that you had made a very good match indeed!”

Rosalie, however, was no longer listening. There was a strange buzzing in her ears.

He was taking care of me and my needs from the very beginning. Before we became closer, before we kissed, and before any affection arose between us. He was being thoughtful and caring.

The signs of this had been there all along. The way he had been so thoughtful about always making sure she ate after asking her at the wedding if she had skipped breakfast and how so many of the foods at his home were her favorite recipes. She had known that he was trying to help her and make her strong, but she had never suspected that this level of thought and planning had gone into it.

She looked up at her cousin, a new urgency in her now. “Did the Duke ask for all my favorite foods?” she asked. “Did he ask you to send him my favorite recipes?”

Again, Niles looked surprised. “Yes, he did. Did you not know that?”

She shook her head.

Other memories were coming back. Not just memories but realizations. Things she had never thought about but now couldn’t believe that she had missed.

He knew about Lizzy ‘Nobeard’ Seacliff and Captain Blackthorn. He mentioned them to me and the story of Lizzy crossing the ropes before I ever spoke to him about those books. He has read them!

Rosalie’s mouth fell open. How had she never realized this? When the Duke had mentioned her favorite book, she hadn’t even questioned why he knew it and even intricate plot details.

Was I really so wrapped up in myself and my own disappointment that I didn’t notice something so important?

“And my favorite novels,” she whispered, staring at Niles. “Did he ask you for those as well?”

Niles fidgeted slightly, as if uncomfortable by the question or the intensity of her look. “Well, yes, he did,” he said. “Was I not supposed to tell him? He wrote to me before the wedding and asked for the names of your favorite novels? I knew because you had talked about them so much over dinner when it was just the two of us after your sisters had married and moved out and before Geneiveve and I married.”

“Yes, I remember,” Rosalie almost laughed. She remembered very well how bored and irritated Cousin Niles had seemed as she had recounted all the details of the plot of The Pirate Captain’s Wife. She had known she was being annoying, but she’d been so enraptured by the book that she hadn’t been able to stop herself.

Nathan had asked him for the names of her favorite novels, and once her husband had found out the names of the books, he hadn’t just made sure that there were copies in her new bedroom in his house—he had actually read them.

“I can’t believe it,” she said out loud.

“What?” Genevieve asked. She looked excited, as if she understood that something very important was taking place. “What is it?”

“The Duke…” Rosalie was having trouble speaking; she was so overcome by the emotion that was pumping through her. “He read all my favorite novels.”

“Oh, how romantic!” Genevieve gushed. “That is true devotion! He must love you so dearly!”

“No, I don’t think he—” Rosalie cut herself off. He knows good writing! He’s read all the books I’ve read! He truly does believe I can write like that!

She thought she was going to cry. All her doubts vanished. Nathan wasn’t just getting her hopes up. He’d studied her favorite literature and truly believed in her. More than that, every time she had thought her husband was similar to her father, she had been wrong. He had never been like her father, even before they had started to soften to one another. From the beginning, he had been looking out for her, trying to make her comfortable and happy, learning about her interests and passions.

He had been a good person from the very beginning.

The dashing, selfless gentleman she had always hoped she would marry.

He had been, in other words, the romantic lead in the novel that was her life.

“I have to go,” she heard herself say, as if from a great distance. “I need to find my husband.”

“Of course, you must go to him!” Genevieve said, and without saying goodbye, Rosalie turned and began to dash back through the ballroom.

She had to find him. She had to tell him that she now saw everything he had been doing for her. She had to reassure him that she knew he was not the Beast of Carramere, that she knew he was the exact opposite of her father. She had to thank him for everything he’d done for her, even though he had never sought credit for all his efforts, even though he had never told her how much he’d done for her.

I have to tell him, she thought with tears in her eyes. I have to tell him I love him.

She saw him! Right up ahead, talking to several gentlemen. She took another step forward, and then someone cut across her path.

“Excuse me—” she began, but the man cut her off.

“Hello, my darling,” he simpered, and her heart froze.

It was Lord Cain.

“There you are,” Lord Redfield said as Nathan stepped out the back door of the townhouse and onto the marble steps that led down to the garden. “I have been waiting for you all evening.”

“I didn’t come here just to meet with you,” Nathan said coolly. “I had other duties to attend to as well.”

“Like dancing with your wife?” Lord Redfield looked annoyed, his face red and sweaty from anxiety. “I saw you wasting time dancing with her.”

“Yes,” Nathan said, and he saw Redfield shrink back at the force of his word. “Like dancing with my wife. There is no task that is more important to me than making sure she is happy. A clandestinely meeting with you at her cousin’s ball is certainly lower on the list.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” Redfield mumbled, looking down. “I’m just nervous.”

“Yes, you said so in your letter.”

Nathan hadn’t been entirely honest with Rosalie about his reasons for attending the ball. Of course, he knew it was expected of him, and he had been more excited than he cared to admit at the thought of dancing with his wife, but there was also this other, secret reason.

The morning of the ball, he had received a note from Lord Redfield, who had also returned to England, saying that there had been an urgent development in the ‘project’ they were embarking on together and asking to meet him in the gardens outside the Viscount’s ball in order to discuss it.

“You could have just written to me about the urgent matter, you know,” Nathan said as he descended the stairs with Redfield.

“And leave a paper trail of our plans?!” Redfield looked shocked. “Absolutely not. The authorities are already keeping a close eye on me because of my father’s criminal enterprises, and I cannot be sure they aren’t searching my mail. No, no, I would rather discuss this in person.”

“Then we could have met at my club,” Nathan suggested, annoyed despite himself. He didn’t like the idea of discussing the opium business at the home of Rosalie’s cousin. If there was any sort of scandal, it would then involve her entire family, and he couldn’t bear to cause her family any more pain than they’d already been through.

Not to mention that if Redfield had found them out and realized they actually had no intention of investing in his business, he didn’t want that to occur when Rosalie was present.

Better to insulate her from that confrontation, especially because I don’t know what Redfield is capable of. His father was certainly capable of the worst crimes. The son might be capable of harming Rosalie, too.

But they were here now, and he was going to use the situation to his advantage.

Which meant leading Redfield as far away from the house, and Rosalie, as was possible.

“I don’t want to discuss something so sensitive at White’s where anyone might overhear us,” Redfield grumbled. “Anyway, I’m not even sure I could get into White’s. They revoked my father’s membership, and my name still carries suspicion.”

Nathan almost snorted. With good reason . But he kept silent because he was still playing the part of the criminal partner.

At last, they were in the gardens, and the large trees just inside the hedged-in area provided cover for them. The darkness was complete; no one would see them.

“So, what was so urgent that you had to have me meet you here?” Nathan asked, folding his arms as he glowered at the Viscount.

Redfield, however, was still looking around nervously.

“Are you sure no one can hear us?” he whispered. “Maybe we should move further into the gardens?”

“You’re not very courageous for an opium dealer,” Nathan observed, but he sighed and let the Viscount lead him deeper into the garden until they were standing near a fountain that was bubbling gently.

Exasperated, Nathan turned to Redfield. “ Now can we talk?”

Redfield turned to face him, and all at once, the scared, anxious look on his face slipped away, replaced by a cool, calm confidence. The change was so sudden and so unexpected that Nathan blinked and took a step back. A steely look had come into Redfield’s eyes, and fear suddenly snaked its way up Nathan’s spine.

Something is going on. Something I don’t understand.

“Yes, we can talk now,” Redfield said, and his voice had taken on a stronger, deeper quality. “We can talk about how the Beast of Carramere is every bit as wretched as the rumors say.”

“What?” Nathan was so taken aback that he didn’t manage anything more articulate and just gaped at the Viscount.

“You want to invest in the opium trade! You want to distribute an illegal and highly addictive drug that will sap what few coins the peasant folk have and leave them ruined and even more impoverished than they already are. I must say, when I first became aware that there were opium dealings going on in my land, I thought for sure it must have been my father’s work. But I was shocked when I realized that the place it must be coming from was your duchy. I knew that you were ruthless, but I didn’t expect the cousin of the Duke of Attorton to be so morally bankrupt that he would partake in the opium trade.”

“What are you talking about?” Nathan demanded. “ You’re the one running the opium trade! I was only offering to become an investor!”

Lord Redfield laughed, a cold, harsh sound. “Do you think you can still fool me? That I bought that little show you and your wife put on? I know that the men working on opium on my lands are already working for you. You only came to me to try and legitimize the business in my eyes and make a profit off of me. And why? Because my father was a criminal and a scoundrel, I must be one as well? If that’s what you thought, you were very much mistaken! I am going to right the wrongs my father perpetrated, and that begins with putting you away behind bars.”

“But—” Nathan was reeling. Everything was happening so quickly, and he couldn’t quite wrap his mind around what was happening. Lord Redfield wasn’t tacitly allowing an opium trade to take place on his land? He wasn’t trying to expand it and profit from it? But then, who was? And why did he think Nathan had anything to do with it?

“There’s been a mistake,” he began, holding up his hands in the sign of surrender. “I didn’t actually want to invest in the opium business, I wanted to?—”

“Don’t waste your breath,” Redfield spat. “I had a servant listen in when you came by the house, and he corroborated every word you said with the Bow Street Runners. You can try to deny it now, but no one will believe you.”

“I’m not trying to deny it, but you must understand that I?—”

“Nothing is going to get you out of this. And now, you’re going to pay for your crimes.”

He raised his fingers to his lips and gave a short, loud whistle. At once, about a dozen men burst forth from the surrounding bushes.

Nathan had no idea what was happening. In a matter of seconds, he was surrounded by a dozen Bow Street Runners, all of whom had just appeared out of the shrubbery and were now pointing pistols at him. He whirled around, taking it all in, and it dawned on him that he had walked straight into a trap.

It was an ambush! That toad of a man ambushed me!

Except, it was possible that Lord Redfield wasn’t a toad of a man. It was possible that he was actually an upright, honorable citizen who wanted anyone trading in opium behind bars.

Either that or he was pretending to be innocent to get any competition in the opium business out of the way.

“Your Grace,” one of the men from the Bow Street Runners said, stepping forward, “you are under arrest for conspiracy to smuggle illegal and dangerous drugs and for conspiring to pull Lord Redfield into your plot. You are going to come with us now so that we can begin processing your arrest.”

“I am not going to come with you!” Nathan said, drawing himself up to his full and considerable height. “I was not conspiring to smuggle drugs; I was merely trying to entrap Lord Redfield into admitting that he had taken up his father’s drug-smuggling ring.”

Lord Redfield scoffed. “But that is exactly what you would say if you were caught importing and distributing drugs!”

“It’s also exactly what I would say if it were the truth—which it is.”

“I don’t believe you,” Redfield said, “and all evidence is to the contrary.”

“What evidence?” Nathan demanded.

“There is testimony?—”

“That I came to your house offering to invest? But I was just trying to find out what you were up to. If you actually go to my duchy and search it, you will find no evidence of any drug smuggling.”

Lord Redfield frowned, and for a moment, he looked uncertain. Then his expression hardened, and he motioned for the lead Bow Street Runner to continue.

“You can try and prove your innocence at your trial, Carramere, but these men have every right to arrest you under the evidence I have already given them.”

The lead Bow Street Runner stepped forward and pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

“Please, turn around, Your Grace. Make this easy for everyone.”

“Don’t you dare touch me,” Nathan snarled, and the man froze. “I will not be arrested for a crime I did not commit. Not when whoever the real culprit is walks free.”

“Arrest him!” Redfield yelled. “And if he resists, then you can take him by force!”

“I would think twice before you did that.”

Everyone turned at once to see who had spoken, and Nathan felt his heart leap. Another dozen men were standing on the edge of the courtyard, their own pistols drawn. The one out in front, who had spoken, was staring straight at the leader of the Bow Street Runners.

“And I would put that gun down, if I were you,” the man said slowly but firmly. “You don’t want to accidentally shoot the Duke of Carramere.”

Nathan grinned. Scotland Yard had arrived.