His Jilted Bride (Historical Regency Romance) (31 page)

“
I didn't have a choice.” His voice was a mere whisper. “I owe
Friar money. A lot of money. I was working down my debts by helping
gather girls and he said he'd forgive my debts entirely if I'd
convince her to be the madam.”

“
But we both know that would never happen. So you thought to
abduct her, is that it?”

Philip didn't answer.

Elijah punched him again. “Was that
your plan? To abduct her? Or just to get her ruined at your
cousin's party so she'd have to accept his suit?” When he didn't
answer again, Elijah delivered another quick punch to his
side.

Philip groaned. “The latter. But when
you beat him and had him in the gaol, he couldn't attend the
wedding.”

“
Then it became abduction,” Elijah finished for him. “And now,
it will be the gallows.” Elijah propped himself up on the arm he
had going across the back of Philip's neck and placed his knee in
the man's spine so he could reach up and grab Philip's gun. Keeping
his position, he cocked the gun and trained it at Philip's head.
“Now, I'm going to release my hold on you and you're slowly going
to get up and walk back to the house. You take one step in a
direction more than five degrees away from the direction of the
house, and you'll have a permanent limp. You try to run, and you'll
never walk again.”

“
And if you don't explain
everything
to me right now, you'll
never see Mr. Henry Hirsute again,” came the sweet voice of his
wife.

The hair on Elijah's neck stood on
end. Not because of the threat Amelia had issued or what she might
have heard, but that she was out here alone.

Henry placed a hand on Elijah's
shoulder, instantly extinguishing any feelings of unease. “Go. You
have much to explain to her. Friar has been unmasked and is in the
care of the constable, as Philip will be. I'll speak to our
inquisitive family. Just go to her, Elijah. You owe it to yourself
as much as you do to her.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Amelia clutched the tree next to her
for support. So much had happened tonight, but she honestly
couldn't explain what it all was.

One minute she was having an intimate
moment with Elijah, then his brother intruded and she was dumped
into a room with his female relations only to be told to wait there
until he came back for her, but he sent Henry instead, who danced
with her, then sent her off into a room where she was nearly
abducted (and dare she forget shot at); stopped only by Elijah and
Henry jumping out of the shrubs to take her and her captor—who
apparently was Lord Friar, of all people—to the ground. And that
was before she was helped to her feet and made to stand with a
crowd while her husband ran into the forest, where she found him
moments later holding a man to the ground who wheezed something
about a madam, physical force and abduction.

Quite frankly, it was
exhausting just to
think
about the night's events.

Nevertheless, there were several large
holes of missing information and there wasn't a chance the sun was
going to rise in the English sky again without her having each and
every one of those holes filled in.

Still clinging to the tree for
support, she strained her eyes to watch Elijah hand his brother the
gun before taking to his feet and turning to face her. Henry, who
now held the gun pointed at her brother barked for him to take to
his feet and fired a warning shot scant inches above his
head.

Wordlessly, Elijah walked over to her
and scooped her up in his large arms.

Amelia would have protested had she
the strength to walk back to the house on her own. But she didn't.
Nor did she mind being held this close to him.

Nearing the house, he took a shortcut;
one that allowed them entry without having to pass by the
crowd.

“
Here we are,” he said, lowering her onto the feather mattress
in a way reminiscent of the way that stranger at Lord Nigel's house
had done. Her eyes widened. Was he?

Elijah nodded once. “It was me in Lord
Nigel's study.”

“
Wh-why?”

Elijah raked his hand
through his hair. “I am—no I
was—
an agent of the
Crown.”

“
Wh-what?” she gasped. His answer had created far more
questions than she'd already planned to ask.

Elijah went over to the fire place and
lit a small fire. “When we were eighteen, Henry and I became
spies.”

A memory of the other day when she'd
accused him of being the worst spy in the world flashed in her mind
and she blushed. “Why?”

He repositioned the logs in the hearth
and poked them with the iron fire poker. “We were caught trying to
escape the law—”

“
You and
Henry
were caught doing something
illegal
?” The idea of it was
laughable.

He nodded once. “It was a mistake, I
assure you, but it happened all the same and when we were caught we
were given the choice of the gaol or to become agents of the
Crown.”

She certainly understood why they
chose to become spies. “So your travels, they weren't just the
usual cavorting about the continent that most young lads
do?”

“
No. I was told to go to all of those places. What to do.”
Satisfied with the start of the fire, he set down the fire poker
and closed the screen. “And even how to dress.”

“
Which explains your expertise with corsets,” she murmured. In
the low light of the room, she noticed a large bruise was forming
on his cheek. So much made sense. His being a spy explained the
scars she'd seen on his body. “But what does all of this have to do
with my brother and Lord Friar?”

“
And you,” he added, pulling a chair over to sit next to
her.

A shiver ran down her spine at his
words. “Me?”

Elijah reached for her
hands. “Yes, you. In March, Mr. Robinson, the fellow Henry and I
took orders from while working for the Crown asked us to
investigate and shut down a prostitution ring. He didn't have much
to go on except the name of the boat—
Jezebel
.”

Amelia gasped. “Philip always wanted
to name his mare that and Mother wouldn't let him.”

“
And understandably so,” Elijah said. “For weeks we chased
the
Jezebel
all
over the channel, unable to catch her. On a tip sent to us, we went
to Dover. That's why I was at your cousin's party. Henry was there
to act like an interested party, and I was to be unseen, lurking
between the rooms that were supposed to be kept private in hopes of
overhearing a private conversation or heaven forbid, an exchange.
Instead, I happened upon you.”

“
Did you know who I was?”

“
Not until you said my name. I should have known before then
as all the signs of your presence were there: your perfume, your
giggle, even the way my heart races in your presence, but my brain
refused to believe it was you—just some young lady who'd been
drugged and was in need of saving from whatever fate might hold for
her if she were found in such a state in Lord Nigel's study. It
wasn't until I got you upstairs to a hidden bedchamber and you
kissed me and called my name that I realized my heart had been
right.”

“
So you left when you realized it was me?” she asked, unsure
of how to feel. In a way, it was a compliment that he'd been such a
gentlemen as to excuse himself and not take advantage of her; at
the same time, was it because he'd found her undesirable once he
learned her identity that he had no desire to finish what she'd
started.

“
No. I stayed.” He squeezed her hands. “When I realized it was
you, I went down to the kitchens and asked one of the staff to make
you a tonic that would help your head and stomach. But when I
arrived back in the room, you were already asleep, so I set it
down, loosened your gown as much as I dared so you could still
breathe but also be decent enough to get home the next day, then I
waited in your room. I should have been downstairs, lurking; but I
couldn't leave you.”

He swallowed. “But for as much as I
would have liked to, I couldn't stay forever. Working for the
Crown, I wasn't in a position to marry and if we were caught alone
together, that's what would have happened and I didn't want
that.”

“
But you said yesterday that you and Philip had a disagreement
about your asking for my hand.”

“
We did. I went to see your father as soon as I learned of
your engagement to Lord Friar, but he refused me.” He didn't have
to say why, they both knew: Father needed her to marry someone who
wouldn't need a dowry and who might be generous enough to help his
bride's family. Someone like Lord Friar, not an untitled, seemingly
unemployed younger son of a baron.

“
And what of your conversation with Philip,” she
prompted.

“
He came in while I was speaking to your father and hinted
that you were accepting Lord Friar's suit because you were without
virtue.”

Stung, she sucked in a harsh breath.
“That explains your stoic expressions and candid discussions with
Henry regarding bedding me as your duty. One you just needed to get
done.”

Elijah winced as if she'd slapped his
freshly formed bruise. “It wasn't like that. I just wanted you to
know that you weren't—” he sent a pointed look to her abdomen—
“that was my hurry. Had Philip not hinted that you'd given your
virtue to a man whose identity you didn't know, and I'd convinced
you to ride off with me that day, I wouldn't have approached you
about intimacies so soon because it wouldn't have mattered. I was
the one in the room that night. I know what did and didn't occur.
But since you didn't, I needed to find a way to tell you without
actually telling you.”

Now it was her turn to recoil as if
she'd been slapped. “Well, I'm sorry you felt bedding me was a
duty, but I do appreciate your willingness to suffer it in order to
ease my mind that I hadn't given my innocence to a stranger whose
bastard I might have been carrying.” She pulled her numb hands from
his and attempted to stand.

His hands encircled her waist and
eased her back onto the edge of the bed. “That didn't come out
right.” He took a ragged breath. “What I meant was none of this
happened how I wanted it to. Regardless of whether you thought your
virtue was gone or not, I still would have been at that church to
persuade you to marry me instead. But I didn't want you to fret
over something that wasn't real, which is why I kept making
attempts to bed you.” His cheeks turned red. “There wasn't any
other way. I'm sure you had no bursting desire to tell me of your
nonexistent secret shame and if I were to tell you it was me that
night, it'd only invite more questions.” He reached up and
scratched his left temple. “As I said, none of this happened the
way I wanted it to.”

“
So then you did want to marry me?” She might be a little bold
at times, but even she had enough modesty not to ask his true
feelings about bedding her. But she needed to know the truth. Did
he seek out her father because he was trying to right the wrong
he'd inadvertently made or was he there because he genuinely wanted
to marry her?

He nodded, his hands found hers again.
“I have for some time now, but I knew you didn't see me that way
any longer.” He ran the pads of his thumbs back and forth across
her knuckles. “I'd hoped when I was done working for the Crown that
I could court you, but when I heard you were marrying Lord Friar, I
went straight to your father and tried to persuade him differently.
He wouldn't have it. Neither could I convince Philip.” He twisted
his lips in distaste. “And now I know why.”

“
Because I was supposed to be sold to Lord Friar,” she
guessed.

“
That's it in its simplest form.”

And simplest form was all she wanted
on that score. “When will you be done working for the
Crown?”

He flashed a boyish smile at her.
“Tonight I made my last capture.”

“
Well, that's good to hear since I don't enjoy being used as
live snake bait.” She cringed at the shrillness of her own
voice.

“
Snake bait?”

“
Your note.”

“
What about it?”

She stared at him. Did he
really want her to embarrass herself and elaborate? “You and Henry
conspired to get me in the blue saloon, did you not?” When he
nodded once, she continued. “While I have no difficulty trusting
you, I don't like being used as a pawn to catch the
villain.”

“
That wasn't part of the plan,” Elijah rushed to add. “I
thought you'd be safer there than in the ballroom. I didn't know
Friar was planning to break in and abduct you.”

“
So then your note it was...”