Rapturous Rakes Bundle (31 page)

could hear the low murmur of voices from behind the

closed door and when he flung it open without cere-

mony or even the courtesy of knocking, Rebecca’s

maid scuttered away like a terrified mouse.

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233

‘Lucas?’ Rebecca was sitting at her dressing-table.

She had already undressed for the night and was in a

silky peignoir of a deep plum colour that made her

hair look rich and coppery. Lucas looked at her. She

looked puzzled and innocent and very, very desirable.

His insides twisted.

‘Tell me about your brother,’ he said. He saw a

flicker of bewilderment cross her face—and saw the

tiny flicker of fear grow.

‘I have told you before—’ she began.

‘No, you have not,’ Lucas said. ‘Tell me about Dan-

iel De Lancey.’

Rebecca did not deny anything. She put down her

silver-backed hairbrush very slowly and met his eyes

in the mirror. ‘How did you find out?’ she asked.

‘Tom Bradshaw has a way of discovering these

things.’ Lucas had thought his feelings in turmoil, but

now he found that he was furiously angry. He gripped

her by the shoulder, forcing her to her feet. She

yielded with a little gasp.

‘Lucas—’

‘Were you ever going to tell me?’ Lucas demanded.

Her eyelashes flickered down. ‘I thought about it.’

‘And?’

‘And decided probably not. It was not my secret to

tell.’

Lucas’s hands tightened. ‘Do not give me that! This

has all been a huge conspiracy from the start, has it

not?’

Rebecca’s eyes widened with what appeared to be

genuine shock. ‘I do not know what you mean.’

‘Come now! Your uncle did the engraving for the

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The
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Mistress

Midwinter spies,’ Lucas spat out. ‘Your brother is a

privateer, no doubt in the pay of the French. And

you—’

‘Yes?’ Her gaze defied him. ‘What about me?’

Lucas let her go with a gesture of repudiation. She

stumbled back and almost tripped over the stool. Her

vulnerability just made him all the more angry. ‘You

knew all along, and played me like a fool,’ he said.

‘Did I?’ Rebecca swept away with an angry swish.

‘How strange. I thought that it was
you
who deceived

me
in order to gain information from me rather than

the other way around.’

‘And, in fact, all along it was you who has deceived

me to
keep
information from me,’ Lucas countered.

‘So we are equal, sweetheart.’

Rebecca looked disdainful. ‘Oh, no, we are not, my

lord! The only reason I omitted to tell you about this

was to protect Daniel.’

Lucas strode across to the window, moving with a

repressed fury. She seemed so honest and yet he could

not be taken in by any more of her lies. Was it only

a half-hour before that he had realised he loved her?

It felt like a whole century.

‘Next you will be telling me that it is mere coinci-

dence that brings you here to Midwinter!’ he said bit-

terly.

‘No!’ Rebecca’s eyes flashed. She drew the peignoir

close about her throat and Lucas could see that her

hands were shaking. ‘It was you who brought me here

to Midwinter, Lord Lucas. I did everything in my

power to avoid it.’

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235

‘Because you did not wish to draw danger to De

Lancey?’

‘Exactly.’ Rebecca stood braced as a bow. ‘I am no

traitor who schemed with my brother in order to come

to Midwinter as part of our treasonable plan, my lord!

I told you from the start that I knew nothing of the

spies!’

Lucas spun around. ‘You told me some things and

neglected to tell me many others. Why should I be-

lieve you now?’

He saw Rebecca whiten though the look in her eyes

was still defiant. ‘So you do not trust me,’ she said.

‘You have not answered my question.’

In reply she came very close to him, so close that

he could smell the scent of jasmine on her skin and

see the pale violet shadows beneath her eyes.

‘You should believe me because I have done every-

thing I could to help you since I have been here,’ she

said.

It was not enough. Lucas held her gaze, his eyes

hard. ‘Have you been in contact with your brother

since you came to Midwinter?’

‘No!’ Rebecca’s expression was as clear and honest

as it always had been, but there was a spark of anger

burning in the depths of her eyes as she searched his

face.

Lucas broke away. He felt a white-hot anger for her,

but in some odd way he felt even more angry with

himself and out of the depths of his despair and his

misery he dragged the words.

‘I am wondering,’ he said, ‘just what you would

have been ready to do to keep me from the truth. You

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The
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invited me to bed with you. You even told me you

loved me. There were not many things that you were

not prepared to do, were there, Miss De Lancey?’

Rebecca turned so pale that he thought she would

faint and he instinctively put out a hand to steady her,

but she knocked it aside.

‘You disgust me, Lord Lucas,’ she said between

shut teeth. ‘Get out of my room. I never wish to see

or speak with you again.’

He went.

It took Rebecca ten minutes to dress again. She did

not call the maid. She had never needed one. Her first

inclination—to walk straight out of Kestrel Court,

never to return—had not withstood the obvious con-

clusion that the Kestrels would never let her go. There

was only one thing to do and that was to take the fight

to the enemy.

Even so, it took every ounce of her courage to go

down the stairs and knock on the door of the study.

There was the low murmur of voices from within but,

to Rebecca’s inexpressible relief, when the door

opened it was to reveal Justin Kestrel talking to a man

she had never seen before. Of Lucas there was no sign.

Rebecca felt almost faint to be granted such a respite.

She had only managed to get this far by blocking all

thoughts of Lucas and his final words from her mind,

and she knew that once she started to think of him she

would be completely lost.

‘Miss Raleigh.’ Justin Kestrel did not seem partic-

ularly surprised to see her. He turned to the man at

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his side. ‘Thank you, Bradshaw. We shall speak

again.’

‘Your Grace.’ The man gave Rebecca an unmistak-

ably curious glance as he went out. Justin gestured

Rebecca to a seat.

‘Were you looking for Lucas, Miss Raleigh?’

‘No!’ Rebecca said. She gulped a steadying breath.

‘I wished to speak to you, your Grace.’

Justin gave her a flicker of a smile. ‘Then may I

offer you a glass of brandy? You are looking some-

what shaken.’

Rebecca accepted and sat down a little abruptly in

the chair that Bradshaw had vacated. Justin did not

speak whilst he poured for her and topped up his own

glass. When she took it from him she was surprised

to see that she was trembling. She took a grateful sip

and felt the brandy warm through her limbs, strength-

ening her. She gave a little sigh. ‘That is good.’

‘It should be,’ Justin said. ‘Your brother runs it.’

Rebecca almost choked. She put the glass down.

‘Your Grace—’

‘Miss Raleigh?’ Justin was not making it easy for

her but then, Rebecca acknowledged wryly, why

should he? She was the one who had some explaining

to do. She sat up a little straighter.

‘I came to tell you that it is true that I am Rebecca

De Lancey,’ she said. ‘I know that there must be a

connection between the Midwinter spies and my un-

cle’s work, but I swear to you that I am not that link.

Everything that I have told you is true. I am no traitor

and—’ her voice warmed ‘—I cannot believe that

Daniel is in the pay of the French either.’

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The
Rake’s
Mistress

Justin Kestrel let that one go. His face was grave.

‘I cannot offer an opinion on your brother, of course,

but I must tell you, Miss Raleigh, that I never imag-

ined that you were playing us false. Anyone who

knows you at all well should surely realise that you

are no spy.’

Rebecca stared. ‘But I thought... Lord Lucas as-

sumed...’

‘Ah, Lucas,’ Justin said. He smiled at her. ‘Lucas

always was impulsive and I am afraid...’ he sighed

‘...that he is also labouring under strong emotion,

which is never conducive to making a man see

clearly.’

Rebecca bit her lip. Honesty prompted her to admit

that Lucas’s reaction was scarcely surprising, although

the intensity of his anger had stunned her and the cru-

elty of his words hurt her deeply.

‘I concede that the facts looked damning against

me,’ she said with a little shiver. ‘I cannot explain the

connection between the Midwinter spies and my uncle,

other than to repeat that it is nothing to do with me.’

‘The facts do indeed look damning,’ Justin agreed,

with the ghost of a smile. ‘Lucas was angry and dis-

illusioned to learn the truth, Miss Raleigh, but he may

realise his mistake if you grant him a little time.’

‘There is no more time for us,’ Rebecca said

bleakly. ‘Lord Lucas and I never could quite trust one

another sufficiently to make matters work and now we

never shall. I wish to go back to London immediately,

your Grace.’

Justin nodded slowly. ‘A pity, but I understand your

sentiments. If that is what you desire then it shall be

Nicola
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239

so. However, I must ask you to wait a couple of days

more, Miss Raleigh.’ He saw her instinctive gesture of

denial and went on, ‘We move against Norton and

Lady Benedict the day after tomorrow. We cannot risk

any change of plan before then or it may alert suspi-

cion. After that, you are free to return home whenever

you wish.’

Rebecca stood up. She knew that it was the best she

could hope for and that under the circumstances Justin

was being more than generous. It was only the inevi-

tability of seeing Lucas again that made her heart ache

so fiercely she was not sure she could bear it. Between

them they had destroyed all the fragile trust that had

grown up against the odds, and they had hurt each

other beyond measure. She bore the responsibility for

that as much as Lucas, for although he had deceived

her first, she had never trusted him sufficiently to tell

him the truth about Daniel, and now it would never

be possible to gain his love.

Chapter
Eleven

It was odd to behave as though everything were as

normal and yet to know that everything had in fact

changed. Rebecca had been tempted to remain in her

room for the whole of the following day, but she hated

to be confined; she had also agreed to go shopping in

Woodbridge with Rachel Newlyn. Lucas and Cory

were to accompany them, but Lucas elected to ride

and did not acknowledge Rebecca’s presence with

more than a nod when they met in the hall. There was

not another look or a word or a touch that passed

between them. Rebecca knew that Rachel had noted

this new coldness, but fortunately she asked no ques-

tions, and when the carriage rolled into Woodbridge

and the gentlemen went off to the gunsmith’s, Rachel

headed towards the bookseller’s and Rebecca pleaded

a headache and told her friend she would await her on

the quay, where she hoped that the fresh sea air might

help quell the blue devils.

It was a misty morning and the sea fret hung about

the boats, muffling sound and casting a grey pall

across the water. The quay seemed quiet but for the

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241

scrape and hammer coming from the shipwright’s

yard. An old man was sitting in a wildfowling boat,

sorting methodically through nets and floats and whis-

tling soundlessly through his teeth as he did so. He