The Viscount's Counterfeit Wife (48 page)

“But you cannot walk
about alone.”

“No, of course not.
Mr. Mason, my brothers’ friend, has kindly accompanied me, ably
aided by Joseph. They’re waiting for me on that bench by the door.”
She gestured in their direction.

He grimaced and looked
unhappy to see them.

“I see. Come, I will
escort you to them.” He was all that was agreeable now. Yet she
couldn’t shake the feeling that underneath his affable demeanor, he
was seething.

The minute he took his
leave, she asked Mr. Mason, “Did you find a suitable book for Mr.
Leighton?”

Reed had given her a
cynical look when she told him where they were going this morning. He
probably thought she wished to avoid him after yesterday’s argument
(
and he was right!
)
but she didn’t want him to think she had lied about their
destination. After his reaction to her going for a drive with Mr.
Dubuc the other day, she hadn’t wanted to say she was meeting him
again. And she most certainly hadn’t told him she was going to his
own attorneys to find out if she was living in the wrong house!

At the investigators
nod, she said, “Good. Then, let’s go home. I have a lot of
packing to do.”

* * *

What
the hell?
Reed hopped up from the bed and stalked over to
the window and back again. So his suspicions were true. They weren’t
married. Tally wasn’t his wife. In fact, she was a complete
stranger! His memory had returned in time to prevent him from making
a serious mistake. Prior to last night, he’d been pushing her to
resume their marital relations.

Resume? Hah!

He stopped. Why, if she
believed he’d been coming in to kill her, was she pretending to be
his wife?

She said the doctor
told her to tell him nothing, but that defied common sense! What
woman would take care of a man who she thought had come in to kill
her?

The only motive he kept
returning to was that she probably thought he’d feel obliged to
marry her once they were thoroughly compromised. She must be craving
a title like her sister, the Countess.

She had a lot of cheek.
She’d even moved into his house!

She painted. Perhaps
she was low on funds and heard he had a studio, so she might have
thought that while no one was there it wouldn’t hurt anyone if she
made use of it.

Look at him! Here he
was, so besotted he was making excuses for her! It made more sense
that she had connived to be there when he arrived. So she must have
known he was coming.

Ah, no! Was this
another of his father’s schemes? He’d been certain his father
didn’t know about the townhouses, but the old man might have found
out. But why set him up to be caught in a marriage trap with her? She
was no Duke’s determined daughter! He had to be missing something.

He’d known their
marriage was not a normal one from the beginning, but he’d
attributed it to his lack of memory and the fact that he might have
done something bad that had put her in danger. How dare she delay his
recovery by pretending they were a couple! If he hadn’t been
confused by conflicting thoughts, he might have recovered his memory
sooner.

He returned to the
window. Well, if this was a trap, she and his father could think
again! He’d escaped the parson’s trap before and he would again.

He spun around and
stomped back to the bed. Damn it! Why should he feel any guilt? He’d
done nothing wrong. He was the one who had been hoodwinked.

He rubbed his forehead.
Not that she’d taken advantage of their situation, he begrudgingly
allowed. He’d have long since had her in his bed had she been
willing.

He groaned. His head
was sore from the bombardment of memories all trying to crowd into
his mind at once. It was made worse by the rage he felt at being
betrayed by his imposter of a wife.

He tried to remember
how she’d told him they were married the first time but couldn’t.
The doctor had called him ‘Mr. Leighton’ that first night. He
remembered now. She’d looked shocked. Had it been a
spur-of-the-moment plan?

She had refused to
answer all his questions or provide him with information. She’d
claimed it was the doctor who had ordered her not to do so, but it
was clear the reason was because she didn’t know the answers! His
fury — mingled, he had to own, with abject disappointment —
wouldn’t allow him to give her credit for not feeding him a false
life.

She was going to pay
for the time she’d made him waste! For the hopes she’d made him
yearn for.

He suddenly stopped his
angry pacing. Why had he climbed the wall? Why had he been so
determined to enter his home in the middle of the night? It would
have been easier to go to his club.

Christ!
His heart sank into his boots! The documents!

He rushed to the
dressing room and grabbed his greatcoat. He felt the material inside
the lining at the back.
Thank
God!
He felt almost shaky with relief and decided to leave
them in their hiding place.
Now
what should he do?

Jace!
Max! Hell!
He could just imagine how they were
interpreting his prolonged silence. Did they think he’d gone over
to the other side? They–

Damn and blast it!
The
two men across the street watching the house!
He went to
the window. They’d been watching him! Given the danger involved, it
wasn’t surprising they’d been keeping an eye on the house. Just
the thought of what could have happened had the Vanisher found him
while he had no memory, sent chills of dread snaking down his spine.
That monster was capable of killing everyone in the house!

Reed was supposed to
have set up a meeting with the Chief to deliver those documents as
soon as he arrived in London. How long had he been like this?

What must they have
been imagining all this time, watching him and Tally? He snorted
humorlessly. Probably exactly what he’d have imagined in their
place — that he was disporting himself with a bit o’muslin. She
was beautiful enough to be that.

And treacherous enough!
Hell! Could she be working with the Vanisher?

Quickly, he donned the
servant’s disguise.

Now the contents of his
valise made sense. When many of their schemes to catch Traubridge
doing his evil deeds, failed, they’d suspected someone in the
Chief’s office must be betraying them. The three of them, Jace. Max
and he, knew that if they wanted to make it back to London alive, to
hand over the incriminating papers, they needed to find ways to
remain undetected on their journeys back. Separating, they traveled
different routes and wore disguises to ensure they made it home alive
with documents intact.

Standing up after tying
his shoelaces, he decided against bringing the documents with him.
There’d be time enough to hand them over later. Who knew how many
men the Vanisher could have watching the house by now? How many men…
or women… were doing so within its very walls?

No one had located the
documents while he was not himself. The fact that they remained
hidden was an encouraging sign that Talia and Foster weren’t on
Traubridge’s payroll.

He went down the back
stairs. It had become his practice for leaving the house to take his
walks. It seemed safer to sneak out the back than to go out the front
and risk being shot.

When a man lost his
memory, it certainly made him think. What if Tally and Foster had
opened his valise and found all the disguises? What must they have
thought? Hah!
He didn’t give a
bloody damn what they’d thought!
Served them right if
they worried he might be a criminal out to hurt or rob them.

Yet, they had taken
care of and protected him while he was without his memory, which —
his ire rapidly rose again — he’d never have lost had she not
shot him! He was a mass of conflicting emotions.

Muttering angrily to
himself, he followed his by now familiar routine to avoid being seen
by what he’d been calling “the spies” across the street. He
grimaced wryly at how successful he’d been at eluding his friends’
helpful watch. It was sheer luck that he had not yet been found and
disposed of by his enemies. But good fortune could only last so long.

Crossing through the
park, he sauntered out the other entrance onto the next street, then
down the lane that backed the houses across the street from his. He
kept to the shadows as he made his way furtively to the rear of the
house where his friends were stationed. They must be feeling
frustrated and impatient to bring the mission to an end.

Time to get this
dangerous business sorted out. Then he’d deal with his …
wife
… that devious, deceitful witch!

Jace’s look of relief
said it all, Reed thought, when his friend answered the door.

“Took you long
enough.” He waved Reed in. “Come in, come in.”

He led the way to the
front room that looked more like a barracks than a parlor. An old
couch was against the wall with a blanket bunched up at one end as if
someone had been using it to sleep. A long table was in front of the
window with a telescope and eye glasses on it, beside them lay a log
book and paper and pencil. A half-eaten sandwich sat on a plate with
a cup of coffee.

“I’ve disturbed
your meal.”

Jace shrugged and
turned to pick up the rest of the sandwich.

At his friend’s
characteristic reaction, Reed said, “I’ve been watching you watch
the house for the past several days, wondering who the hell you were
and why.”

His friend’s back
stiffened. “But you know all of my disguises.”

He paused trying to
work out how best to explain the unexplainable. “The night I
arrived, I hit my head, hard. When I awoke, my memory was gone.
Completely. I’ve only just regained most of it (
Well,
I hope it is most of it!
) in the past hour, so I’m still
a little shaky and stunned.”

“Hellfire!” Jace
cursed in a low voice. “We never imagined that! We thought of going
in, but worried we’d ruin some ruse you were working.”

“It wouldn’t have
done you much good. I would have had no idea who you were.” He
lifted an ironic eyebrow. “I may have even thrown you and hurt you.

Jace’s narrowed his
eyes. He uttered not a word. He looked as if he didn’t quite
believe Reed’s story.

“I’ve only just
recalled our mission.” He sat down on the couch. “Have Traubridge
and gang been sniffing around?”

His friend’s
shoulders relaxed. “I’ve heard of people losing important papers,
Gordon, but rarely of them losing their minds.”

Reed heard the trace of
relieved amusement in his friend’s taunt. He realized he might not
have found it at all amusing had this been yesterday… or even this
morning… or just an hour ago. Come to think of it, he still wasn’t
ready to laugh about it. “It’s not an experience I wish to
repeat,” he responded tersely.

“Who’s the woman?”

“What?”

“The little beauty
living in your room?”

“Would you believe
my
wife
?”

“What!” Jace looked
pole-axed. “Hell, when did you go and do something as stupid as
that?”

“I didn’t.”

His friend’s head
snapped up. “Then how…?” Jace paused, thinking. “Is she one
of them?”

“No! Of course not!”
He wondered why he was defending her. He’d asked himself that same
question. “I don’t know,” he muttered. “I doubt it.”

“Then what’s her
game?”

“I have no idea! I’ve
only just gotten my mind back. Give me time to work things through.”
He paused then, added, “She might have thought to trap me into
marriage, I suppose. Regardless, I’ll handle that later. We need to
finish our mission first.” He heard himself trying not to cast too
dark a shadow on Tally and called himself a fool for caring.

“Can’t say I’m
not relieved,” Jace said. “I’d hate to see you tied to someone
for life without giving it a lot of serious consideration.”

Reed snorted. “You
needn’t worry about that.” He’d forgotten Jace’s jaded view
of connubial bliss. At one time he’d shared it. As little as a
month ago, he’d have said he had no intention of marrying for a
long while. Yet, he’d been quite happy thinking himself wed to
Tally.

“So you’ve been
living like a married couple?”

“Certainly not!”
Not from lack of trying on his part, he acknowledged silently. He had
to credit her with that much integrity. Or perhaps Foster was more to
be thanked, although he’d cursed him fervently at the time.

“Why the hell not?”

“I’ve been ill…
well, not so much ill. Just not feeling that good.”

“Did the laudanum
have anything to do with that?” Jace’s voice was as bland as
ever.

“How did you…?”
Reed was thunderstruck.

“Found the empty
bottle in the dustbin.”

“Ah…”

“We did wonder at
first if the Vanisher had somehow found you. But why use an old man
and young lady? And then there was that bandage around your head. So
we decided to set up watch and wait and see.” Jace explained. “We
saw Traubridge’s lackey, the Mincer, go into your house twice.”

“The devil you say!”

“The first time, he
was let in but he left mere moments later. Probably asked for you and
was told you weren’t here.” He tilted his head to await Reed’s
opinion. Getting no reaction, he continued, “The second time, Max
said he was allowed in and remained inside for about ten minutes.”

“Damnation!” Reed
was taken aback at how close the enemy had gotten.

“We worried he might
have pulled that poison ploy they used in that little village outside
of Cairo. So we broke into your house overnight and removed every bit
of food and drink we could find…” Jace gestured expansively.