20
A SHORT WHILE later, Isa watched Victor change into his riding clothes in their bedchamber at Kinlaw Castle. She’d never seen him like this, so driven . . . so deadly cold.
He’d been like this from the moment she’d told him what Gerhart wanted. It worried her. Especially when he shoved a flintlock pistol into each greatcoat pocket.
“Victor, you must listen to me—”
“No!” His gaze turned desperate, trailing down over her neck, where bruises were surely showing already. “Forgive me for not protecting you, lieveke,” he said hoarsely as he came up to cup her cheek. “The very thought of him hurting you—”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“It was. I should have been there with you.” He gave a shudder, then stiffened his stance and returned to stuffing items in his pockets. “Dom and Tristan are on their way here, and we will find that bastard and Amalie if we have to search all day.”
Any discussion of not involving Manton’s Investigations had ended once Amalie was taken.
“You couldn’t find him before,” she said. “What makes you think you can find them now?”
She regretted her words the instant Victor tensed. “This time I have help; surely Dom, Tristan, and I can run him to ground before evening.” He took out a powder flask and checked its contents. “No matter what I have to do, I will set everything right and rid us of the Hendrixes forever.”
“But if Gerhart sees the three of you searching,” she cried, “he’ll bolt, and I won’t have the chance to get her back!”
Victor rounded on her so swiftly that she jumped, and he cursed under his breath. “You are not meeting alone with him ever again.” His gaze dropped to her neck, and his mouth formed a grim line. “He could have killed you today. I would never have forgiven myself if he had.”
She swallowed. “But he didn’t. And he won’t. Not as long as he thinks he can get something from me.”
“You’re not stealing the Lochlaw diamonds for that man!” he growled.
“I quite agree.” She squared her shoulders. “I merely mean to borrow them.”
He stared at her. “What the devil are you talking about?”
“Rupert adores Amalie. He will certainly loan me the necklace long enough to save her. Then you and your men can hunt Gerhart down for however long it takes to retrieve it.”
“And what happens if I can’t get it back before he sells the gems out of it, the way he did before? That necklace is a family heirloom. Lochlaw might not care if it disappears, but the baroness most certainly will.”
“Rupert won’t involve her,” she said stoutly.
“The minute she needs to wear the necklace for some society affair and it’s not to be found, she’ll start pestering him about where it went. You know Lochlaw. He won’t stand firm against her. He’ll give you up, and next thing you know, Lady Lochlaw will have you prosecuted. She won’t care why he ‘loaned’ them to you, especially once she hears about what happened in Amsterdam.”
“We have no choice! Amalie is at stake!”
Stark fear showed in his face before he shuttered it. “Yes, but I’m not gaining our daughter only to lose her mother.” He shoved the powder flask into his pocket. “I’ll save you both without risking prison for either of us.”
A knock came at the door and Victor hurried to open it. Isa heard a footman say, “Mr. Cale, there are three gentlemen downstairs waiting to speak to you. They say they’re from London.”
“Thank you, I’ve been expecting them. Tell them I’ll be along in a moment.”
The footman headed off as Isa said, “Three? Who is the third?”
“Probably my cousin, though I’m surprised they involved him.” Victor faced Isa with a grim expression. “I have to go.” When she walked toward him, he added, “Let me have a few moments alone with them, Isa.”
She blinked. “Why?”
“Because I haven’t told them anything about us yet. And I need to do that without you there to make them nervous.”
Oh, Lord.
I heard that they starved and humiliated him, day after day, determined to make him break down and admit who committed the crime. And he still wouldn’t point the finger at you, poor sod.
No—but he hadn’t forgotten it, either.
Whatever he saw on her face made his expression soften. “I’ll want you to come in afterward and answer their questions. But with two of us telling the tale, it will get too confusing and take too long. It will go more quickly if I prepare them first. All right?”
She gazed at him warily. “I suppose.”
He sighed and closed the door. “Don’t you trust me to save our daughter, Isa?”
“That’s not it.” She searched his face. “The question is whether you trust me.”
A muscle throbbed in his jaw. “Of course I trust you.”
“Then why won’t you let me borrow the diamonds?” she asked. “And don’t tell me it’s because of Lady Lochlaw. You’re cousin to a duke; Lochlaw is a baron. The two of them can prevail if something happens to those diamonds.”
She shook her head. “No—it’s because deep inside, some small part of you still worries that this is just another scheme. That my family and I have found a more creative way to trick you so we can commit another theft right under your nose.”
Anger flared in his face. “That’s absurd. I know you would never steal.”
She smiled wanly. “Just a week ago, you were painting me a master criminal who wanted to steal the diamonds for herself.”
“That was before I knew the truth!” he protested.
“It was also before you found out that I hid your daughter from you.” She softened her voice. “I wouldn’t blame you for not trusting me. Not after what Gerhart told me about what they did to you in Amsterdam. He heard of it from his friends.”
Every inch of him went rigid. “You can’t believe anything Gerhart says.”
“I wouldn’t generally, but I know something happened to you after I left, something that turned you bitter and angry. Something more than my seeming abandonment.”
When Victor turned away with an oath, she added in a whisper, “Is it true the prince’s guard starved you? Humiliated you? That you were in gaol for weeks, being tormented?”
“It’s all in the past. None of it matters now.”
“All of it matters!” She grabbed him by the arm. “It’s still a thorn in your heart, making you wary of me, making you do things like call in your friends without consulting me, and refuse to let me take the diamonds. Because deep down, you’re afraid it will all happen again—Jacoba and Gerhart and I destroying your life, fooling you—”
“Damn it, Isa, that’s not true!” He released a shaky breath, then continued in a more controlled tone, “We don’t have time for this. You’ll just to have to believe me when I say that the only ones I distrust are Gerhart and Jacoba.” He pulled free of her and opened the door. “I’ll send for you when we’re ready for you.”
“Victor—”
“No arguing right now, Isa. I have to go.” He walked out and left her.
You’ll just have to believe me when I say that the only ones I distrust are Gerhart and Jacoba.
She wanted to believe him, to be sure that the past wasn’t influencing his decisions. But how could she, after what had happened to him? What if the real reason he refused to try giving Gerhart the diamonds was some lingering distrust of her?
She had to do something. If Victor wouldn’t involve Rupert, she would. Because she was not going to let Gerhart have her baby.
She headed for the door. Catching sight of herself in the mirror, she winced to see the purplish bruises ringing her throat. It was no wonder Victor wasn’t thinking rationally right now, if this was what he had seen. She didn’t think the sight of them would turn Rupert irrational, too, but right now she needed both men to be sensible.
Determinedly, she jerked out a scarf and wrapped it about her neck. Then she went off to find Rupert.
♦ ♦ ♦
VICTOR HURRIED DOWN the stairs with Isa’s words ringing in his ears. Was she right? Did he still distrust her, somewhere in the part of his soul he never wanted to probe? Where the ghosts of his inquisitors resided?
Your wife is too clever for the likes of you. She knows you can never provide her with the riches she craves.
He thought he’d silenced those voices once he knew the truth, but perhaps she was right. Perhaps he never could.
Forcing that uneasy thought away, he joined his friends. He trusted her. He did. And now it was time to lay everything out for them, and make sure they trusted her, too. Because they had to help him. He couldn’t do it alone.
To his surprise, Dom and Tristan had brought Dr. Percy Worth with them, the man who had cured Victor’s pneumonia when he was near death on the ship a few months ago. The doctor had become the de facto physician to the Duke’s Men, so Victor wasn’t surprised that they’d wanted him along. He hadn’t said what his emergency was; they might have thought he was injured.
He was glad to see the man. He and Isa would need all the help they could get.
It took far too long to tell them everything that had happened, right up to the kidnapping. They asked a number of questions, and when they fell quiet at the end of his tale, it worried him.
Then Dom rose from his chair. “You do know how insane this all sounds.”
“Probably as insane as my turning out to be the long-lost cousin of a duke,” Victor said dryly. “Or you, a viscount’s son, being forced to become the owner of an investigative agency.” When Dom grimaced at that, Victor glanced at Tristan. “Or you ending up as an agent for the French police after stealing your half brother’s horse.” Victor crossed his arms over his chest. “Life is full of insanity. And just because it sounds insane doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”
Tristan stared at him. “We’re not questioning whether it happened, but whether it happened the way your wife says it did. She could have conspired with her family to steal those diamonds years ago and set you up to be blamed for it. And she could very well be colluding with her family now to do it again.”
“You wouldn’t think that if you’d seen her throat,” Victor ground out.
He’d hardly been able to look at her once the bruises had begun showing, so dark against the pale skin of her neck. Just the sight of them had made his heart stop and his belly roil. And when he thought of the terror she must be feeling—the terror he was feeling—
Damn it all to hell. Amalie was out there somewhere, confused and afraid, and that bastard Gerhart meant to profit from it. When Victor caught up to him, he would kill him with his bare hands.
“If I had time,” he went on, “I could lay out for you every instance that proves her innocence—the interviews I conducted, the claims of her servants, the things Lochlaw and his mother observed. But that will have to wait.” He steadied his gaze on them, resolute. “My daughter is in that bastard’s clutches and I mean to find her, with or without your help.”
“You have our help, sir,” Dr. Worth put in. “You know that you do. But the girl might not even be yours.”
Victor bristled at that. They were as bad as his inquisitors, thinking him some fool. “She was born almost exactly nine months to the day after we married. I asked Gordon where she was christened, then checked the birth records.”
He’d had to talk to the man while he was hunting down Gerhart, in case Gordon had encountered the pair without knowing who they were. And Victor hadn’t been able to resist asking about Amalie’s birth. Then he’d endured Gordon’s lecture over it, a lecture he’d known he richly deserved. It had been his last little stab of distrust of her.
Hadn’t it?
Of course it had. “Don’t you think I probed every part of her story until I was sure of the truth of it? I am no longer a young idiot to be taken in by wild tales.” He choked down his temper. “I trust her. So you are going to have to trust me that I am right about her. If you can’t do that, tell me now. Because I need you on my side if we are to rout Gerhart.”
A knock sounded at the drawing room door, and he let out a curse. What now? The door opened and Isa sailed in with Lochlaw in tow.
Victor scowled. “I told you I’d send for you.”
“Forgive me,” she said tightly, “but I find myself unable to wait on your leisure when our daughter is in danger.”
He ought to be glad she managed to stay away this long. “What’s he doing here?” Victor demanded, his gaze flicking to the baron.
Lochlaw flushed but stood his ground. “Let me help,” he said earnestly. “Amalie is a sweet girl. The diamonds are nothing to me next to that.”
“Damn it, Isa,” Victor cried, “you told him?”
“Yes, I told him! I told him everything.”
“Even about us and Amsterdam?” Victor said, incredulous.
She nodded. “I figured he should know what he’s getting into.”
Lochlaw stepped forward. “Look here, Cale, I don’t care about what happened in the past. I know that your wife is a good person.”
“Yes, but you are not the only person in this household.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Isa said. “I don’t care if you never recover the necklace and Lady Lochlaw tries to send me to prison. I don’t care if they hang me. I have to see Amalie safe from them once and for all! I have to!”
Tristan exchanged a shuttered glance with his companions as he rose. “And my friends and I mean to make sure that you do, Mrs. Cale.”
Stifling an oath, Victor made introductions all around.
As soon as he was done, Isa told the men, “Please talk some sense into my husband. He thinks he can find them on his own, but Gerhart is sure to whisk her away if he has any inkling of your involvement.” She leveled a hurt glance on Victor. “I don’t even care if you never trust me or believe me again. I can’t risk our daughter!”
And in that moment, when he saw the fear and worry in her face and realized that he’d helped to put them there, he knew: She was wrong about him. His inquisitors were wrong. Everyone was wrong.
The problem ran far deeper than any supposed remnant of distrust of her. And he had to make her see that if they were to save Amalie.