The Broken Duke Page 15

  She laughed then, a musical sound that made his heart lighter. “Gracious, yes. They were only ever for reading, and a slight adjustment at that. I see better without them, truth be told.”

  He smiled, but then he sobered. There was one question that had plagued him all night, all morning. “Are you sorry about last night?”

  Her expression softened as she stared at him, her eyes wide and her lips slightly parted. “Graham, surely you must know the answer to that question.”

  He shook his head.

  She took both his hands in hers and leaned closer. “I have never regretted any moment with you, Graham. Not a one. If I have not made it clear, then I must tell you that you…you brought me back to life. I could never regret that.”

  He caught his breath, for what she’d said was exactly how he, himself, felt but had never allowed himself to examine too closely. Since the end of his engagement to Meg—hell, even before that—he’d felt trapped. Dead inside. Empty.

  But the moment he met Lydia, the moment he danced with Adelaide, all that had begun to change. The ice around him that held him in place, kept him cold and broken, had melted with every look and laugh and heated touch.

  And calling that being brought back to life was the most apt description he could imagine. He stroked his thumb over her lower lip, ready to tell her he felt the same, but before he could, the door behind them slammed open.

  Both jumped to their feet, pivoting to face the intruder. Adelaide swung slightly and Graham caught her elbow to steady her as her aunt Opal stomped into the room with Emma hot on her heels.

  “You have no right to barge into my home!” Emma snapped out, sending an apologetic look to Graham and Adelaide.

  Lady Opal glared at Emma. “You speak of your rights when you all but stole my charge out from under me? When you have left her alone with this…this…animal, who likely smells the whore on her?”

  Adelaide flinched and Graham took a long step toward her. “Have a care with how you speak to the Duchess of Abernathe and to Adelaide, Lady Opal.”

  The older woman’s eyes narrowed and her lined face grew lively with what he could only describe as…rage. He knew that rage. He’d seen it many times on his father’s own face. He’d felt it that night when he attacked Sir Archibald. On the morning when he realized Simon had betrayed him.

  It was out of control. It was violent. And it was turned on Adelaide. In that moment he wanted to tug her behind him, to cocoon her into his arms and protect her from all the vile words this nasty woman had spewed over the years.

  But Adelaide didn’t ask him to do so. She lifted her chin and stepped around the settee to her aunt with all the bravery of a soldier about to enter into battle. “What are you doing here, Aunt Opal?” she asked, the slight tremor to her voice the only indication of her fear.

  “Look at you, with your dress cut down to your breasts and your hair loose like a lightskirt,” Lady Opal growled. “This is why I don’t let you spend the night away.”

  Adelaide drew in a long breath, ragged and tired, like this was something she’d faced before. Faced so many times. He supposed it was, based upon the secrets Adelaide had whispered to him the night before. His heart hurt for her.

  “Why are you here?” she repeated, gentling her tone even in the face of her guardian’s cruelty.

  “To bring you home,” Lady Opal said. “You need to come home, Adelaide.”

  Graham tilted his head at the almost desperate tinge to the woman’s tone. She was cruel, but there was something else there. Fear. Anxiety. The sound of it mixed together made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. There was something irrational to this woman’s behavior.

  Something that frightened him.

  “Adelaide,” he said softly. “You don’t have to do anything she says.”

  Adelaide shot him a look over her shoulder. A fearful look, one filled with uncertainty.

  “Aunt Opal,” she began, but before she could say anything more James strode through the parlor door with a man Graham didn’t recognize at his heels.

  “As I said to you three times, inspector,” James was saying. “The Duke of Northfield is here and I’m certain he could tell you more about his whereabouts if he wishes to share them.”

  Graham wrinkled his brow and James did the same as he looked from Adelaide to Opal to Emma and finally to him.

  “It seems I’ve interrupted something in my own house,” James said. “Anyone care to explain what’s going on here?”

  “Lady Opal has come to collect Adelaide,” Graham said, lifting his eyebrows in what he hoped was a message James would receive.

  If his friend’s dark frown was any indication, he did. He turned on Opal. “Adelaide will stay with us, my lady. My wife finds she enjoys her company. It is not up for debate.”

  Emma smiled as she took her husband’s arm and the two faced off with Lady Opal, who was now turning purple. “You have no right!” Opal spat.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt,” the stranger who had accompanied James said with a confused expression. “But I am here on official business.”

  “And just who are you?” Graham asked, happy to ignore Opal for the moment, even as he kept a careful eye on Adelaide. She looked terrified as her gaze darted from her guardian to her friends to him and then to this stranger in their midst. “I feel I have a right to know if you were asking Abernathe after me.”

  “Captain Richard Black,” the man said with a glance up and down Graham’s form. “Of the Home Office.”

  Graham shot James another look, this one full of questions. “The Home Office? And you were looking for me?”

  “For answers,” the man corrected with an unpleasant sneer. “I’m investigating an incident that occurred at the Hampshire Theatre two nights ago.”

  Graham heard Adelaide’s sharp intake of breath, but very carefully did not look in her direction. He kept his gaze firmly on the man before him. He didn’t like this Captain Black. He had a smarmy feel to him that told Graham he more than enjoyed his job, especially when he got to take a man down a peg or two.

  “An incident?” Graham said mildly.

  “With Sir Archibald,” Captain Black said with another smile.

  Graham gripped his bruised hands at his sides. “I assume you mean the altercation I had when the man attempted to assault an actress?”

  “Exactly,” Captain Black drawled.

  “You see!” Lady Opal cried, launching herself toward Adelaide, hands outstretched. Adelaide staggered back, dodging her aunt’s grip as Graham lunged to put himself between them once more. Opal hardly seemed to notice. “You align yourself with the kind of man who would accost a gentleman, Adelaide? You align yourself with a beast?”

  Adelaide turned her face, her cheeks red. “Please, Aunt Opal, you must stop.”

  “I did hit the man,” Graham said. “I don’t deny it, though I’m shocked that he would report such a thing to the authorities.”

  Actually, he wasn’t shocked. He could well picture Sir Archibald would take great pleasure in turning to the Home Office to make Graham look bad after he’d been bested.

  “He didn’t exactly report the attack,” Captain Black said, folding his arms. “Where did you go after the incident?”

  Once again, Graham saw Adelaide stiffen from the corner of his eye. Her hands were shaking and she shoved them behind her back.

  “I went home,” he said softly.

  “Home. Were there witnesses to that?” Captain Black pressed.

  Graham arched a brow. “My servants will attest to my whereabouts if my word as a gentleman pulls no weight with you, sir.”

  “The word of your servants,” Captain Black said with a shake of his head. “That rarely holds up in court given the influence you hold over them.”

  “I beg your pardon,” James interjected, coming forward. “Are you implying that the Duke of Northfield is lying to you? He’s admitted he and Sir Archibald had an altercation—why would he lie about where he
went afterward?”

  “Because Sir Archibald is dead,” Captain Black said, keeping his gaze firmly on Graham. “Shot through the head and found washed up on the riverbank just a short way from the theatre where the duke attacked him. And you, Northfield, are the prime suspect in his murder.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Adelaide’s ears rang as she watched the room erupt around her in what felt like half-time. Graham was yelling. Captain Black was too, pointing at him. James and Emma moved forward in unison, inserting themselves into the fray. And all the while she could hear her aunt’s voice faintly screeching, “He’s a murderer, Adelaide! You cannot put yourself in league with a murderer!”

  She flinched as those words pierced her very soul. She knew perfectly well that Graham had not killed Sir Archibald. The night of their fight he’d been with her, last night as well. And even if he hadn’t, she knew his heart. He was not the kind of man who would kill, even if he had lost control in the face of Sir Archibald’s abuse of her.

  But the captain was smug and she could see that he was taking great pleasure in accusing Graham. If he chose to pursue this matter, as he was threatening, there was the chance that Graham, this beautiful, wonderful man—this man she loved, for she did love him—would be transported. Or hanged.

  “Just tell me that you have an alibi better than servants you pay and I will retract my statement,” Captain Black said.

  Adelaide swallowed hard and stepped forward. Her hands were shaking as she said, “Stop.”

  No one heard her. The room continued in its cacophony. She put her hands on her hips and shouted it this time. “Everyone please stop!”

  The voices slowed and suddenly five pairs of eyes turned on her. She only looked back at Graham. She looked into those blue depths and her heart swelled with the feelings she had only just admitted to herself and was not brave enough to say to him.

  But she would protect him. By God, she would do that.

  “The Duke of Northfield could not have killed Sir Archibald,” she said softly.

  Captain Black tilted his head. “And who are you, miss?”

  She cleared her throat. “My name is Lady Adelaide, I am the daughter of the late Earl of Longford.”

  The captain’s face twitched, as if he were just as disgusted by her as he was by the others in the room with titles. “And how do you know that Northfield couldn’t have killed Sir Archibald?”

  She looked at Graham again and his eyes went wide, like he could read her intentions, her heart. She supposed he could, since he owned it. He had since the moment he intruded upon her dressing room weeks ago.

  She just hadn’t been brave enough to face it until this moment where he was being threatened.

  “Adelaide,” he whispered, his voice breaking. “You mustn’t.”

  She ignored him. “The Duke of Northfield could not have killed Sir Archibald because he has spent the last two nights with…with me.”

  Her cheeks flamed as Emma gasped, as James flushed, as Graham dipped his head. As the captain stared at her. She wanted to turn away from their judgments and censure, but she didn’t. She couldn’t. She had to continue to make sure Graham was fully protected.

  “Two nights ago I snuck from my aunt’s house to be with him.” She swallowed in the hopes her voice would stop shaking. “And last night he came to me here after everyone went to bed. I assure you, Captain Black, that if I am asked to testify to that fact, I will. And I expect I will be believed, given what a mark it will put on my reputation to admit what I’ve done.”

  The room was stone silent for one breath, two. And then her aunt let out a scream of rage and agony, and lunged at Adelaide with both her hands raised in attack.

  Graham jumped in front of Adelaide as James grabbed for Lady Opal, holding her back by both arms as she spat and screeched unintelligible words of anger.

  “Get her out!” Graham bellowed. “Do something worthwhile, man, and help him!”

  He said the second to Captain Black, who shook off what appeared to be shock and then stepped forward to help James with the struggling Lady Opal. They dragged her to the foyer and Emma rushed forward to thrust the door shut behind them. She leaned against it, pale as she stared at Graham and Adelaide.

  “Are you all right?” she asked.

  Adelaide rushed around Graham and wrapped her arms around Emma. “I’m so sorry,” he heard her sobbing into Emma’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry for the trouble I’ve brought to your house.”

  Emma shot Graham a pointed look and guided Adelaide to the settee where they sat together. “Dearest, you are no trouble, this is not your fault. But that woman is dangerous. After this, after what I saw yesterday—”

  Graham came to the other side of Adelaide on the settee. “What happened yesterday?”

  Adelaide shook her head. “Nothing. My aunt is…she is not well. It’s clear.”

  Emma let out a long breath, and all three turned as James reentered the room. His face was drawn and pale, and he moved to Emma to embrace her.

  “Are you harmed?” he asked, his gaze only for her as he settled a hand on her swollen belly.

  “No,” Emma reassured him before she leaned up for a brief kiss. “We are fine. What in the world did you do with Opal? And with that horrid man?”

  He sighed as he sank into a chair, pulling Emma to sit on his knee as he smoothed his fingers over her belly over and over. “Opal calmed the moment we were out the door. She even apologized for her outburst, but dear God, Adelaide, why didn’t you tell us how terrible things had become?”

  Adelaide let out a shaking sigh that tore through Graham’s heart. He took her hand silently and held it with both of his. She glanced at him once, then said, “She normally isn’t so wild. But my…virtue, or lack thereof, is an issue for her.”

  Emma pursed her lips. “Is it true then? That you and Graham have engaged in an affair?”

  Graham inched closer to Adelaide, once again driven to protect her in some way. From harm, from censure, from anything that could hurt her.

  “Yes,” he admitted softly.

  Adelaide turned toward him, and he saw the worry in her eyes. “Graham, if Sir Archibald is dead, murdered near the theatre, we must—”

  He held up a hand. “We must do nothing, I’ll go and investigate.”

  She lifted both eyebrows. “That will not work and you know it. I’m coming with you. I’m not asking.”

  Graham almost smiled despite the terrible circumstances they had all just endured. By God, but this woman tested him. And he found he liked that. He needed it. He ached for it.

  More than that, he needed the protection she had offered. Adelaide had thrown herself in front of him to keep him from being arrested for a murder he hadn’t committed. She had done it with what was an obvious knowledge of what her confession could do to her future and her reputation.

  And she hadn’t cared.

  No one had protected him like that since the mother who had died for him. His heart swelled at that thought. At the woman before him.

  “Do either of you wish to explain what you’re talking about?” Emma asked softly.

  Adelaide jumped as if she had forgotten about the presence of James and Emma. She faced them with a blush. “I know I keep saying this, but I will explain everything to you, Emma. I promise you I will. Right now, though, I must go with Graham. We have to find out the truth about what happened to Sir Archibald.”

  Emma opened her mouth as if to argue, but James settled a gentle hand on her knee. “We have very little space to talk about propriety, don’t we? Graham will keep Adelaide safe wherever they must go.”

  Emma blushed as she glanced down at her husband. Then she threw up her hands. “Since I have no idea what is actually going on right now, I feel I have no space to argue. If you must go with Graham, I certainly won’t stop you. But I do hope you’ll let me in on all these secrets.”

  Adelaide and Graham rose, as did James and Emma. Adelaide moved to the duchess for a
brief embrace. “I will,” she promised softly. “And your husband should take you up to bed in the meantime. There has been far too much excitement for a pregnant lady. I want you and that child to be safe.”

  “Oh, posh,” Emma began. “I don’t need to—”

  “She’s going to bed the moment you two leave,” James interrupted with a playfully stern look for Emma. Adelaide smiled as she and Emma led the way to the foyer. But as soon as they were out of earshot, James leaned into Graham. “Do you need help? I can come. I can wrangle up three or four of the others to assist, as well.”

  Graham smiled at James, the best friend he had ever had. The one he’d almost lost. He couldn’t help but think of the one he had. And wish that Simon were here, too, to offer support. Kindness.

  “We’ll be fine,” he replied. “I don’t think we’ll be in danger where we’re going.”

  “And what of Adelaide?” James asked softly. “She made a great sacrifice for you today.”

  Graham felt the breath go out of him with that statement. The truth of it curled through him once more. “I know,” he said as they entered the foyer. “Don’t think I don’t know. And as soon as this other matter is attended to, I promise you I’m going to deal with that.”

  His carriage was brought around, and he sighed as he offered Adelaide an arm and guided her to the rig. He would have to attend to the things she had said, the way she had protected him to her own detriment. But for now all he could think of was to keep her safe.

  He gave a direction to his driver and then climbed in across from her. He shot James a look out the window, and then they were moving and he returned all his focus to Adelaide.

  “She has hit you before,” he said, not asking.

  Adelaide stiffened. “Yes,” she admitted softly.

  He turned his face as anger flooded him at that thought. “How often?”

  She shifted in her seat, her gaze refusing to turn on him. Her cheeks flaming, as if she were embarrassed when she had nothing to be ashamed about. Her guardian was another story.

  “She slapped me once, when she found out I’d given myself to a man,” she said. “As I said in the house, my virtue has always been an obsession to her. And…” She hesitated, and finally her blue gaze moved toward him. “She put her hands around my throat yesterday morning because she believes I’ve been lying to her, which of course I have.”