Regency Society Collection Part 2. Ann Lethbridge

      If she trusted him enough to believe him about the necklace, he had to do the honour of telling her some of the truth. ‘It was Lullington’s cousin whose virtue I stole.’ Not that she’d had any, but that was the way it appeared.

      She pursed her lips. ‘It isn’t a very honourable way to punish you.’

      He cracked a laugh, couldn’t help it. ‘He’s a clever man. This is the one way he can do it, without sullying the lady’s name.’

      Her beautiful eyes stared at him. He tried to maintain dispassion, tried not to let the trustful gaze suck the truth about his banishment from his throat even as it ate through every defence he’d built over the years. He didn’t want her pity.

      He caught her around the shoulders and pressed a brief kiss to her lips. ‘You must go now. Forget we ever met.’

      A noise sounded out in the passage. They both swung around to face the intruder. Hell. Now he’d never be able to speak to Maggie. He pushed Frederica behind the opening door and picked up the shovel.

      ‘Robert?’

      He let his weapon fall. ‘Maggie?’

      Her buxom figure glided through the door. She paused when she saw Frederica frozen in the light of the candle.

      ‘La, Robert,’ she drawled, ‘I see you haven’t changed. But isn’t she a little young even for you, darling? On the other hand, you always did have an eye for something special and this one is quite unique. I’m madly jealous.’

      Frederica backed up a step, her gaze flickering back and forth between them, her eyes large and hurt and grave.

      ‘How did you get down here?’ Robert asked.

      ‘There was no guard in the kitchen. I hoped to find you alone.’ Maggie looked shamefaced and, now he looked more closely, rather pale.

      ‘Why?’

      ‘Dash it, Robert, there’s no need to look so Friday-faced. I wanted to apologise. I had no wish to get you into trouble.’

      ‘You planted the necklace on me? Not Lullington?’ He felt as if those he cared about most were bludgeoning him from all sides. He clenched his fists. ‘God damn it, Maggie. Why?’

      Maggie flinched. And so did Frederica. She must have heard the shock in his voice, the note of betrayal. Naturally, she wouldn’t understand that he and Maggie had been friends as well as lovers. In some perverse way, Maggie’s betrayal hurt worse than Father’s. At least that hadn’t surprised him.

      ‘I had no idea it was you,’ Maggie cried. ‘Oh, I saw through your highwayman disguise, but I thought you were the saucy gamekeeper. How could I know you were my Robert out for a lark?’

      Frederica gasped. Robert inwardly winced. ‘I’m not your Robert.’

      ‘You know what I mean. I thought you were a cheeky servant. I knew you’d leave before the unmasking.’ She tossed her head. ‘Dash it all. This is so confusing. What are you doing playing at gamekeeper anyway?’ She cast a sidelong glance at Frederica. ‘Or shall I make my own guesses?’

      ‘That’s enough,’ Robert snapped. ‘Even if you didn’t know it was me, why incriminate an innocent man? A theft like that means the gallows.’

      ‘The necklace wasn’t supposed to be found. You were to walk outside where my groom was waiting to relieve you of the necklace. He was to engage you in a bit of a scuffle, or get you drunk or something. Then it was to disappear. Lull ruined everything.’ She sounded distraught.

      ‘So Lullington is not in on your little scheme.’

      ‘It was his idea.’ She caught her bottom lip in her teeth. ‘The emeralds are paste. They have to disappear before my husband finds out. I don’t know why he changed the plan.’

      ‘Lullington always plays his own game. You know that.’

      Her chin thrust forwards. ‘He’s been good to me. Kind and generous since you left.’

      Robert snorted. ‘He’s a rake.’

      She stamped a foot. ‘So were you.’

      Robert recoiled from her vehemence. He held up a placating hand. ‘How came you to be in such a fix that you needed to steal your own necklace?’

      Frederica moved forwards, as though she too wanted to know the answer. Her face was white and pinched. He wanted to hold her. To offer comfort. He didn’t dare. Maggie had already guessed about them. He didn’t want to give her proof.

      ‘You know what Caldwell is like about my gambling. I had a run of bad luck. Lull would have given me the money, but he was short of funds.’

      ‘So you pawned it.’

      She nodded.

      He glanced at Frederica, standing silently in the shadows, her thoughts hidden by an unusually blank expression. ‘Were you planning to claim the insurance?’

      Maggie gave a bitter laugh. ‘My husband is the only one who could benefit from that. No. Just before I left to come here, he told me he’d noticed the clasp needed repairs and promised to send it to the goldsmith on my return. I was terrified. If he discovers I pawned it to pay off gambling debts, he will lock me away in the country. He threatened it last time. This time he will do it.’

      Robert stifled a curse. ‘Well, you are in a pretty fix now. The emeralds are recovered. And very publically, too.’

      ‘I know.’ She twisted her hands together.

      Frederica moved into the circle of light. ‘You must t-tell the magistrate the t-truth,’ she said. ‘You cannot allow R-Robert to take the blame.’

      Her fierceness took him by surprise. The sense of being swept up out of harm’s way by the arms of an angel was strangely uplifting to say the least. He wanted to hug her. Instead, he raised a brow at Maggie.

      She wrung her hands. ‘I’ll tell the magistrate I don’t wish to prosecute,’ Maggie said. ‘I can’t tell him I planted them on you, but I can convince Lull to let the matter drop.’

      ‘I don’t need Lullington to do me any favours, but dropping the charges would work.’

      ‘Is this a private party?’ said a drawling voice from the doorway. ‘Or can anyone join?’ A lithe, tall man leaned against the doorpost, a bottle in one hand and two glasses dangling from the other.

      John. Robert groaned. How many more people from his past would join him in his cell? All it wanted was Lullington to complete the nightmare. ‘Radthorn, what are you doing here?’

      ‘I dropped the ladies at home, then returned to see if you needed help.’

      ‘By giving me enough brandy so I won’t notice when they hang me?’ He gave a hard laugh. ‘I’m surprised you are prepared to acknowledge you know me.’

      John stiffened. ‘Er, Robert…about that afternoon. You took me by surprise. I didn’t expect to see you out in the street. We were meeting at White’s.’

      ‘What are you talking about?’ Frederica asked, her eyes suspicious.

      ‘The day he got sent to Coventry,’ Maggie said. ‘Lull told me all about it.’

      ‘He would,’ Robert said.

      ‘It was all over Town,’ Maggie said. ‘The son of one of the most powerful dukes in the land thrown out of the fold?’ She shrugged. ‘It was on everyone’s lips.’

      ‘A duke’s son?’ Bemusement dawned on Frederica’s face and then horror.

      ‘A second son, Frederica,’ he said, reaching out a hand. ‘I’m banished. My father disowned me.’

      She spun away, avoiding his touch. Then she turned back, her soft mouth twisted in pain. It