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Mary didn’t exactly know what to do with the inspector, but she did look forward to finally hearing the story of why he didn’t trust women and marriage in particular.
The dance they’d shared just now had been exquisite. So much so that she hadn’t wanted it to end, for it was very much like intercourse but only in a standing position and in front of a group of people. Truth be known, she would rather have the man naked, but that would hopefully become an option soon.
And oh, he was so gorgeous tonight in his modified evening dress! How had he not been snapped up by a discerning lady of the ton? Easily she could imagine him as a husband and a father to little ones. Was that what he wanted for his life? Cold disappointment coiled in her gut, for that was something she wasn’t able to give him or any man. For that matter, what was his living situation in London? Did he rent a townhouse or own one outright? Did he lease a set of rooms with his son?
There were so many questions that required answers, and they would come. This was the first time she’d been interested in a man for any purpose in what seemed a very long time indeed, and the whole world felt new again.
His muscles beneath her fingertips flexed as the inspector led her through the crowds of people standing and talking at the sidelines of the room. The solid strength of him was quite addictive and she couldn’t wait to feel his form pressed against hers, but he was also cordial and polite to people they passed, either nodding or verbally greeting them as they went.
When she assumed they would exit the ballroom, Bright stopped, instead, in front of a gentleman she hadn’t met before but seemed familiar as one of the house party guests. Tall and lean and as elegant as any of the men in the ballroom, his blond hair glimmered with red highlights in the candlelight, but there was a certain furtiveness about him that Mary didn’t trust.
“Good evening, friend,” he said by way of greeting. “If you don’t know, I’m Inspector Bright and I’ve been tasked with looking into the death of Mr. Alderson. Mind if I ask you some brief questions?”
The man startled but slowly turned about to fully face them. “Right. I’ve seen you about.” He nodded in welcome as if it were he hosting the ball instead of the viscount. “I’m Mr. Hearthford, a contemporary of Lord Stanwick’s. Live across the county.” Then he moved his dark gaze over Mary’s person, and that whole assessment left chills behind. “Who is this vision?”
She gave into the shivers that played her spine, for she immediately didn’t like or trust this man. “Mrs. Tomlinson. I am the inspector’s assistant,” she answered in a cold voice.
“Ah, getting it coming and going, eh Inspector?” The man nudged Bright’s ribs with an elbow and a wink. “That’s the way to do it.”
Frowning, the inspector moved a bit away, and made certain to put his body between the man and her. A subtle movement but telling. “I’ll ask that you not malign the widow’s reputation by salacious talk.” Then he rested a narrowed gaze on the man. “Did you and Mr. Alderson have any altercations while you’ve been in residence here?”
The man snorted. “Alderson was always poking his nose into places he shouldn’t have been.” He shook his head. “Couldn’t leave well enough alone. It’s no wonder someone helped him to pop off this mortal coil.”
Bright’s frown intensified. “Why would you say that?”
“I’ll admit I have a penchant for... let’s say perusing things that don’t belong to me.”
Mary huffed. She peered around the inspector’s person. “So you are a petty thief, then.”
“I’d rather say I’m an opportunistic hunter.” He shot her a grin that bordered on the slimy. “Is it my fault folks leave their valuables out where someone can easily get at them?” With a shrug he once more regarded Bright. “I might have been going through things in one of the guest’s rooms when that dratted Alderson came upon me, completely incensed.”
“As he should have been.” The inspector crossed his arms at his chest. “What happened next? Did you two argue?”
“Of course we did. He was a judgmental prick, as if he didn’t do anything improper.” Mr. Hearthford shook his head. “After we exchanged words, he demanded that I return something I’d taken from the drawing room.”
“Which was what?”
“A lovely, bejeweled dagger with a matching sheath. Honestly, Lord Stanwick should learn how to better secure those display cabinets, for as it is, they cause too much temptation.”
To Mary, Bright said, “Well, that explains how the blade and sheath came to be in Alderson’s possession.”
“But why wasn’t the knife in his room with the sheath?”
The dratted thief butted in at that moment. “You should poke about the servant’s hall, Inspector. Last time I was down there—”
“—which was when, Hearthford?” Bright interrupted.
He shrugged again. “Just before the maid screamed when she found the body? I don’t remember because I left the scene quick enough. Nothing there to hold my interest.”
Bright made a motion with his hand. “Continue.”
“Well, when I was sneaking down to the servant’s hall, I used the servant’s staircase. Easier access, you know. There were droplets of blood on those treads.”
“Fresh blood?”
“Rightly so.” He nodded.
“Did the splatter marks indicate they led up or down?”
A hint of confusion clouded the other man’s face. “I couldn’t say. Not clever like you in that regard.”
“Did the drops continue into the servant’s hall itself?”
“Not that I could tell, but then, it was dark and there was panic in the area as the news of Alderson’s demise filtered down, but after I poked around a bit and went back up, most of the drops had been wiped away.”
Mary frowned. “Cleaned up or brushed away by the passage of skirting?”
“I couldn’t say.”
Then Bright cleared his throat. “See here, Hearthford, I must ask you to return everything that you have stolen during this house party else I’ll hand you over to the constable when he arrives.”
“I suppose being locked up would put a damper on other things I wish to do, so I agree.”
“Good.” The inspector nodded. “Deposit everything in the study by midnight tonight. I’ll have the housekeeper disburse the pieces.”
The man narrowed his eyes on them. “Is that all?”
“You may go.”
With a glance across the ballroom, Mary touched Bright’s arm. “Lord Stanwick is glaring at you. Might I suggest we visit the refreshments table before we step into the line of fire?” The last thing she wanted to do was tangle with the viscount’s ire again this day.
“Of course,” he said while Hearthford sauntered off through the crush. Then he offered her his arm, bent at the elbow. When she slipped her hand through the crook, he once more threaded their way amidst the crowds. “At some point tonight, we need to visit the servant’s hall.”
“Agreed. I somehow feel we’re about to solve this case.” Excitement tingled at the base of her spine. “However, I still cannot fathom who killed the butler.”
“I’ll admit, this has been a puzzle the whole time, but I’m beginning to have a clearer picture of what might have occurred.”
Surprise went through her chest. “Oh? Will you share your theory?”
“Not just yet. I’ll let it percolate a bit more before anything is revealed.” When he gave her a grin, flutters of need danced in her lower belly. “Punch or champagne, Mrs. Tomlinson?” he asked in a formal way as they approached the refreshment table set up outside the ballroom doors.
“Champagne would be quite lovely. Thank you, Inspector.” She nodded her thanks as he handed her a crystal flute of the bubbly wine. “How are you enjoying the ball?”
Bright guided her along the corridor and away from the refreshment table where there were fewer people. “I’m not much of a society event man, but I’ll admit, I only made an appearance because I knew you who attend, and I desperately wished for a dance with you.”
Languid heat curled into her blood. “I often wonder if it’s a character failing on my part to enjoy quiet evenings with a good book and a cheerful fire... especially if there is a handsome, attentive man close by.”
Desire glittered in his gorgeous hazel eyes that were more green than brown in the moment. “Instead of a character flaw, I’d rather think it’s a wish that will more than likely be fulfilled soon.” He watched her over the rim of his own champagne flute. “Meet me in the library in fifteen minutes. I shall return to the ballroom and do the pretty for a bit then come out to find you. Is that acceptable?”
“It is. And let us hope you don’t incur your brother’s wrath in the interim.” She quickly finished the champagne and giggled when the bubbles tickled her nose. As he stared at her in an odd way, she shrugged. “Indulging in this is a luxury I’m not afforded often.”
“Then I will be certain to procure you another glass and bring it with me.” With a wink, he took her empty flute. “I should return to the ballroom,” he said in an overly exaggerated tone, no doubt for the benefit of the ladies behind the table and anyone else who lingered in the corridor.
“Enjoy your evening, Inspector.” She couldn’t help but play along, for being in his company was the most excitement she’d had in her life for a long time indeed.
Once she’d parted from him, Mary wandered the corridor, pretending she was examining the art that hung at intervals on the walls. The farther away she moved, the less drone of conversation reached her ears, and by the time she’d gained the library, there was no one lingering in that portion of the manor. It was easy to slip into the room, and after letting her eyes adjust to the darkness, she lit a few candles throughout the space. Not enough to illuminate the entire room but just enough to provide a welcoming, intimate glow. By the time she’d perused a few of the shelves, the door quietly opened and then Bright was there, his eyes lighting when he saw her.
“There was a part of me that didn’t think you would actually be here,” he admitted in a soft voice as he closed the door and turned the key in the lock. The click of the mechanism echoed in the silence that followed.
“Why?” That hint of vulnerability tugged at her heart. “Haven’t I been a willing participant in your plans this week?”
He snorted and rested a full champagne flute on a small, ivory-inlaid table near his location. “You have, unless you’re dressing me down for something stupid I’ve done.” While she locked the door that adjoined the room with the one next door, he prowled toward her. “I appreciate that you challenge me instead of spitting my opinions and thoughts back at me.”
“Well, we are two different people, and I’m not going to parrot your opinions merely to feed your ego.” There was a certain thrill involved in knowing a man simply wanted her, wished to spend time in her company. When he closed the distance between them, she rested her palms on his chest with a tiny sigh as his arms came loosely around her. “And there will be times when I am right, and you are not.”
“Of that I have no doubts.” He dipped his head and touched his lips to hers.
While it was a gentle, romantic kiss, Mary wanted more from him. She slipped a hand up his chest to curl about his nape, and as she lifted up on her toes to better fit her lips to his, the dear man took the hint. All too soon, he deepened the kiss, ran the tip of his tongue along that seam, encouraging her to open for him. Immediately, she did so, and that satiny glide of her tongue against his had her sailing on a sea of desire and satisfaction.
Several minutes passed while they simply drank from each other and essentially shared breath. There was something intimate and pleasing about doing nothing else with a man except kissing him, learning the secrets of his mouth, discovering how he enjoyed being kissed, and what helped to arouse him. In that, he was so much different than her husband had been. Where that man hadn’t wished to waste time in kissing, Gabriel enjoyed that connection as much as she did, and that only endeared him to her even more.
No, she didn’t want marriage again, but she didn’t wish for him to walk out of her life once the case was solved and the house party ended. So where did that leave them? They would need to discuss it soon.
Eventually, he pulled back and set her at arm’s length with a sigh. “We should probably leave things here else neither of us will exit this room until we’ve been rendered naked and sated.”
Her laugh was on the shaky side as her knees wobbled. “As if that is such a terrible thing?”
“While ordinarily it is not, I came here in order to talk with you, tell you of my failed marriage, and I don’t wish to be distracted just now.” Taking her hand, the inspector led her to a low sofa of what looked like buttery leather. Once she seated herself, he settled next to her and slipped an arm about her shoulders, pulling her into his side. “Be warned, this story doesn’t reflect well on me, I’m afraid.”
“As if my own story reflected well on me?” She tipped her head up to find his gaze. “We all have pasts, Inspector. Sometimes those pasts aren’t the happy kind.”
“You are always so practical.” With a sigh, he buried his nose into her hair, maintained that close posture for long moments before pulling away and staring at the cold hearth. “So damned different from Sarah, my wife.”
The way he said it made it sound as if she were still in his life. “Did you, ah, divorce her or did she die?” Honestly, Mary didn’t think he was the type of man to go through the huge expense or the hassle of even trying to secure a divorce.
“Ha.” A sigh shuddered from him. “A divorce would have been much less scandalous, but at the time, I was shocked, didn’t know what to do, was heavily involved in gaining a foothold at Whitehall. Additionally, I had a ten-year-old boy who was left behind.”
“Oh, dear. What happened? Or rather, perhaps you should start at the beginning.” She wanted to know but alternately didn’t, yet if it made him emotional so he could finally cleanse himself of the memories, she would encourage him to move forward.
“Right.” His fingers brushed her shoulder, and that tiny touch had the power to drive her mad. “I married Sarah as soon as I left the military as a young man of twenty-two. We’d met at a society event and our parents were contemporaries. It seemed a good match, and I was ready to settle down, start my nursery even while I had just started with Bow Street.”
“I would imagine back then, being a Runner—”
“—Principal Officer,” he gently interrupted.
“All right, a Principal Officer was a rather respectful position.”
“It was. Not like people think of now with derision and very little respect.” A sigh escaped him. He moved into a more comfortable position on the sofa. “Regardless, Sarah and I were happy enough together. She wasn’t a deep person with no aspirations, and not long after we married, she became restless and unhappy.”
Mary remained silent. She didn’t want to interrupt the flow of his words.
“The saving grace was she became pregnant shortly after our nuptial ceremony, and for a while we were close. Anticipating a baby brought us together. We rented a modest townhouse on the edge of Mayfair near Marylebone. It was the best I could afford at the time, but it was large enough for our growing family.”
His voice broke on the last word, so she took his free hand in hers and held it in support.
“After Henry was born, I received my first promotion, so much of my time with given over to Bow Street. At the time, we were quite busy with cases, for crime grew as London grew. The baby thrived; he was quite happy in the daytime, but come night, he was colicky. After a while, that upset grated against nerves and patience.”
“Surely you had a wet nurse and nursery maid to help in the shifts of staying up with the baby that might have given Sarah a reprieve.”
“Of course we did. Eventually, he grew out of that and truly thrived as a curious, happy little boy.” Gabriel glanced down at her. Sadness and regret pooled in his eyes. “He has never stopped being curious, but some of his natural happiness had faded.” When he swallowed, it was audible. “As he aged, we hired a nanny, which freed up some of Sarah’s time, which gave her the opportunities to visit with her friends and family.”
“Except that wasn’t enough.” Already, her heart hurt for him. The story he’d already told hinted at the direction of where the tale would end.
“Sarah always reminded me of an empty vessel with a crack in the bottom. Anything that went inside that should have fulfilled her eventually ran out and she went looking for something new.” He clung to her hand, almost as if she was his lifeline. “When Henry went away to school at nine, I thought Sarah might move out of the ennui she’d fallen into as a new mother. Since I was busy with Bow Street, she was left largely to her own devices. Then she began going out in the evenings, attending social events and the opera. I was thrilled, thinking she was keeping herself busy and perhaps widening her friend network.”
“You needn’t continue if it brings you pain.” Turning more fully into him, she met his eyes. “I can guess at what happened next.”
A muscle ticced in his cheek. “I need to do this.” His jaw worked as he thought over his words. “Not long after Henry’s tenth birthday, Sarah came home one evening and announced to me that motherhood and being a wife to a Bow Street runner wasn’t what she’d wanted from her life. She informed me that she’d had her belongings packed while I’d been working a case that day. Without an apology or any sort of regret, my wife walked out on our marriage and her son, traded us both for one of the most notorious rogues of the ton. Told me that she needed much more excitement than I provided.”
“Oh, no!” Mary gasped. “I have no respect for women who do such things without at least trying to make their unions work. Especially when the man in the situation never beat her or treated her with anything other than respect.” And what she knew of Gabriel indicated he would have done whatever he could to turn things around.
“At no time did I lay a hand on her in anger or frustration. I was always offering possible solutions, even told her I would take her to Brighton for holiday so she could come back to herself. In that time, I came to see there are plenty of ways a man can die, but only warped love can kill and keep a man alive so he can feel it. That is what she did to me.”
“I’m so sorry. You should never have had to go through that.”
“I agree, but I was desperate to repair my union.” Slowly, he shook his head. “Nothing worked. I didn’t offer an objection when she left me, for I could see that nothing would change her mind, and quite frankly, I was exhausted trying to juggle my career, being a father, and dealing with her.”
“No one is blaming you.” She cupped his cheek, brushed strands of his wayward hair from his brow. “That would try anyone’s patience.”
“Yes.” His eyes took on a faraway look. “I made a promise to myself that if I ever saw Lord Swynford, there would be hell to pay.” A snort escaped him. “Not that such a thing would have helped. Sarah wouldn’t have come back to me regardless. God, that was a horrible time in my life. Embarrassing as hell. Difficult to work through Henry’s rage; the boy blamed me, of course. Said if I wasn’t so busy his mother would have stayed. It took him years to stop crying himself to sleep.” He rubbed an eye with his fingers. “Only recently have Henry and I been able to converse on her defection in a mature manner.”
“I’m glad for you on that. He is fortunate to have you for a father.”
“Sometimes I wonder.”
“Stop. You are a wonderful role model, and your son adores you, but I hope you realize you weren’t at fault for Sarah’s betrayal. Henry probably didn’t understand why his mother wouldn’t have stayed, didn’t love him enough.”
“I know. We are better off these days than we were before.” With moisture pooling in his eyes, Gabriel took her hand and kissed her fingertips. “My dreams died that day and have never been resurrected. I closed off my heart, fearing that trying again would yield the same results, especially when I accidentally ran into Sarah in Hyde Park years later. She didn’t waste time telling me that Swynford was everything I was not, better at everything, including intercourse.”
The poor man! Tears filled her own eyes. “What a horrid woman, to not only say that but to kick a man when he was already low.” She swallowed down a lump of emotion in her throat. “Let me reassure you in the event you wondered that I found no fault in how you coupled with me. You were everything a man should be and fully satisfied me.”
A hint of ruddy color rose above his collar. “I appreciate that, and will undoubtedly put that to the test at the first opportunity.” When moisture slipped to his cheeks, he dashed it away. “Years later, I was told she’d drowned while on holiday in Rome with her lover. I had to go through all the emotions of anger, sadness, betrayal, regret all over again, but at least there was closure there, and she wouldn’t pop up about Town and wound me again.”
“I’m sorry all the same. You didn’t deserve such treatment; neither did Henry.”
“At least she did it to me over someone else that might have taken her defection more harshly.” Pulling her close, he rested his chin atop her head. “My heart was beyond bruised and broken from that relationship. I honestly don’t know if I can move past that, but if you were wondering why I just can’t make myself contemplate marriage again, that is why.”
It had been a horrible story, and made her heart hurt for him. “I can’t blame you, for it was much the way I felt when coming out of my own miserable union.” She patted his chest and simply enjoyed being with him in whatever capacity he could manage. “There is nothing saying that you must marry again in order to find happiness in your life.”
“Thank you for understanding. Most women would balk at the honesty.”
Barely had she opened her mouth to reply, when he dipped his head and gently kissed her.
“That doesn’t mean I want our association to end merely because my heart is too vulnerable to be extended to a woman again.” Honesty reflected in his eyes where tears still lingered. “However, once this house party as well as the case has ended, I will have come up with a solution I hope will benefit us both.”
Flutters moved through her lower belly, for that was how she felt about him. “We needn’t marry in order to enjoy each other and have a decent life.”
“Except we won’t exactly be branded as decent outside of domestication.” The rumble of his chuckle reverberated against her ear before it erupted into the air.
She pulled away enough to find his gaze with hers. “From what I’ve survived and how men have treated me over the years, I’ve had my fill of indecent men.” There was something about the inspector that cancelled all of that out. “You, however... Well, I don’t have adequate words for what you’ve brought into my life.” Heat seeped into her cheeks. “It’s almost as if I’d never learned how to live properly until you came strolling in and ordered me about.”
Had she revealed too much?
“Ah, Mary. You are so very different than any woman I’ve ever known.” Gabriel held her close again, and for long moments, silence reigned between them, broken only by the soft chime of the carriage-style clock on the mantel announcing the nine o’clock hour. With a sigh, he released her. “We have been here for an hour.”
“Is that a problem.” Quite frankly, she didn’t want the evening to end.
“Not really, but I do want a chance to look through the servant’s hall before the ball ends and the space is crowded with staff once more.” He peered into her eyes, seemed to see into her soul. “Come with me?”
“Always.” Not quite so naïve as to fancy herself in love with the man after a handful of days, there was a connection between them she couldn’t deny. For the moment, that thrilling, breathless feeling she had every time she was with him was enough, and like him, she wasn’t about to offer up her heart and have it trampled over.
Some lessons had been harder to learn than others, and would take twice as long to forget.
