Page 14 of Silence of Deceit
“You will not.” He tucked the card away again. “You’ve already gone against the duke’s command—”
“No one commands me, Mr. Marsden.”
A spate of temper filled her at that word. Husbands had legal privilege to rule their wives as they saw fit, but Audrey could not conceive such a marriage—the kind she would have been made to endure had she married the Earl of Bainbury, as she nearly had. She and Philip had laid down rules for their marriage, which would have been deemed radical by anyone else. Commanding each other in any way, shape, or form was strictly forbidden.
Hugh paused, assessing her for a moment. Perhaps even rethinking his approach. But he surprised her when he said softly, “We all live under the command of someone or something, Your Grace.”
She could not argue against that. Though he was working class now, he had not always been. He knew as well as she did how difficult it would be to thwart the peerage. Even in his role at Bow Street, Hugh lived under the command of a higher-up: Sir Gabriel Poston, the chief magistrate.
“Your marriage might be unconventional, duchess, but I sensed strong frustration in the duke last night. His patience is not without its limits.”
Yet again, she wished Hugh were not so observant. Most people could not, or did not, bother to look beneath the veneer of the façade she and Philip had perfected over the last few years—that theirs was a completely content love match. They might not fawn over each other in public, but their union was obviously warm and gratifying for them both. The only thing that would make their marriage more perfect would be the addition of a child. An heir to the Fournier dukedom.
Audrey averted her eyes from Hugh’s unwavering stare. “It’s Cassandra,” she said, startling herself with the truth. He knew about her situation, and it was no great surprise to find herself content in being able to speak to him about it.
“How is she?” He truly wanted to know; she could tell by the changed tone of his voice.
“She is staying on with Philip’s friends in Sweden. Her letters describe a rather boring existence, but it’s the best we could do for her, given the circumstances.”
Meanwhile, Lord Renfry, the baby’s scoundrel of a father, had already secured another betrothal, after the dissolution of the previous one. That lady had learned the truth about her fiancé’s wretched seductions of his stepmothers and had cried off.
“I’m surprised Renfry didn’t come to the duke, asking for Cassandra’s hand after he lost out on the rich merchant’s daughter,” Hugh said. Audrey pinned her lips, delighting in the memory of the day the blackguard actually had done as much.
Hugh read her expression and leaned forward. “No. Tell me he did not.”
“Oh, he did.”
He barked a laugh and slapped his thigh, then sat back against the cushions. “Did the duke plant him a facer?”
“If he had not, I would have,” Audrey said, chuckling. “Renfry left with a bloodied lip and the threat of a bullet to the heart if he ever so much as set one foot near Cassie again.”
And she had no doubt Philip would follow through. His younger sister had been completely manipulated and deceived, all for Renfry’s own sport. The man deserved to be called out. However, to make his transgressions public would only lead to requiring Cassie and Renfry to wed, and neither Audrey, Philip, nor Cassie wanted to be linked to such an immoral cad.
“But he does not know about the baby?” Hugh asked, once again with concern. He did not know Cassandra well, but he seemed to take an interest. The barest twinge of envy pricked at her insides. Surely, he did not care for Philip’s sister in a romantic manner. Although, shewasyoung and pretty…and unmarried.
Then again, it had not been Cassie whom Hugh had been a breath away from kissing on that quarry ledge.
No. Do not think of it.She inhaled and answered his question. “He doesn’t know, and he will not know. When the baby is born…”
She sealed her lips. It wouldn’t be right or proper to tell Hugh what Philip had proposed—that Audrey feign a confinement, travel to Sweden, and return with the child as if it were her own.
Cassie had refused the proposal, as had Audrey. Philip, however, had argued in its defense. They would have an heir. The gossip about her barren state would subside. And Cassie would be able to see her child grow. But Cassandra had claimed it would be unbearable to see the child but not mother it, and Audrey had agreed. She would never feel like the child’s true mother. It was already difficult enough not feeling like a true wife.
“It must be a difficult situation for her,” Hugh said after a few silent moments.
“You are more understanding than others would be.”
“I have experienced something quite similar,” he replied with a wry lift of his brow.
Ah. So that was why he took an interest; his own mother had been in Cassandra’s position at one point, although Audrey did not believe the Viscount Neatham had treated her as Renfry treated Cassie. From everything she had heard about the late viscount, he had been a good and decent man. To raise his illegitimate son among his legitimate children and care for Hugh’s mother did him credit.
“So, you see, things have just been strained lately. We’re a bit unsettled,” she said.
Returning to London, keeping up the façade about Cassie forgoing the Little Season to nurse her great aunt back to health in Scotland, and to recover from the shocking murders at Fournier Downs over the summer, and then of course, beginning to repair their own reputation after the scandal in April. Sometimes, there seemed to be too many obstacles to overcome.
Hugh sat quietly as the carriage rattled toward Bow Street. Then, just as the silence was beginning to elicit a strange friction in the air, he spoke. “Have you told the duke?”
She knew without hesitation or confusion what Hugh meant by the question. Audrey shook her head. “No,” she said softly.
