Page 5 of Taken to the Grave
She said this with a sly arch of her brow, and Audrey gaped. “Cassie!” she hissed but couldn’t maintain her chastising expression when her sister-in-law dissolved into giggles. Audrey joined in as they entered the flat, neat gravel walk alongside the Chinese temple and arcades that housed the supper boxes.
Her next steps seemed to levitate as she caught sight of the gentleman waiting near the arcades, in the shade of one column. Out of the dozens of men walking and standing, Hugh Marsden could not but help stand out. Or perhaps, he simply drew Audrey’s eyes in a magnetic way other men could not. He hadn’t yet seen her, giving her the chance to observe him first.
He wore a dark blue coat over a deep sable waistcoat, buff trousers, and polished hessians. Even as a principal officer, he’d worn gentlemen’s clothing, and though he had submitted to his valet’s entreaties to add accessories that marked him as a peer—gloves, for instance—just because he now held the title of viscount did not mean he had changed his nature. He was still, at his center, a Bow Street officer. If he could have continued with his post and been viscount, he would not have thought twice about it. Unfortunately, peers did notwork.
Hugh stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his attention on the two others standing with him—Lord Grant Thornton and Sir. But, as if feeling the press of her eyes, Hugh cocked his head. Then turned and saw her. The corner of his mouth tucked up into a mischievous grin as he came forward to meet her. His rich brown eyes surveyed Audrey in a way that increased her pulse as he approached. In that moment, all the restless, barbed irritation causing a friction under her skin vanished. It seemed Hugh’s presence had been the only thing she required to dispel her muddled and chaotic thoughts.
“Oh, good gracious, what ishedoing here?” Cassie muttered as Lord Thornton came toward them as well.
The fourth and final son of the Marquess of Lindstrom was Hugh’s closest friend, and as such, Audrey and Cassie had come to be in his presence quite a bit. After last summer at Greenbriar, when he’d proclaimed Audrey’s bullet wound to be non-fatal, Cassie had embarrassed herself by embracing him. Since then, she had progressed from pointedly avoiding the physician to openly expressing her derision for him. To be fair, Thornton had not tried very hard to change her opinion. If anything, he seemed to enjoy goading her along in her antipathy for him.
However, Audrey suspected that the pair of them were only using their mutual loathing as a shield against much different feelings.
“Be polite,” Audrey scolded her just before Hugh reached them. He touched the brim of his hat, and she had to hold herself back from doing as Cassie had with Thornton, and throwing herself in his arms.
“Your Grace.” Hugh’s bright tone was as playful as his steady stare. “I had no idea you would be here.”
She tamped down a grin, though not successfully enough. “What a fortunate coincidence.”
From where he stood behind Hugh, Sir groaned.
“Here, here,” Thornton concurred with a roll of his own eyes.
Hugh and Audrey ignored them. He held out his arm, and she settled her hand there. With a nod of greeting toward Cassie, Hugh went on, “Lady Cassandra, I must apologize, I came here entirely alone and have absolutely no one to stroll with you.”
“Very funny,” Thornton muttered. “Lady Cassandra.” He held out his arm to her, though he looked anything but pleased to do so.
She treated the offer in kind. “No need, I have my maid.” Ruth hurried forward to walk alongside Cassie, and then, to deepen the slight just a little further, Cassie turned to Sir. “Is this your first time at Vauxhall?”
Had the boy been wearing Neatham livery, as before, she would not have inquired, as he would appear to be a servant. However, after returning from Dover, Sir had made some changes. He’d cast off his servant’s clothing and wore a version of what Hugh wore, but in darker colors and without a neckcloth. Instead, a tall collar sufficed. He appeared like any boy from Eton or Harrow.
“It is,” he answered, his voice now a steadier tenor than it had been earlier in the year. “Bit overdone, if you ask me.”
He was as tall as Cassie as he fell into step beside her, leaving Thornton to walk behind them. Audrey faced forward, catching Hugh’s amused glance.
“Hello,” he whispered into her ear. The small hairs on the back of her neck and arms prickled.
“You cannot say such things to me here, in public,” she replied, just as softly.
“I said hello.” She leveled him with a look. He winked at her. “Would you rather we speak of the weather?”
“Gracious no,” she laughed as they slowly ambled toward the wooded area of the pleasure gardens. “Do not ever speak to me of the weather, or I’ll be forced to turn you away.”
“Thank you for the warning. I will endeavor to always be interesting.” His arm purposefully brushed more closely against hers. “And while we are speaking of interesting things, I have just come from a meeting that might intrigue you.”
She listened, rapt, as Hugh told her about Lady Rebecca Poston’s visit to his home, and her sister’s missing daughter. As he laid out what both the ladies had said, and why Mr. Silas and Sir Gabriel believed her disappearance to be due to an elopement to the Scottish border, Audrey shook her head.
“I am more inclined to treat it as a mysterious disappearance. Mrs. Silas is correct to worry. If this Mr. Comstock lied toBethany regarding his false sister, he may have also tricked her into accompanying him here, to Vauxhall.”
Hugh’s frown mirrored the one she felt on her own lips. “I agree, he isn’t to be trusted. Thornton has just informed me that Comstock had his membership at the Seven Sins rescinded. The rumor is that it was due to unprincipled behavior at the card tables.”
Thornton seemed to be one of Hugh’s primary resources when it came to gossip and information.
“Does he know everything about everyone in London?” she asked.
“He could probably write his own gossip column.”
Audrey laughed and hooked her arm a little tighter around his. She felt a stirring low in her stomach being so close to him and wished they could be alone, just for one moment, so she could kiss him. It had been weeks since they’d last had the opportunity. Hugh had paid a call on Michael at Violet House, to where he and Genie had finally moved in March. It was the London seat for the Duke of Fournier, and it was only proper that Michael would now reside there. Audrey had remained, of course, but had needed to give up her usual room to Genie, as the attached bedchamber would now belong to Michael. It had been rather awkward, but there was no bitterness over any of it. Audrey’s new bedchamber was perfectly adequate, and Genie had kindly refused to take over the smaller study at the back of the home that Audrey so adored.
