Page 80 of Suddenly a Bride
While Geoffrey chuckled, Edmund advanced on her, and with a laugh, she scrambled backward on the bed until she sat in the middle of it. With sly eyes, she sent him a daring look. His smile faded, and his eyes smoldered beneath his dark brows, but with a shrug he turned back to Geoffrey.
The knight slumped back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest as he watched them. “Tell her the truth, Edmund.”
Gwyneth caught her breath as she looked at them both.
“Geoff—” Edmund began, but she interrupted.
“He is right, Edmund,” she said. “I would have to be a fool not to know that something is going on. I can bear the truth.”
When her husband remained silent, Geoff leaned forward, wearing a serious expression. “Not knowing could get her hurt.”
With a sigh, Edmund leaned back against the bed at her side. He took her hand and looked into her eyes. “There is more between me and Earl Langston than you already know. He used this marriage as a challenge, a duel between us, knowing that I could not refuse the dowry money. He told me outright that he means to ruin me but that I’ll have to discover how on my own.”
With every word he spoke, she felt a sickening sensation clamp down tighter on her stomach. “But…you know not what he has planned, or…what he’ll do?”
Edmund shook his head. “Nay, but I think he has begun.”
“With sheep?” she demanded in astonishment.
“Before that. I think he has someone under his control living either here or in the village. It started with the stolen linens and money, and now ’tis sheep.”
When he said nothing else, she clutched his hand tighter and whispered, “You think it’s going to get worse, do you not?”
He nodded and put his arm around her, but she shrugged him off and slid off the bed to face them both, hands on her hips.
“Why did you not tell me this from the beginning? I would have been more aware of anything suspicious. I might have seen something and not known what I was looking at!”
“And you could have put yourself in danger,” Edmund said.
“We’re all in danger,” she answered angrily. “Why would you not tell me what the earl was up to?”
When neither of them responded, the answer swept over her like a cold bath on a hot summer day, chilling her. She hugged herself and said, “Because you thought I might be involved.”
Geoff reddened and looked away.
Edmund continued to watch her, his face inscrutable, like a soldier dealing with a difficult subordinate. She wanted to stay angry; if only it weren’t so easy to understand why he’d suspected her.
“Gwyn, Langstongaveyou to me, though he hates me. I had to think there was a more sinister reason for offering me a woman as wonderful as you.” Instead of saying more, he closed his mouth and appeared chagrined at what he’d revealed.
Her anger began to fade away, replaced by weariness. “I do understand. And I’m thankful that you now trust me enough to reveal the truth. But we still don’t know who the earl’s accomplice could be. We should make a list of people that he could easily sway. Edmund, did you tell Geoff about the Widow Atwater?”
Her husband shot her a warning look.
“Prudence Atwater?” Geoffrey said, his eyebrows raised. “Will’s mother?”
Gwyneth reached for the bedpost and leaned against it. “She tried to seduce Edmund when he was still married to Elizabeth. He refused her, which did not make her happy.”
“So that is why she is angry with you,” Geoffrey said slowly.
“She is but a woman,” Edmund said.
Gwyneth tilted her chin. “I could do any of the things that have been done to us so far. Most women could.”
Edmund smiled. “I do not think these are enough reasons for Prudence to risk her life.”
“Gentlemen, I still think the widow should be a suspect. And what about Hugh Ludlow? Was he not angry that you replaced him, Geoffrey?”
“And Martin Fitzjames,” Edmund said. “You are his replacement, too.”
