Page 82 of A Night of Forever
He waited for familiar red-hot anger to rise within him, but it didn’t. It seemed as though the blood in his veins had turned to ice the moment he’d spotted Isobel kissing Dufort.
His heart cried out that it wasn’t true. That she would never betray him. But his brain had other ideas. If Isobel were innocent, then surely Dufort would have snatched her. Victoria would then have had a hostage to use to bargain for her freedom.
He’d told her to stay in the house, yet here she was. Out on the street. Meeting Dufort. Kissing Dufort.
He closed his eyes against the pain of his vision, but all he saw was Isobel. She was a temptress, and she didn’t even have to try. The only woman since the bitch in Brazil who could drive him so wild he’d let down his guard. She haunted him, even in his dreams.
With all his soul he wanted to believe Isobel innocent of duplicity. But was she too making a fool of him?
It was then Arend realized Dufort had gone.
Fool. He’d been so distraught at what he’d seen that he’d frozen and lost the perfect chance to follow the man.
But he could follow Isobel. With a heavy heart, he waited for her to pass him on the other side of the street. She was walking back in the direction of the house. And she looked upset.
God. He wanted to believe she was his, not Victoria’s.
Trust. He breathed in deeply. She’d asked him to trust her. So he would do the mature thing. He would ask her where she’d been today, and what had happened.
He hoped she would tell him the truth. He hoped that the truth proved her to be innocent, because if she was guilty, she would hang as surely as would Victoria.
How would he live without Isobel in his life?
With these dark thoughts in his head, Arend dogged Isobel’s steps back to the house and watched her slip around to the rear and disappear through the servants’ entrance. Undecided about what to do, he found a place where he could watch the back door. Would she come out again? Was this part of Victoria’s strategy?
He struggled with the need to find her, to demand an explanation. But he simply didn’t know what to do.
So he watched. And waited. And his heart chilled and ached.
Finally, as dusk fell, he returned to the front entrance, walked up the steps, and into the house.
He found his friends in the drawing room with brandy and glum expressions. “Have you seen Isobel?”
“No,” Sebastian said. “I assumed she was in your—her room.”
The men chuckled at the slip.
Doubt churning in Arend’s gut made him ignore Sebastian’s insinuation. It was the truth. He slept in her bed, shared intimacies with her. It hurt to think all of that was false.
“The tavern landlord has agreed to notify me should anyone fitting Victoria’s description be seen in the area,” he said instead.
“I can’t understand how they are moving around Deal without being seen,” Hadley exclaimed. “Someone must be hiding them. The money is being sent here, but is that a diversion? Someone else may collect the money on her behalf.”
Arend knew he had to tell them. “I saw Dufort on the main street today.”
All eyes riveted on him.
“Was he alone?” Sebastian asked. “Where did he go to?”
Should he lie? “I lost him in the crowd.”
Sebastian’s raised eyebrows indicated his disbelief. “You lost him?”
“Did he see you?”
Hadley’s question made him start. He’d been so stunned he’d completely taken his eyes off the departing Dufort.
“In all honesty,” he said, “I don’t know. I don’t think so.” But Dufort had seen Isobel, so Victoria knew they were here.
