Page 11 of A Night of Forever
“But you are still investigating the incident.”
“Of course.” His eyes glinted with anger.
“Is that what your friends and their wives are doing at Lady Evangeline’s?”
Lady Evangeline Stuart was newly widowed. It appeared that before her marriage to Lord Stuart, she was once engaged to Lord Hadley Fullerton, one of the Libertine Scholars. Evangeline had come to London to find Hadley. Apparently Lord Stuart’s journals were of very keen interest to the Libertine Scholars. They were of keen interest to her too. They contained information on her father.
“I know Evangeline’s deceased husband kept journals. Do the women believe these journals hold clues to the person targeting you?”
If so, Arend must think Lord Stuart, Evangeline’s late husband, knew the culprit. She had overheard her father and Lord Stuart arguing on one occasion. Lord Stuart was asking questions about Victoria.
Was the person targeting the Libertine Scholars really a woman? Was Arend really investigating Victoria?
He did not look pleased that she knew about the journals. She’d been with the ladies on the day they discussed them, but ever since then they had excluded her from the discourse. And she really wanted to read those journals. Her father had been a close friend of Evangeline’s late husband. She hoped Lord Stuart might have written something—anything—about why her father had gone to France and come back married to Victoria. Lord Stuart had not trusted Victoria.
Isobel’s father, Lord Northumberland, and his mistress had been killed in a house fire. Taggert, her father’s head groomsman, had told Victoria that the ground where he believed the fire started was soaked with oil. He was certain the fire had been lit deliberately. Yet her stepmother had not told the magistrate what Taggert had said. Isobel had been suspicious of her stepmother ever since.
Was that the cause of Arend’s sudden interest in Victoria? Had the women found something condemning her in the journal?
She knew Arend was capable of anything to get what he wanted, and for one brief moment she pitied Victoria if she was involved in a scheme against him. Isobel would be terrified if a man as darkly dangerous as Arend decided to treat her as an enemy.
She slid him a sideways glance. He was full of secrets, but she had secrets of her own. She had yet to decide if Arend could be trusted with her task.
To calm herself, Isobel took a moment to seek out Sealey and focus her attention on the child. The little boy was feeding the ducks at the water’s edge, his nanny within arm’s reach.
“I confess, Lady Isobel,” Arend said, “that I’m curious about you. To this day I still have no idea why you were abducted on the same day as Lady Marisa.”
She was tempted to ask him how she was supposed to know, but restrained herself. “If I am to call you Arend, then you must call me Isobel.”
“Isobel.”
Her name sounded husky in his French drawl, which, she noted, seemed to come to prominence when he was trying to get information from her. It certainly set her body aflame and made it difficult to think.
She shrugged. “My stepmother employed Bow Street Runners to investigate, but nothing came of it. I believe it was mistaken identity. The kidnappers took me thinking I was Lady Marisa. Once the mistake was known, they could hardly release me.”
He nodded. “That is a logical deduction. You don’t appear to be too concerned. I would have thought it wise to be guarded at all times in case they strike again.”
She could not fault him on his question. “I did suggest that to my stepmother. She saw no need.”
“Did she say why?”
Isobel frowned. “Now that I think of it, no. To be frank, I’m trying to forget the incident ever occurred. I was extremely lucky.”
“You may not be so lucky next time.”
A shiver passed over her. “I pray there is no next time.”
They continued their walk in silence, his presence still unnerving her. Sealey was now kicking a ball on the grass with another little boy, so Arend suggested they sit on one of the park benches overlooking the lake.
“I wonder if your stepmother is quite as relaxed about your abduction as you think,” he said when they were seated and comfortable. “She has a rather large gentleman with her at all times. He accompanied you to the opera the other night. I noticed because you arrived late.”
Isobel felt more and more uneasy about his probing questions. Men like Arend Aubury did not spend time with debutantes, and these were not the enquiries of a man truly looking for a wife. But the warmth of his body so close had her tied up in knots. There could be no harm in answering civilly.
“We were waylaid because my stepmother was concerned for a family in need. Her previous cook’s mother fell ill, and Cook had to leave us. Victoria wanted to make sure they were coping, and to leave them a food basket.”
—
Arend was surprised at her candor. She had just admitted to a meeting on the night Hadley had been attacked.
