A Most Dangerous Profession(18)
“Perhaps I just wished for a husband—someone to watch over me.”
“You ran off immediately after. I saw you two weeks later, when I caught up with you in Bath, but you escaped again. So no, you didn’t want someone to watch over you.”
She sent him a hard look. “I still can’t believe you turned me over to the authorities.”
“You were a spy.”
“Which was why you were assigned to woo me in the first place, wasn’t it?” Her cool, disdainful voice held another emotion, but he couldn’t quite identify it.
“In the beginning, that is why I began to pursue you. But after the second month, no.”
Her gaze slashed across the room. “Don’t tell me you ‘cared,’ for I won’t believe it. If you’d cared, you wouldn’t have had me arrested.”
He set his jaw. “My feelings for you didn’t change the fact that you’d been filching information for a foreign government.”
“By the time you caught up with me, I had quit,” she returned hotly. “I wanted to begin anew, and this time I wanted to do things right.”
“I wish I could believe that. But truth hasn’t been your strong point, has it?”
“I’ve only done what I felt needed to be done.”
“Such a short sentence, yet such a long meaning. You used me, Moira. You tricked me into giving you my name and then you left. You may be angry that I tracked you down and then turned you over to the Home Office, but it was no less than you deserved.”
“I didn’t stay captive for long.”
“No. I shouldn’t have allowed anyone else to guard you but me. Apparently I am the only man in England able to withstand your charms.”
Her face pink, she shifted in the tub, water glistening on her bare shoulders. “I didn’t think you’d ever realize our marriage at Vauxhall was in earnest.”
“You didn’t know me as well as you thought. But your actions presented a conundrum as there was no reason why you’d go to such lengths.” Robert paused. “Later on, though, a thought occurred.”
Her gaze was locked with his and he had the impression that she held her breath.
“Moira, where’s our child?”
CHAPTER 6
A note slipped into a birthday gift from Robert Hurst to his brother Michael for his sixteenth birthday.
Since you are so enamored of travel tomes, I have sent you these. Consider them your birthday gift, as I ate the Turkish delight I had purchased for you last month from a London confectionery shop.
I’m sure you will prefer the books anyway, so enjoy your dry, dusty tomes and I hope they sweeten that soured disposition of yours.
Moira couldn’t breathe. How had he guessed the truth?
He cocked a brow at her. “Well? Do we have a child or not?”
“Don’t be silly.” She dipped the sponge into the water to give herself time to think. “Us, with a child? I can’t even imagine it.”
He frowned, his gaze narrowing. “There is no child?”
“No. I’m not a very maternal sort of woman. What would I do with a brat?” Even saying the words seemed a betrayal to Rowena.
“I don’t know if I believe you.”
She forced a chuckle. “Feel free to search my luggage, my apartment, whatever you wish. I prefer my life unfettered, as do you, I thought.”
He was silent a moment, his gaze assessing her. “So you tricked me into marrying you because . . .”
“It was a challenge. I just wished to see if I could do it.”
“Ma chère, allow me to disabuse you of the notion that that makes any sense. You tricked me and left me for some purpose. The only purpose you could have is that you were with child.”
For one wild moment Moira thought about telling him the truth, but even as she had the thought, her sponge slipped from her fingers onto the floor. The splash brought her back to her senses. She was so close to getting Rowena back; all she needed was that damn onyx box. There was no need to deal with this complication.
What if he decides he wants to keep her? Moira’s heart stuttered. I can’t get her back only to lose her again!
The courts would never be kind to a woman alone, especially with her dubious history. Robert had connections in the government and he would use them to his benefit. I can’t chance it. He must never know about Rowena.