Confessions of a Royal Bridegroom(104)

“I do wish you two would stop casting such fraught-with-meaning glances at each other,” she said as she heaped a generous spoonful of orange marmalade onto her toast. “I’m not going to collapse into a puddle if you tell me the truth. If I didn’t after last night, I’m certainly not going to do it now. I’ll be just fine.”

“I’m sure you will, my dear,” replied Dominic with a glint of humor in his green eyes. “To answer your question, Griffin and I feel it best that you leave town for a while. You and the baby.”

“I will go with you, of course,” Griffin added in a tone that brooked no resistance. “No one will think twice about us leaving town for a spell, especially since we are so recently married.”

She rolled her eyes to cover up the jolt she’d felt at the thought of going away with him. “Oh, yes, taking a baby with us will certainly convince everyone we’re on a wedding trip.”

That earned her a reluctant grin. “I see your point, but no one knows about the infant. If we quietly decamp from London, no one should be the wiser.”

She thought that over while she chewed her toast. The very idea of going on a wedding trip with Griffin, even a pretend trip, unnerved her. It made their marriage, which felt less and less of a sham as time went by, seem even more real.

“While I agree it’s good to be cautious, especially where the baby is concerned,” she said, “is leaving really necessary? Surely those ruffians who descended on the household last night will not be so foolish as to try that again. And do we truly know whether they were coming for Stephen, or for some other purpose?”

“I think we can say with some degree of certainty that last night was, indeed, an intended kidnapping,” Dominic said. “We can’t be sure that they might not have snatched you or Rose as well, to care for the child. At this point, we simply don’t know enough about their motives to ascertain what they would or would not do. Clearly, they are rather desperate, which makes them dangerous.”

Losing her appetite, Justine pushed her plate to the side. “I see. Do we know anything about them at this point, aside from the fact that they might be Italian?”

“From what Dominic’s discovered, they’re definitely Italian,” Griffin said, pulling Justine’s plate over in front of him. His empty plate indicated he’d already eaten a full breakfast.

“Are you really going to eat that?” she demanded. “How can you at a time like this?”

“No point in wasting it,” he replied with an unseemly amount of insouciance for so early in the morning. “I learned a long time ago to never make assumptions about when my next meal would be forthcoming.”

That was certainly a revealing tidbit. She tucked it away for a more propitious time to follow where the trail might lead. “Very wise of you, I’m sure, but to get back to my original question—”

“Yes,” Dominic interjected. “I do have a number of ideas about that, but few hard facts. As you know, Bonaparte’s annexation of Italian territory over the course of the wars displaced the ruling families of several duchies and kingdoms. Some of those families were forced to flee into exile, seeking refuge in Vienna or at other sympathetic courts. Those families have not, however, given up hope of reclaiming their lost kingdoms.”

“Yes,” Justine said, “I know that. But what’s it got to do with Stephen?”

Before her godparent could even answer, she shook her head, annoyed that she’d failed to grasp the answer immediately. Papa would have scolded to see her become so dull-witted. “You think he might be a member of one of those exiled families. Is that what your research into the signet ring has led you to believe?”