Confessions of a Royal Bridegroom(77)

But even more than the delight he took in imagining he was undressing her, Griffin enjoyed watching her face—the play of emotions across her pretty features and the sharp intelligence in her sapphire-blue eyes as they fastened on the other women. Justine had a tendency to keep both her thoughts and words to herself, but he harbored no doubt there was very little that escaped her perceptive gaze.


That pleased him a great deal, because if there was one thing he couldn’t abide, it was stupidity. Unlike many men he knew, he didn’t think a woman’s charms were enhanced by an empty head.

“Did you know her father well?” he asked Aden.

“Some. He was mostly before my time, although our paths did cross during the Peninsular campaign.”

Aden had spent the last several years in the Intelligence Service, after Dominic had recruited him from the Horse Guards. Aden was one of Dominic’s most trusted agents, a brilliant spy lethally effective in the most dangerous situations. He also happened to be the bastard son of the Prince Regent and one of the few relatives Griffin had anything to do with—not that the rest of his relations were lining up to spend time with him, anyway. Not unless they wanted to borrow money from him.

But Aden was different. Even though raised within the highest ranks of the aristocracy, he’d always been an outsider, like Griffin, and never fully accepted by the members of his own family. He’d dealt with the pain of rejection by walking away from his family and giving all his loyalty to Dominic and the Service. He’d lived in the shadows, risking all for King and country, with no intention of ever claiming a real position within polite society.

Until, that is, he’d met and married Lady Vivien Shaw. Now Aden had become so bloody respectable Griffin hardly recognized him.

“What was Brightmore like?” Griffin asked. “Justine hasn’t talked much about him, but I gather he was away from home a great deal.”

“That’s true. He lived for the job, enjoying it in a different way from the rest of us,” Aden said thoughtfully. “He seemed to find it all rather fun, as if risking one’s neck on a regular basis was a lark. It can’t have been easy on Justine or her brother, I would imagine.”

Griffin made a noncommittal grunt in reply, but Aden’s brief insight explained much about his new bride. Given how unsettled her life must have been, it was no wonder she craved security and a respectable, boring life. Unfortunately, Griffin doubted he’d ever be able to provide her with any true respectability, but at least she’d never be at the beck and call of old ladies or disapproving relations, or have to worry about scraping by from one day to the next. He knew the toll that kind of life could take and he’d never allow anything like that to happen to Justine.

Justine’s financial security had been the first thing on Dominic’s mind, too. The suspicious bastard had insisted on drawing up the marriage contracts himself, making sure Justine would always be well provided for no matter what happened to Griffin. In fact, Dominic had baldly threatened to hang, draw, and quarter him if he didn’t take care of Justine as she deserved.

Griffin had bristled, ready to continue the discussion with his fists, but the older man had simply given him a mocking grin and begged his apology for doubting his honor.

“Speak of the devil,” he muttered as Dominic came back into the room.

Aden cast him a curious glance, but turned to greet his chief with a smile. “All is well with the Reverend Tyler, I assume? He seems a most accommodating man, for a minister.”

Dominic nodded. “I’m confident there won’t be any problems on that end. He was so stunned by Griffin’s generosity that I doubt he gave a thought to the irregular nature of the proceedings.”