Unmasking the Duke's Mistress (Gentlemen of Disrepute #1)(59)

And as he listened again to that conversation, without letting the hurt and the anger cloud his mind, it dawned on him that only when she had realised he was serious about not releasing her had she said that she did not love him. It smacked of a woman lying out of desperation.

What are you running from? He heard the echo of his own question and remembered the sudden flicker of fear and panic in her eyes.

And he shivered at the realisation.

A knock sounded on the door and Bentley showed in Gemmell.

Dominic was barely listening as the elderly butler detailed how all that Dominic had bought had been packed away and removed from the Curzon Street house. He was aware that he had been so selfishly caught up in his hurt and his anger and his righteousness that he had missed what was before his very eyes.

Gemmell stood on the opposite side of the desk. ‘Everything is recorded in the list drawn up in the housekeeping book.’ The butler gestured towards the open book on the desk before Dominic. ‘The furnishings with which the town house was rented are all back in place. All is in order, your Grace, and the servants that did not accompany Mrs Marlbrook have been paid off. Several are asking if your Grace would be so kind as to furnish them with a character.’

‘Of course.’ Dominic gave a nod. ‘Who did Mrs Marlbrook take with her?’ He looked at Gemmell and it occurred to him that that the old butler, and indeed all of the staff of Curzon Street, had always behaved as if Arabella was their employer rather than Dominic. Not a single servant had told him of the presence of Archie or Mrs Tatton in the house for all of those weeks. In a matter of loyalty Gemmell would do what he thought to be best for Arabella. He wondered what else Gemmell might not have told him.

‘A manservant and two maids.’ As if to prove the path Dominic’s thoughts were taking, Gemmell added, ‘Madam asked me to move to Amersham with her, but unfortunately I had to decline. I have family commitments in London. Thirteen grandchildren to be precise,’ he said with a note of pride. Gemmell handed him the keys. ‘The house is locked up secure, your Grace.’

Dominic took the keys. ‘Thank you.’

Gemmell gave a nod. ‘Will that be all, your Grace?’

‘Not quite.’ Dominic met the old man’s eyes. ‘Did anything unusual happen between Mrs Marlbrook’s return from the opera on Friday night and my visit on Saturday?’

Gemmell’s gaze shifted away and there was about him a slight uneasiness. He gripped the hat and gloves in his hands a little too tightly.

‘Any messages delivered? An unusual letter, perhaps? A visitor?’

He saw Gemmell’s mouth tighten slightly, and felt his own expression sharpen at the small betraying gesture. Yet still Gemmell hesitated as if, even now, he thought that to tell Dominic would be to compromise his loyalty to Arabella.

‘Gemmell,’ said Dominic quietly, ‘I have only Mrs Marlbrook’s welfare at heart.’

Gemmell looked at him and Dominic saw the old man wrestle internally with the dilemma before he gave a nod.

‘There was something, your Grace. A visitor called on Saturday morning. A…’ the slightest of hesitations ‘…gentleman by the name of Mr Smith.’ Dominic could sense his discomfort and understood that Gemmell had been trying to protect Arabella.

‘Go on,’ he encouraged.

‘They spoke in the library for some twenty minutes and then I heard the door open and I thought that the gentleman meant to leave, but when I arrived there, Master Archie had escaped Mrs Tatton and was playing outside the library. Mrs Marlbrook told me to take Archie to her mother and she went back into the library with Mr Smith.’ Gemmell must have been aware of how bad it sounded, for he looked as if he wished the ground would open up and swallow him.

Dominic was thinking fast. ‘Did Smith see Archie?’

‘He did, your Grace.’

‘And when he departed, did Mrs Marlbrook ring for any thing?’

‘Indeed, sir. Immediately that the gentleman was gone Mrs Marlbrook and Mrs Tatton started packing for a journey.’

There was a silence after the butler’s words during which Dominic digested what Gemmell had just told him.

There was some measure of foul play at work; Dominic knew it.

Words that Arabella had once uttered played again in his mind: I did what I had to for Archie’s sake. I will always do what I have to, to protect him, no matter what you say.

And Dominic knew that whoever Smith was and whatever hold he had over Arabella, this was somehow about Archie. The significance of the man seeing his son made Dominic’s blood run cold.

‘Mrs Marlbrook received Smith’s visit without question?’

‘No, your Grace. He gained admittance by means of a message.’

‘What was the message?’

The hint of a blush crept into the butler’s cheeks. ‘It was the name, your Grace…of a lady.’ Gemmell cleared his throat and shifted his feet and did not meet Dominic’s gaze.

‘And the lady’s name?’

‘Miss Noir.’


The words fell into the silence and the study seemed to echo with their significance. Dominic felt everything in him focus and define. Arabella had done none of this of her own accord. He felt sure that the man calling himself Smith had threatened her. What he did not understand was why she had not just come to him and told him.