Wicked Temptation (Regency Sinners 6)(3)

Under other circumstances, the two gentlemen might even have found themselves attracted to Prudence and Priscilla. Indeed, they had both been attracted to them.

Just not to the sister whose guilt or innocence they were supposed to prove.

Prudence and Priscilla might be identical twins, and yet from the first, Titus had no difficulty in knowing which of the two Prudence was. Her eyes were a darker shade of blue than her sister’s, and her face had been slightly rounder. But it was not only those physical differences which set Prudence apart. She also had a lively and wicked wit and could converse as easily on political matters and horseflesh as she could about gowns and bonnets. Priscilla had a sweeter nature and no interest in politics or anything else of a serious nature.

Now Worthington and Priscilla were dead, and Prudence had refused to so much as read one of the letters Titus had written and had delivered to her since those deaths, let alone allow him admittance on any of the occasions he had called upon her at Germaine House since the carriage accident six weeks ago.

Except Titus knew that “accident” had not been accidental at all but a desperate move on the part of the traitor to England as a way of muddying the waters regarding their own identity. As he also knew Prudence might still be in mortal danger from that traitor.

Indeed, as Prudence refused to have anything more to do with him, Titus had arranged for several men who had previously served under him in the army to keep watch on her at Germaine House these past six weeks. He had not asked his friend and spymaster, Dominik Sinclair, the Duke of Stonewell, to supply any of his agents for that protection, knowing that Nik, in spite of everything, still had his suspicions in regard to Prudence’s innocence.

Titus now nodded acknowledgment of her refusal to accompany him in his carriage to the wedding breakfast. “Then might I call upon you at Germaine House tomorrow?”

Her jaw tensed. “I would prefer you did not.”

He raised dark brows. “That was not a no.”

“It was not a yes either.”

He reached out to place his hand upon her arm. “Prudence—”

She instantly snatched that arm away. “We have nothing to say to each other.” Her eyes flashed her anger at his daring to touch her. “Besides which, I am in mourning and not receiving visitors,” she added as he would have spoken.

“You attended your friend’s wedding today.”

“That is because she is a friend. You are not,” she added decisively.

He winced. “Pru—”

“If you will excuse me.” She turned with a swish of the black taffeta skirt of her gown, signaling to her maid to accompany her as she walked to her carriage, her head held high, and giving every appearance of being unapproachable.

“I take it your attempt to renew your acquaintance with Lady Prudence did not go well.”

Titus turned abruptly to face the Duke of Stonewell. “I doubt she will ever forgive me for what she obviously suspects to have been my part in her sister’s death.”

Stonewell’s eyes narrowed. “Why should she suspect that? Unless she is the traitor, after all—”

“How can you persist in these doubts when her own twin is now dead?” Titus’s hands were clenched at his sides.

“I dare because I am not emotionally involved with her—”

“Neither am I!”

Stonewell eyed him skeptically. “No?” he drawled dryly. “I thought I had made it clear that Lady Priscilla’s death is in no way proof of Lady Prudence’s innocence,” he said when Titus made no reply. “Unpleasant as it is, that lady is still under investigation for acts of treason. Your investigation,” he added pointedly.

Titus was aware of that. In fact, he had insisted, once Stonewell made it clear the investigation into Lady Prudence would continue, that he would be the one to prove or disprove her innocence. The thought of allowing any of the other Sinners to do so was completely unacceptable to him.

He glared at the duke from between narrowed lids. “And this steeliness on your part in regard to Lady Prudence has nothing to do with your own vested interest in finding that lady guilty?”

Stonewell eyed him coldly. “I shall endeavor to forget you said that.”

Titus snorted. “Do not worry, you shall have your proof. One way or the other.” For Prudence’s sake, as well as his own, Titus hoped that he would be able to prove her innocent beyond even Stonewell’s doubt.





Chapter 2


The following day,

Germaine House, London



“I had thought after you attended dear Jocelyn’s wedding yesterday that you would cease shutting yourself away like this,” Lady Cynthia Germaine, Countess of Winchester and Prudence’s mother, admonished lightly as the two women sat together in Prudence’s private parlor. “Cilla would not have wanted it,” she added emotionally.

Pru’s eyes flashed. “If our roles were reversed, then Cilla would be so prostrate with grief, she would be unable to rise from her bed.”

“Well. Yes. That is true,” her mother allowed, her blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty an older version of her daughters’. “You always were the emotionally stronger of the two. Your father and I have decided,” she continued in brisk voice before Pru could make a reply, “that it is time we retired to our house in Bedfordshire for the winter months.”