Page 83 of A Perfect Gentleman

“Good. I’ll return soon.” He swung around and left the room. Unnoticed, the folded piece of paper slipped out from beneath his jacket and floated to the floor.

Abby stood for a moment, gazing at the square of paper. It was Graeme’s; she had no right to read it. She walked over and picked up the note. She should simply put it on his desk and leave; it was wrong to snoop. Normally she would have done just that.

But she thought of the way Graeme had glanced over at her, the odd, almost shifty, look in his eyes when she asked if something was wrong. There was something in that note that concerned her; she was sure of it. Something he didn’t want her to know.

Perhaps it was about meeting someone involved in the fund they were investigating, and Graeme wanted to go without her. The idea pierced her.

She had thought for a moment that their old warmth and closeness might return. That Graeme was about to say he wanted to be with her again. But when the note arrived, his demeanor had changed.

Abby looked down at the folded sheet of notepaper. Graeme’s name was written across it in a flowing feminine hand. Her heart squeezed within her chest. She knew it was worse than not wanting her to accompany him. She opened the note and read the brief message within:

Graeme,

I must speak to you. Please call on me. It’s urgent or I would not have asked.

Yours,

Laura

Graeme had run to the side of the woman he loved. Abby stuffed the letter in her pocket and walked away.

chapter 27

Abby pelted up the stairs and into her room, only barely restraining herself from slamming the door behind her. She wanted to smash something—anything, as long as she could pretend it was Graeme’s head.

“Miss Abby! What’s wrong?” Molly hurried toward her. “What has that infernal man done now?”

Abby had not meant to tell her; she hated for Molly to dislike Graeme any more than she already did. But talking was better than breaking things.

“He’s gone to see Laura.” Anger spurted up in her anew. “He received a note from her just now and rushed off.”

“The man’s a devil. Running off to a tryst with that woman with you right there in front of him!”

“No, I don’t think it’s a tryst.” Somehow her maid’s anger calmed her own a bit. “It sounded as if she wanted to talk. She asked him to come and said it was urgent.”

“He told you that?”

“No. I read the note. He just told me he was going to meet someone.”

“He lied to you.”

“Not exactly.” Abby sighed. “But, yes, he concealed who it was. Obviously he wouldn’t want me to know.”

“It’s time you left here. We’ll go home, and you can have the baby there, among your friends and family.”

Abby shook her head. “I promised I would stay in England. That I wouldn’t take his child from him.”

“Pah! He doesn’t deserve your promises.”

“No. It’s his child, too. His heir, if it’s a boy. I couldn’t take our son away from his father, his birthright. His heritage.”

“He’d be better off growing up as far away from him as you could get.”

“It’s not Graeme’s fault that he loves her.”

“It is when he loves someone other than his wife.”

“He loved Laura before he even met me. And if it’s punishment you’re after, he’s received more than he deserves already. He’s saddled with a wife he doesn’t want.”