Page 1

Chapter

One

Berkeley Square, London

December 1821

In the sudden quiet, the striking of sleety rain against the dining room windows was the only thing Audrey could hear. The dinner was not going as planned. It was the first she’d hosted since returning to Town after spending several blissful months with her new husband at their country estate in Surrey. There, Hugh and Audrey, the Viscount and Viscountess Neatham, had swiftly, and happily, settled into married life. For the most part, it had been a seamless transition, and the retreat from London society had been a balm for them both.

The last few years had been a trial for a myriad of reasons, but once Audrey and Hugh had taken their marriage vows and gone off to Cranleigh for a long honeymoon, it was only the future she found herself thinking of.

However, with the missive that had just been delivered to her husband, seated at the opposite end of the dining room table, Audrey realized that with their return to London, so too came Hugh’s former life as a principal agent at Bow Street Station.

The easy conversation among their guests had halted while everyone waited for Hugh to read the note Whitlock, their butler, had presented, explaining, “The Runner said it was an urgent matter, my lord.”

A knot of unease pulled at Audrey’s stomach—which was already uncomfortable—as she watched her husband unfold the note, the muscle in his jaw tensing. She had the sudden wish that they had stayed in Surrey for the Christmastide holidays.

Hugh glanced up from the note and locked eyes with her. “I’m afraid I must leave.”

“Right this moment?” Cassandra Sinclair asked, her blonde brows taut with concern. “Is it an emergency?”

“Of course it is an emergency, Cassie. If it weren’t, the Viscount would not be leaving in the middle of dinner,” Michael Sinclair, the Duke of Fournier, replied, his irritation with his younger sister plain.

He and Cassie had been bickering back and forth since the soup course, ever since Cassie mentioned her upcoming birthday. She would be reaching her majority and wished to become an independent woman of means. However, to no one’s great surprise, the duke believed it would be safer—and far less scandalous—for her to marry.

Although Audrey was no longer related to Michael and Cassie through marriage to their brother, Philip, she still thought of them as family. And they had continued to treat her as such, even being so gracious as to welcome her new husband, Hugh Marsden, into the family fold too.

Hugh pushed back his chair and stood, his eyes still hinged on Audrey. “I apologize for ruining the evening.”

Tonight’s dinner was to have been an early Christmas celebration, considering in a few short weeks, Audrey would begin her confinement in earnest. She’d wanted to host one last dinner before then.

She laid her palm onto the hard, round shelf of her abdomen, and felt a twinge of restless agitation just thinking about the next two months, confined as she would be to this house. Under her hand, the baby gave a little nudge. Probably, she reasoned, in response to her own sudden tension.

“You haven’t ruined a thing,” Genie, the Duchess of Fournier, assured the viscount from her seat across from her husband. “I only hope you haven’t been summoned for anything too grim.”

“Oh, it’s sure to be somethin’ terrible,” Sir replied before taking another large bite of his roasted chicken. Then, with his mouth full, he added, “Probably a murder.”

Seated to Audrey’s right, Sir was the only one in their small party who had not stopped eating when the missive was delivered. Roughly thirteen, the boy whom Hugh had taken on as a ward a few years ago had improved a great deal in his manners. His tutor, Mr. Fines, had come with them to Cranleigh, and though Sir gave him quite a bit of cheek, the tutor had been successful in bringing the former street urchin to heel.

At times, however, Sir’s coarse upbringing and prickly tongue came forward with unexpected zeal.

“Gracious,” Genie murmured in response to Sir’s blunt assessment. He was likely correct, but the duchess was not accustomed to hearing about such violence.

“It might not be as ghastly as that,” Audrey said as Hugh smothered his amusement and strode from the room.

She pushed back her chair to stand as well. With her growing belly, it was becoming more of a chore to get to her feet gracefully, but so far, she thought she’d handled being with child rather well.

When she’d first discovered she was carrying a baby, about a month after their wedding, she’d been overwhelmed with wonder and happiness. The fact that she and Hugh had created a life together, and that she was now going to be a mother, had kept Audrey in a constant state of awe. Hugh had been ecstatic as well, to say the least. After an initial period of waiting on her hand and foot, and treating her like a breakable china vase, Audrey had finally put down her foot, insisting that he needn’t do so. She was not an invalid. In fact, she had never felt better in her life. None of the nausea that Genie had warned her about had afflicted her, and for the first few months, she’d possessed a sort of fathomless energy.

Now, however, fatigue was creeping in.

As Audrey stood, Michael and Sir got to their feet too. The duke stayed in place at the table, but Sir took one last, large bite of his chicken and then wiped his mouth with his napkin before tossing it onto his plate. “I’ll get my coat,” he declared, following Hugh from the dining room.

“Excuse me a moment,” Audrey said to the remaining guests as she, too, left the room.

In the foyer, their footman, Rivers, brought forward Hugh’s greatcoat while Sir fetched his own from the closet.

“What has happened?” she asked, voice low, as her husband dressed for the wintry weather.