Page 7 of Chloe and the Devil (Regency Spinsters Alliance #2)

CHAPTER SEVEN

“Could you please confirm that I have understood the situation correctly?” Lady Georgiana Stapleton, one of the six members of the Spinsters Alliance, frowned.

Four of those members were once again gathered in the library at St. Albans House. Miss Rose Appleby had sent her apologies, having the prior engagement of attending afternoon tea, in the company of her mother, at the home of the Dowager Countess of Kingswood. The same lady who was to be Rose’s future mother-in-law when she married the present Earl of Kingswood during the summer.

A match they all knew Rose was unhappy with, which was why she had become one of the spinsters in their alliance. Unfortunately, her family’s dire financial status probably meant that Rose would not have any choice in the matter.

Having an earl and countess in the family would raise the family’s social standing considerably and hopefully ensure that Rose’s brother Richard would also be able to make an advantageous marriage. Hopefully one, considering the groom’s known gambling habit, in which he received a considerable dowry from the bride’s parents.

The other young ladies in the alliance had assured Rose that she was not betraying them by going forward with the marriage, but was instead showing extreme devotion and loyalty to her family.

Lily had also made her excuses not to attend, having asked for and been granted a last fitting of her wedding gown with the seamstress. Lily wanted perfection when she appeared as a bride before her future husband.

It was an admirable desire. Except Chloe knew her father loved Lily so much the other woman could wear a sack on their wedding day, and as long as Lily became his wife, he would still think her the most beautiful woman in the world.

It was a trait Chloe loved seeing in her father, having never seen him so happy as he was now. So much so that even if Lily had not been one of her best friends, Chloe knew she would have loved her anyway for bringing such joy to her papa’s life.

But in the circumstances, Chloe was relieved to have received Lily’s excuse not to be here today.

Having received a promise of silence from all the members of the Spinsters Alliance who were able to attend, and the agreement that one of them would inform Rose of the reason for the meeting when they next saw her, Chloe had told them of her dilemma.

“Did you really just tell us all that you are the author Charles King, whom all in Society have been gossiping about and speculating as to his identity these past ten months?” Georgiana made no attempt to disguise the excitement in her voice.

Georgiana was normally the most cynical and outspoken of the six young ladies of the Spinsters Alliance. Although, she had been less so since the death of her controlling father six weeks ago.

The earl had not had a close or loving relationship with any of his three daughters. Nor had he been the best of husbands, having refused to speak to his wife except when they were in company, after she produced three daughters rather than the sons the earl wanted. Nor had the countess been able to have any more children.

But, as was the case with her mother and two younger sisters, out of recognition for the loss of her father, the Earl of Shefford, Georgiana was wearing black from head to toe as Society dictated that she should.

Chloe knew the Stapleton women believed the wearing of the dour clothing to be a small price to pay for having been relieved of the earl’s consistently cruel manner toward all of them.

The four women had to leave Shefford House, of course, so that the new Earl of Shefford, a second cousin to the previous earl, could move in with his family. As was the case when there was no son to inherit, the Shefford fortune had also gone to the second cousin. Also unsurprisingly, considering the previous earl’s animosity toward his wife and daughters, he had made no separate financial provision for his widow and three daughters.

Chloe and Lily had both appealed privately to Chloe’s father to ask for him to somehow assist the Stapleton ladies before they were made completely homeless.

As Chloe’s father had never been able to deny her anything, and now his beloved Lily was making the same plea, the duke had acted immediately before the Stapleton ladies were allowed to suffer any hardship.

Through his own lawyer and the dowager countess’s, who had agreed not to tell that lady of the circumstances under which she was to receive this assistance, the duke had quietly arranged for the four Stapleton women to move into another house in a fashionable part of London.

He had also arranged for the dowager countess to receive an initial large sum of money to assist her and her three daughters in their new circumstances. Followed by a monthly allowance to be paid to the dowager countess until she either remarried or died.

The dowager countess had seemed so relieved at not being thrown out into the street with her daughters that she hadn’t questioned those provisions too deeply.

Chloe was aware that Georgiana’s surprise now was because she had believed, along with the rest of Society, that Chloe had not opened nor read a book from one year’s end to the other.

Which was obviously a blatant lie as she was now admitting to secretly being an author herself.

Truthfully, Chloe loved to read and had since, at her request, her father taught her to do so at the age of five. But her great-aunt, the elderly Lady Hammond, who acted as her escort in Society, had warned Chloe on her Coming Out a year ago that none of the young gentlemen she met there would wish to have a Bluestocking for a wife.

At the time, Chloe had been too young and na?ve to question the warning. But she had very quickly learned that she had no interest in becoming the wife of any of those gentlemen either.

Mainly because none of them could possibly compare to, or be thought better than, her own father and the man Chloe was already in love with, her father’s best friend, Lucien Lyons, the Duke of Hellsmere.

Her boredom, both with Society and those overeager gentlemen wishing to marry Chloe because her father was the prestigious and influential Duke of St. Albans, had led to her returning to writing stories in her journals as she had as a child. These more mature stories had quickly led to a desire to see if she could succeed in having any of them published. The instant popularity of the Charles King stories had come as a complete surprise to her.

“I am Charles King, yes,” Chloe answered Georgiana. “Which means you now all know it is a her and not a him who writes those stories,” she added with a rueful smile, having decided revealing that fact at the onset of this conversation was the most logical way to proceed. “And yes, that is exactly what I am saying.”

“This is so exciting!” Miss Juliet Chalmers exclaimed.

“I can hardly believe it.” Her cousin, Miss Amanda Styles, beamed her own pleasure.

“Except… Why are you choosing to tell us this now?” Juliet prompted, a frown marring her creamy brow.

Chloe’s eyebrows rose. “I beg your pardon?”

Juliet’s shrewd gaze narrowed. “Why, if you have secretly been being published as Charles King in the newspaper for the past ten months, without speaking a word to any of us about it, have you chosen to confide that information with us today?”

“Well discerned,” Chloe complimented with a wry chuckle.

If any of the gentlemen of the ton ever underestimated the intelligence of a single member of the Spinsters Alliance, they would be in for a very rude awakening.

She sobered. “The journal in which I was most recently writing was not a story as such,” she explained.

“Was it research?” Juliet prompted.

“Of a kind,” Chloe demurred. “In any case, the most relevant detail to this situation is that the journal has now disappeared from the bedside table in my bedchamber.”

“Disappeared?” Georgiana frowned.

“Has been stolen,” Chloe clarified.

“Are you sure?” Amanda probed. “Could it not have just fallen under the bed or behind the bedside table?”

“I have looked everywhere,” Chloe assured her, as she had Lucien the previous evening.

Since realizing the journal was missing, she had literally stripped off all the bedcovers before shaking them and then remaking the bed. She had also moved or looked under all the furniture in her dressing room as well as her bedchamber. She had even looked behind the floor-length curtains in both those rooms.

Reluctantly, she had finally had to accept that the journal truly was gone.

She released a heavy sigh. “I believe the journal was stolen four days ago, when there were too many people to count coming in and out of the house.” Except she and Lucien had now counted them. “Because of the forthcoming wedding.”

“We were all here that day too,” Georgiana pointed out. “Have you considered that it might have been one of us who went up to your bedchamber and took the journal?”

“I very briefly considered the possibility, yes,” Chloe admitted, sheepish apology in her tone and expression. “Before I as quickly dismissed the idea.”

“Why did you?” Amanda prompted curiously.

“Because you are all my truest and most trusted friends.” Her gaze lowered. “A friendship I also fear I shall be sorely in need of if the contents of the journal are ever made public,” she admitted heavily.

“A good answer,” Georgiana complimented with a smile. “I thank you on behalf of all of us for having decided to confide in us now,” she added warmly. “I also congratulate you on having your writings published. I am one of the people who have followed every weekly installment of Charles King’s stories with great anticipation for the next one.”

Juliet nodded. “Me too.”

“And I,” Amanda agreed.

Chloe gave a gracious bow. “I thank you all for your kind words.”

“I realize that it will cause a sensation if you are revealed as being Charles King?—”

“That is an understatement!” Chloe shuddered just thinking of the scandal that would follow such a revelation about a lady in Society. Something she really should have considered more deeply before her stories were published. But it was too late now for that particular regret.

Georgiana nodded. “But what is written in this particular journal, which now causes you such disquiet as to its disappearance?”

Chloe grimaced. “It is because what is written inside this journal is of a…more personal nature.”

“How so?” Juliet prompted.

“Unlike my stories which, as you know, feature more adventure than romance, what is written in the missing journal was only ever meant for my eyes.”

“Why?” Georgiana prompted.

She drew in a deep breath before speaking. “Because they are a series of fantasies rather than an actual story.”

“What sort of fantasies?” Amanda asked.

“Private ones.”

“Are they sexual fantasies?” Georgiana probed.

Chloe swallowed. “Yes.”

“You know enough about such intimacies to be able to write about such things?” Juliet asked more with envy than curiosity.

“Yes,” Chloe admitted.

“How do you know?” Georgiana prompted.

Chloe winced. “I found some books on the top shelf in my father’s library?—”

Amanda’s eyes were wide. “The duke keeps risqué literature in the library here where anyone might find it?”

Chloe smiled. “He originally kept the books because they once belonged to my mother—there is a template inside that says the books belong to Mariah Lord—but I believe he has now forgotten they ever existed.”

“But you found and read them?” Georgiana approved.

“I did,” she confirmed.

“Were you not shocked by the contents?” Juliet inquired.

Chloe felt the heat—and color?—bloom in her cheeks. “At first,” she admitted. “But then I became curious to learn more. There were six books in all, and I quickly read the contents of all of them from cover to cover.”

“And you were using that knowledge to write your own personal fantasies inside the journal that has now been stolen?” her friend probed.

“Yes.”

“But if they were fantasies?—”

“I feature by name as the female in those fantasies,” Chloe admitted.

Georgiana grimaced. “Oh dear.”

“Yes.”

“Is the man also named?”

“Yes.”

“And his name is…?”

Chloe chewed on her bottom lip for several seconds but knew she ultimately had no choice but to reveal all. “The man is named as being Lucien Lyons, the Duke of Hellsmere,” she said in a rush.

“I knew it!” Juliet exclaimed with obvious glee. “Did I not tell you both months ago that I believed Chloe to be in love with Hellsmere?” She looked very pleased with herself.

Chloe stared at her, astounded. “You did?”

“She did,” Amanda confirmed ruefully. “I told her she was talking nonsense. The man might be so handsome it causes the gods themselves to weep in envy, but he is also the haughtiest and most unavailable gentleman in all of London.”

“I believe that to be my papa,” Chloe said affectionately.

“It was,” Georgiana confirmed. “But that is no longer the case now that he is madly in love with Lily and does not care who knows it.”

“True.” Chloe smiled indulgently.

“How long have you been in love with Hellsmere?” Georgiana questioned gently.

Her smile faded. “All my life, it seems,” she admitted heavily, knowing it was still true, despite the way they had last parted.

“He is a good man,” the other woman approved.

“He is,” Chloe agreed, knowing it was true, despite what she might have said to Lucien two evenings ago.

Lord, how she missed his presence in her life. Because, as she had instructed, Lucien had not visited her personally nor contacted her again since she had told him he was not welcome to do so. As far as she was aware, he had not come here to visit her father either, the two men meeting at one of their clubs or at the boxing salon these past two days.

Her father, she knew, had been pleased by the distraction with the wedding fast approaching. Chloe had spent that same time regretting having been so hard-hearted toward Lucien when they last spoke together.

Yes, she had been displeased with him, but she had been angrier still with herself for allowing him to know of her arousal. Even if she could not bring herself to regret how he had responded to that knowledge.

A response Chloe had been trying very hard not to think about since the night it happened.

It was impossible, of course. Because each time the memory popped into her thoughts—and it did so often—her nipples would tighten and between her thighs would heat and dampen.

The knowledge that pleasure had been given to her by Lucien, the man she had adored all her adult life, seemed somehow like a dream.

A fantasy .

“But now there is a leatherbound journal, somewhere out there”—she waved her arm in the direction of the city of London spread outside the window—“with the damning evidence of my sexual fantasies involving Hellsmere and myself clearly written inside it.”

The anticipation of wondering when or where the thief would confront her with that knowledge still made Chloe feel as if she had the Sword of Damocles dangling above her head waiting to descend.

* * *

“What has you so on edge today?”

Lucien looked across at St. Albans as the two men used towels to wipe the perspiration from their faces.

They had just finished fighting each other with their rapiers. Lucien had won the encounter. But, as his friend had observed, it had been a hard-fought battle, with no mercy given.

“You nearly took my head off a couple of times,” the other man observed ruefully. “Which would have displeased Lily immensely. And believe me, you do not want to displease my Lily,” he added with warm affection.

“ Your Lily likes me,” Lucien assured.

Gabriel chuckled. “A sentiment I am sure would not continue if you were to take my head off before the wedding.”

Despite Chloe having dismissed any need for Lucien’s assistance two evenings ago, he had quietly been finding the opportunity since then to question the servants working at St. Albans House. He had done so under the guise of searching for a misplaced leather glove.

So far, he had been able to question the butler, four footmen, the head groom, and the three young men who worked with him in the stables.

None of them knew where Lucien’s glove was.

Which they wouldn’t have done, because there was no missing glove!

But the excuse of it was enough for Lucien to be able to speak to each of those servants individually. Which, in turn, had allowed him to decide for himself what sort of person they were. He considered himself a sound judge of a person’s character, which was why the nine people he had spoken to now had a cross beside their name on the mental list of any who had the opportunity to have stolen Chloe’s journal.

He still had the four housemaids, the housekeeper, the cook, and the three girls helping in the kitchen to question. Also, the head gardener and the two men working with him, as well as Gabriel’s lawyer and clerk, and the tailor and his two assistants. There was also the seamstress and her three assistants. Lastly, there was Jacobson, Gabriel’s secretary.

Lucien had heard nothing from Chloe since they parted two evenings ago with so much animosity on her part. An animosity, considering his own unacceptable behavior, he accepted she was perfectly justified in feeling toward him.

His only excuse, and it was not a particularly valid one, was that he had hungered for Chloe for so long that he had simply been unable to resist touching her and giving her pleasure when the opportunity arose.

His punishment had been to ache for his own release during the carriage journey to his home. An ache he had taken care of the moment he reached the privacy of his bedchamber.

Since then, he had not heard so much as a word from Chloe. Leading him to assume she had no new information for him. At least, he hoped that was the case.

Lucien sincerely hoped that Chloe’s anger toward him was not so extreme she would choose to put her personal pride before her safety. That she would not try to deal with the blackmailer alone, if she should hear from one.

Knowing Chloe’s nature as well as he did, Lucien knew it was an ambitious hope for him to have. And, in all probability, a futile one. Chloe could be extremely stubborn when she felt the need, and having already rebuffed his further assistance she might consider this to be one of those occasions.

In any case, Lucien believed that if blackmail was the reason for the journal being taken, then Chloe would definitely be hearing from the thief before the wedding in three days’ time.