Page 42 of The Viscount Needs a Wife (All for Love #2)

D ownstairs, Emrys removed her ring from the safe where he had stashed it and set off for the house of the Russian ambassador again.

In the vestibule, he ran straight into Pendrell who was just collecting his coat preparatory to leaving.

“Thought you’d left, old man,” he said.

“I took Annis home, but there is something I need to do.” Emrys looked about and lowering his voice he said, “Are Troubridge and Ravenshaw still here?”

“Aye, why?”

“Is Tavistock?”

Pendrell frowned, which accentuated his hawkish features. “Tavistock? Haven’t a clue. Not sure I know who he is.”

Emrys sighed. If Tavistock had already left, this wasn’t going to work. “Can you find the others for me and meet me in the gazebo in the garden in fifteen minutes?”

“Of course. What do I tell them?”

“I need their help, yours too.”

Pendrell raised his eyebrows and opened his mouth for more questions.

“I’ll explain when we meet.”

Pendrell nodded and ambled off. The man seldom moved quickly; he was just too big.

Emrys passed into the ballroom and scanned the room for his quarry.

It took him a few minutes, but he finally spotted him dancing with a lady in a purple turban.

His fiancée’s duenna. Cecelia, he saw, was also dancing—with Kenrick!

Since Kenrick was well over six feet tall and Cecelia Woodrow was quite short, they made an odd-looking couple.

Tavistock, by contrast, was a more appropriate height for such a little woman, being just under six feet, Emrys would guess from this distance, and of medium to slender build. He had dark-brown hair, fashionably cut, and his clothing was in impeccable taste.

Having satisfied himself that Tavistock was still here and showing no signs of leaving yet, he headed out to the gardens and the gazebo. His friends joined him shortly thereafter.

“What’s to do, Emrys. Is Annis all right?” asked Robert.

“Yes, she is fine. Thanks for coming, chaps.”

“No thanks needed,” said Ravenshaw, folding his arms and widening his stance. “What do you require?”

Emrys smiled. These men would die on a hill for him. It gave him a warm feeling in his breast.

“Rob, you’ll know some of this, but I’ll tell the whole story for Deo and Jerome’s benefit. Goes without saying that this is absolutely confidential. It concerns Annis.”

All three looked grave, nodded, and murmured “Of course.”

“Whatever you need, old chap,” said Pendrell gruffly.

“You will all know that Annis was the Laynes’ governess. What you don’t know is that for a number of years she has been terrified out of her wits by a man stalking her.”

Pendrell shifted, his right hand tightening into a fist. Ravenshaw tensed but said nothing. Rob, who already knew this, didn’t react.

“This fellow threatened to kill her a number of years ago, soon after her mother died, in fact. She never knew who he was or why he threatened her. And for a few years she thought she had eluded him or at least that he had gone away. Then earlier this year she began to feel that someone was watching her. Turns out there was. While I was staying at The Castle, her room was ransacked by the villain—looking for this!” He held up Annis’s father’s ring.

“Annis, very bravely, if a trifle totty-headedly, decided to confront the miscreant and managed to stab him and give him a scar on his cheek.”

“Good God—Tavistock?” asked Robert.

Emrys nodded. “Yes. Annis heard his voice tonight and recognized it. That’s why I took her home. She was understandably upset.” Emrys smiled wryly. “Although she was a little relieved, too. She was worried she had killed him.”

“Bravo!” murmured Ravenshaw, his deep blue eyes glittering in the lamp light.

“But where’s the connection to Tavistock, Emrys?” pressed Robert.

“This ring belonged to Nicolas Benedict Redmayne, son of the 6th Earl of Tavistock... and Annis’s father.” He stopped, waiting for what he had said to sink in.

“The current fellow is the 7th earl, this Nicholas’s son?” asked Pendrell.

“Yes, his name is Lawrence.”

Ravenshaw said delicately, “So Annis is his illegitimate daughter? And the current earl’s half-sister?”

“Yes and no,” said Emrys with a small smile.

He was enjoying himself a bit. “Annis was born Nicolas’s legitimate daughter, and it appears that it’s Lawrence who is the illegitimate one.

Her parents’ marriage predates his, and it seems the marriage was never set aside—I checked.

Instead, it was Nicolas’s marriage to Lawrence’s mother that was bigamous. ”

“You can prove this?” asked Robert.

“We’ve seen the marriage record and there are no grounds for the marriage being annulled. Nicolas wasn’t impotent—Lawrence himself is evidence of that, even if Annis is not. And my solicitor believes no measures were taken to set the marriage aside or void it for any other reason, either.”

“Hence why he wants her removed and to retrieve the ring. She is a threat to everything he has.” Ravenshaw’s tone was low and sent a shiver over Emrys’s skin. Jerome DeVere was not a man to make an enemy of.

“But why threaten her all those years ago, and then again now? Why wait all that time?” asked Pendrell.

“I don’t know—perhaps he lost track of her. She did move away from Bath to London and thence to the Laynes’ employ.”

“What is your plan, Emrys? You do have a plan?” asked Ravenshaw.

“I do. I plan to lay a trap for him, for which I need your help.”

“Whatever you need, old man,” said Pendrell, placing a big hand on his shoulder. The other two assented.

Fifteen minutes later, all four gentlemen returned to the ballroom. Emrys collected a drink from a passing waiter and watched while the Marquess of Ravenshaw very smoothly invited Tavistock to join him in the card room.

The two men left the room together, and Emrys followed slowly. Pendrell and the duke were already there. Ravenshaw led the unsuspecting Tavistock to their table and a few minutes later Emrys joined them, just as Robert, who held the bank, was about to deal.

“Room for a fifth, gentlemen?” asked Emrys, pulling out a chair.

“Of course!” The duke smiled at him. “I don’t believe you’ve met Tavistock?”

Emrys smiled, reaching out his hand upon which he wore Annis’s ring.

“Pleasure. It’s Lawrence Redmayne, isn’t it?

My grandmother knew your grandfather quite well , by all accounts.

” This provoked some laughter which covered Tavistock’s color change as he caught sight of the ring.

Emrys wondered if he would ask about it, but he didn’t.

Close to, Lawrence Redmayne was of medium height and athletic build.

He would be accounted good looking if it weren’t for the nasty scar on his right cheek.

He had brown hair and grey eyes, and Emrys at least could see a faint resemblance to Annis in his coloring and the cast of his features.

A little more than two years younger than Annis, this young man would be twenty-six soon.

They played for an hour and Tavistock stole many glances at the ring during that time, but he never asked about it.

Eventually, the last game drew to a close, and Ravenshaw as usual had won more than his fair share.

The man couldn’t play without winning, he had the damnedest good luck—and skill of course.

Then Emrys said casually, “Well chaps, I need to call it a night, but I’ll see you on Thursday when perhaps we can all have our revenge on Ravenshaw? ”

This was greeted with laughs, and Emrys added, “You’re most welcome to join us, Tavistock. I will send you an invitation with my direction. You will come?”

Tavistock flushed faintly, well aware that to be feted by such a group of titled, older gentlemen was a social feather in his cap, and said politely, “I would be delighted, my lord.”

“Good. See you on Thursday at eight, then.”

Emrys strolled from the card room, well pleased with his stratagem.

Crawling into bed later, he cuddled Annis and murmured “Everything is in train, love. This nonsense will cease very soon, I promise.”

“What have you done?” she asked anxiously.

“Nothing yet, except set a trap. We will spring it on Thursday night.” He rubbed his hands over her appreciatively and gave her a squeeze. “Missed you,” he murmured, kissing her neck.

And when it is all over, I will tell her how much I love her. He had no doubt of his feelings anymore. He adored this woman. He just hoped nervously that his feelings were returned. An attack of insecurity assailed him at the thought, and he squeezed her tighter which made her yelp.

“Emrys!”

“Sorry,” he muttered.

She turned in his embrace and stroked his face and kissed him. “Thank you.”

“What for?” he said gruffly.

“For being my knight in shining armor. I’ve never had one of those before.”

“And you’ll have no other now,” he said somewhat forcefully.

“I know. I wouldn’t want anyone else, Emrys. No one can compete with you.”

He flushed, pleased. Perhaps my feelings are returned.

But even if they are, I can’t afford to take them for granted, Caro loved me once, too, and grew out of it or got bored or.

.. something. I can’t afford to let that happen with Annis.

If she falls out of love with me, I don’t think I will ever recover.

He kissed her, anxious to ward off such dismal thoughts, and she kissed him back. Soon he was lost to the bliss that was Annis.

Four nights later, Viscount Ashford hosted a card party at his house in Cavendish Square.

Five gentlemen were invited: the Duke of Troubridge, the Marquess of Ravenshaw, the Earl of Pendrell, the Earl of Tavistock, and a gentleman by the name of Gerard Newbury, lately of Bow Street, under the sobriquet of Baron Knightsbridge.