Page 27 of Wedlock

“Ah,” I smile at the nanny as she enters the room, “Eleanor said she was feeling a little headachy and asked if you could bring the baby to her suites today after the wetnurse has finished feeding him.”

“Oh? I’m not sure…”

“Yeah, she forgot to tell you, ah, migraine,” I shrug and give her a ‘you know how it is,’ look.

“Of course, My Lady,” she gives a little curtsy as I hand over the baby and walk to the door with her.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” I turn and run to the bed and then back to the door, a pacifier in one hand and a piece of ribbon concealed in the other. “Can’t forget this.”

I lean forward to pop it into the baby’s mouth,but fumble and deliberately drop it.

As she apologises and leans down to get it, I shove the ribbon into the lock mechanism of the door. The movement is so fast she doesn’t notice, although a length of the ribbon is clearly visible where it wouldn’t fit.

“Oh no,” I shake my head at the pacifier in her hand as she straightens up. “I guess I’d better wash it.”

“I have another,” she smiles, drawing a spare from her pocket and hastily giving it to the baby as he starts to fuss.

“Just in time.” I paste on a fake smile, stepping aside as she leaves and pulls the door shut behind her.

I don’t know what orders she has for keeping me locked in here, but she’s been diligently doing it since she was hired. And ever since the whole ‘dead mistress’ incident, Eleanor had been double-checking the lock too. But Eleanor isn’t around at the moment, and the nanny has fucked up.

Smirking like a maniac, I wait until I think she’s had enough time to make her way down the long corridor before giving the door a hard tug, and being rewarded with a quiet click as it comes open.

24

I’d glimpsed her looking down from the window as I’d arrived, but I couldn’t meet her eyes.

If what I’ve been told is true, and I don’t for a minute believe it is, butifit is, then nothing she’s said or done in the past twelve months or more was of her own free will.

Nothing.

In which case, I’ve once again treated the woman who competed against twenty-three other women in a deadly game in order to marry me, who once claimed she loved me, and whom I loved,‘still love,’abysmally. Not only that, I’ve failed her. Failed toprotect her, failed to trust her, failed to even really get to know her if all this time she was under a thrall and I hadn’t noticed.

Failed her utterly.

But I can’t think about that right now. At this moment I have to secure the safety of my family while I get to the bottom of Wolf’s claim. Part of me, a big part, believes this is some machination of Spider’s to make me destroy my own brother. Perhaps because he’d discovered Sophie’s child was mine, I don’t know. This and a thousand other scenarios have run through my mind.

When I’d reached my castle and learned Mother was at the Court, a dangerous place any day of the week, I’d acted with speed and left to get her. I haven’t been able to find Viper yet, but that’s not unusual. He’s known to piss off on benders with his range of hangers-on and reappear months later. Given the shit-fight he’d left after revealing Angie’s affair, I’m not surprised he’s making himself scarce. Still, my guards are out looking for him in all his usual haunts. I want him back within these walls while I discover the truth.

Wolf is also on his way. He’d insisted I summon Jaguar before he finds Viper and kills him so that we can all get to the bottom of what’s going on. But I refuse. I believe Jag’s wrong and is being played, and I’ve told Wolf as much. He’s let his love for Angelina drive him insane — I know that feeling only too well. Not to mention the fact that Jag had sworn Wolf to secrecy over the source of this information. I don’t trust Jag any longer, and nothing is clear right now. Nothing other than my conviction that, once again, Viper needs my protection. I’ll have him here and solve this latest intrigue as soon as he returns my calls.

Now, pacing up and down my study, I spin in relief as Mother enters the room.

“I thought I disgusted you,” she says quietly as she pins me with her disapproving-mother look, “and you needed tofindyourself away from human company.’

“If you’re pissed because I’ve been with Revna, just say it,” I sigh, turning to pour myself a whisky and her a glass of champagne.

She shakes her head when I turn back to offer her the glass.

“It’s too early in the night to be drinking, Falcon. What is the meaning of this? Why have you returned from Denmark and dragged me out of the Court like a servant?”

“Ah, so youdoknow where I was,” I roll my eyes.

“Of course,” she sniffs, “but if you’ve returned home because you’ve come to your senses, then I’m most sincerely relieved.”

“I’ve come home,” I scowl, “because a rumour has reached my ears of another threat, a very real threat, to our family.”

She shrugs and moves to sit. It’s so like Mother to remain calm in the face of imminent danger, but then, she’d lived in dangerous circumstances her entire life, so it’s no surprise.