Free Julie Anne Long by The Runaway Duke Page A

amused glint in them glittered more brightly.
    “Ah, I see,” she said. “You are in love. That would certainly explain the purple speech. Are you perhaps in love with your bride-to-be? This Tremaine girl, this—?”
    “Rebecca,” Edelston said dreamily, because he could not say her name in any other way.
    “Rebecca. And is she in love with you?”
    Edelston was startled by the question. He had been so busy being in love with Rebecca that he had failed to notice whether or not Rebecca was in love with him.
    “We shall be husband and wife soon. It hardly matters, does it?”
    “Oh,
hardly
,” Cordelia agreed. Edelston missed the note of irony in her voice; he was buffered thickly by infatuation. “And what will you do with a wife once you are married?”
    “Why . . .” he said, and stopped. Here was another issue he had failed to consider. He had a vague image in his mind of Rebecca embroidering pillows in the parlor of his country estate while he went about his life in London.
    “Why, I shall be happy, of course.”
    “Why, of
course.
And this marriage will allow you to conclude our . . . financial arrangement?” Cordelia prompted delicately.
    “Ah, yes,” Edelston said, reddening. “Cordelia, I re- gret the necessity of, er . . . taking advantage of your generosity—”
    One of Cordelia’s feathery black brows shot nearly to her hairline at these words, and the corner of her mouth lifted skeptically, but she nodded, encouraging Edelston to continue.
    “—and I am happy to say that I no longer have need of your funds. Sir Henry Tremaine has been quite generous with the marriage settlements.”
    “It shall be forgiven and forgotten, Tony,” she assured him.
    Although Edelston had been vigorously blackmailing her for some time now, Cordelia was not lying about forgiving him. She had begrudgingly appreciated the brash desperation that had prompted Edelston to blackmail her. After all, Tony was a fellow opportunist. One did what one must to survive in the world, and if ever Cordelia had a credo of her own, that was it. Not that the whole episode hadn’t made her angry and resentful indeed; but now that it was nearing its end, she was finding harsh emotions quite a waste of energy. In general, Tony amused her.
    “Forgiven and forgotten, that is, once the article of jewelry in question has been restored to me.” She laid her blue-kid encased hand briefly on Edelston’s upper thigh for emphasis. Her eyes widened again at what her hand encountered.
    “Missed me, have you, Tony?” she murmured. Her hand lifted slowly.
    “Guh . . . er . . .” Edelston reddened, staring for a moment like a startled doe into her amused, knowing blue eyes. Then he collected his wits and reached into the inner pocket of his coat for the locket.
    The pocket was empty.
    His fingers thrashed about in the pocket’s recesses. It was truly empty. Excruciatingly, resoundingly empty.
    “It was here, I swear, I never remove it from here, it
must
be here, my pound note is missing, too,” he muttered insanely.
    Cordelia froze, and then turned slowly and fixed Edelston with a long blue stare, which terrified him. Edelston had been on the receiving end of this particular utter absence of expression several times before, and each time it frightened him in a way he didn’t fully understand. It was as though Cordelia had left her body completely, leaving behind a stranger comprised of indifference so absolute she seemed capable of anything.
    He patted at his other pockets in an agitated fashion and made a show of glancing around at the ground near the bench, but he knew it was useless. For as long as it had been in his possession, he had kept the locket in his inner overcoat pocket.
    He finally stopped searching and squeezed his eyes shut in disbelief. It was gone.
    Cordelia and Edelston lifted their heads from their respective torments when they heard the crunch of footsteps in front of them. It was Gilroy the footman, looking reddened