Free His Shadowed Heart ((Books We Love Regency Romance)) by Hazel Statham

resentment grows as he parades his young wife for all to see. You must know she held hopes in that direction herself, but he made it quite clear he would have none of her, said he had no desire to marry so it came as quite a shock when he took a bride.”
    “I thought Christina enjoyed your protection?” queried Dent.
    “She does my friend, but I enjoyed her company so much more when Waverly was footing the bill.”
    Dent gave a shout of mirthless laughter, “Cuckolded him did you? How very well done! Very neat, if I may say so. ’Tis a pity you could not repeat your success with his new bride, that would certainly be poetic justice. If he found her to be unfaithful, the marriage would end, and he still without further issue!”
    “But then, my dear Gerald, I need not go to such lengths,” sneered Massey, after a moment’s thought. “I believe we could approach the matter much more subtlety and more thoroughly. What would happen if, quite by accident of course, the wife were to meet the mistress? We could then leave the ladies to their own devices. The maximum result for the minimum of effort and there would be no suspicion that we had dealings in it. Perhaps a chance meeting could be arranged and, if I know ought of Christina, she will know exactly what to do.”
    “I hadn’t thought you so devious, my dear friend,” stated Dent with some satisfaction. “It sounds an excellent plan. To lose one’s wife in childbed is tragic—to lose a second through one’s mistress is downright thoughtless. One should pity the man—but then, one does not!”
    Massey gave a humorless grin. “And he would not know I had a hand in both,” he mocked sotto voce.
    Dent frowned. “I don’t understand your meaning.”
    “It’s as well you don’t. I have a trump card to play , should the need arise, but it would not do should I make you privy to it unnecessarily, but believe me, he will be quite devastated by the effects.”
    “Keep your secrets,” Dent sneered. “It would be sufficient to see my dear cousin so served —it would be pure greed to hope for more. I am quite content.”
     
    *****
     
    Climbing the stairs to the gallery, the earl and his wife joined Lord and Lady Stanton in their box, Lady Victoria pulling a chair forward so that Caroline should sit beside her. “You have missed the first act,” she reproved, smiling at the latecomers, “though I swear the plot becomes so tangled it matters not, even the players themselves are lost.”
    “Then we need not stay,” teased the earl lightheartedly, holding his hand out to his wife and making to leave.
    “If I have to suffer this damned play, then so shall you,” growled Lord Stanton from his chair by the door where he sat with arms folded, thoroughly bored by the proceedings.
    “Have no fear, Henry, I will bear you company,” replied the earl, smiling. “I have no more liking for the stage than you —I come but to please Caroline. When your invitation arrived she was eager to see the farce, though I know not why.”
    “Shush!” admonished Lady Victoria as once more the curtains parted and the earl took his seat beside her disgruntled spouse.
    Caroline sat forward the better to view the actors, totally absorbed in their antics, unaware that she was the object of scrutiny from an adjacent box. The plot was ridiculous but the errors proved most entertaining and she found the whole quite amusing.
    “I am prodigiously glad you decided to return to London,” confided Her Ladyship, patting Caroline’s hand as it rested on the rim of the box. “Now I shall have company when Henry decides to be dull and refuses to accompany me on such outings. We shall take Richard out of himself, he will not escape so easily now.”
    “I won’t commit him to anything he has no liking for,” replied Caroline, smiling. “If he chooses not to accompany us, I will not push the issue.”
    “Then you’re a very tolerant wife, my dear. Most men need a little push every now