Page 88 of A Remarkable Rogue

“But Scepter wasn’t done yet in their attempts to assassinate the prime minister and regent. They needed more explosives to carry out their next attempt. General Braxton was blackmailed into providing them, and you were threatened into delivering the orders to him. You know what happened after that.”

“But none of that proves Charles Langley is behind Scepter.”

“No,” he agreed quietly. “Butyoudo.”

Her eyes grew wide.

“Scepter used Robert to blackmail you into doing their bidding. Hawking knows you’re the boy’s guardian.”

“Yes,” she said softly.

“He’s the only one who knows, except for the woman he helped you hire.” He paused pointedly. “Miss Jenner.”

“Yes.” This time, the word was nothing but silence on her stunned lips. She blinked hard and lowered her gaze to Robbie as she admitted shamefully, “I know Hawking through my charity work. We sit on several of the same boards and donate to the same children’s organizations. Everyone trusts him. So did I.” Her arms tightened around the sleeping boy. “When Rowland died, he offered his support, however I needed, and we became close friends. I was finally able to hunt for Robbie, but I needed someone to help me retain investigators to find him, to recommend a lawyer who would draw up a guardianship without asking questions…”

“To hire a governess to care for him,” he added quietly. “The womanherecommended who was also indebted to his family. The one who soon discovered that Robert was far more to you than the distant relative you claimed.”

She blinked rapidly. “Caroline Jenner knew that man was coming after us today,” she whispered. “That’s why she gave me this dress to wear, why she acted so oddly when we arrived, because…because she was part of it all. I trusted her.” Her voice cracked. “I trusted Charles.”

His heart ached for her and the guilt that must be consuming her. “Clayton and the Home Office will make certain he can’t harm anyone again.”

She nodded absently and looked away, first to the sleeping boy on her lap, then out the window at the dark countryside, although Nate knew she could see nothing past the glass except for the dim circle of the lamplight at the front corner of the carriage and blackness beyond. Her fingers plucked in agitation at the fringed edge of the blanket tucked around her son.

“Hawking proposed to me,” she breathed out so softly that he could barely hear her above the noise of the carriage wheels rolling beneath them. She didn’t look at him, still staring out the window. “I refused.”

Nate kept his gaze glued to her profile in the darkness and forced down the anger churning inside him.

“That’s why I was blackmailed again, isn’t it, even after Henry Everett was reported as dead? He wanted me to turn to him for help, but I didn’t. I turned to you. He knew that and couldn’t stand it.” She swallowed hard to clear her throat. “When he proposed, I first thought he wanted only…” Her voice trailed off into silence, but she might as well have uttered the words…Only to bed me. “But he wanted marriage. When I refused him, he most likely hated me for it.”

“I know.”

Her head snapped up. Even in the dim light, her eyes glistened brightly with her tears of pain and the betrayal of a dear friend. “How?”

Because I know what it’s like to have your love and how much a night of that would mean to any man.

No, not a night. Nate wanted a lifetime with her.

“Because he could have paid a boy from the street to deliver the message to Braxton,” he answered instead. “But he wanted to humiliate you for refusing him, so he made you dress in costume like a lightskirt and go to a party that was little more than an orgy. He might have even counted on the general attacking you in the garden.”

She pressed the back of her hand against her mouth as if fighting down the urge to be ill. “If you hadn’t been there…Oh, God.”

“Hawking was probably there at the party, too, watching you from behind a mask. Most likely he wanted to save you from Braxton himself and become a hero to you. A man whose marriage offer you then could not refuse.”

Sydney turned her attention back to Robbie, and she brushed the dark blond hair from his forehead. “Hawking thought I was so lonely, so desperate for help, that I would accept his proposal.” She inhaled a deep breath. “It was true—Iwaslonely and aching, but I didn’t want him. I wanted more. But I never realized how much until I met you that night at Barton’s.”

“The madman who leapt into your speeding carriage?” he asked wryly.

She smiled faintly at Robbie as he stirred in his sleep. “The man who keeps risking his life to save us.”

The man who always will.The sight of her with her son undid him. He knew he would lay down his life for them.Always.

Her smile faded into a troubled frown. “This afternoon, I realized how much I love Robert, how much I’m willing to sacrifice for him, and that I want him with me. Just as you’ve been trying to convince me since London.”

“You’re his mother, Sydney. He deserves to know who you really are.” Nate knew that more than anyone. He didn’t want Robbie to go through life with the same doubts he’d suffered about his father. “I’ll help you tell him if you’d like.”

“Thank you, but no.” She gave a slow shake of her head. “I think that’s something I want to do with just the two of us, if you don’t mind.” Pride flickered across her face, and her eyes shone with love. “He showed such bravery during the kidnapping. I told him that he was a captain just like you, that he was my soldier.” She smiled at Nate through the darkness. “Although I think he now deserves a field promotion.”

“To major?” He arched a brow with mock pique. “He’ll outrank me.”