Page 87 of The Duke of Deceit

Perhaps Auntie had finally gone completely mad after all.

“This way.” Henry took Jess’s arm and led her toward the palace with Aunt Matilda scurrying along behind. Jess would have sworn she heard the old woman chuckling with glee. “We’re expected at four o’clock sharp.”

“Expected for what?” Jess gaped in confusion as he led them past the entrance guards with a quiet word and a nod. The men stepped back and waved them into the maze of medieval rooms that piled into one another like Russian nesting dolls. “There’s obviously been a mistake. Women aren’t allowed in parliamentary proceedings.”

She expected the King’s Guard to come rushing forward and arrest them for treason at any moment. Or more likely, toss them out into the rain on their petticoats.

She muttered beneath her breath, “I don’t think we’re allowed in this building at all.”

“Not normally, no.” Henry guided them past Westminster Hall and down a corridor from which various rooms splintered off like branches on a tree. “But today is rather special.”

Jess blinked to clear the stinging from her eyes. Nothing was special about today. It was simply another day in a long line of lonely days in which she wouldn’t be with Lucien.

They stopped in front of a set of heavily carved double doors. One of the doors stood open, and through it, Jess could see a room filled with a large table, several leather chairs, great paintings and tapestries covering the walls, and through the lead-glazed Tudor windows, a view of the old Abbey and its churchyard. A dozen men waited inside, helping themselves to the trays of drinks and refreshments on the table as they loudly gossiped about women and traded advice on hounds and horses.

Confused, she turned toward Henry and demanded answers. “I don’t understand. Why am I here? What does any of this have to do with your wedding?”

“Everything.”

Before Jess could think of a reply to that, he led her inside.

Every pair of eyes inside swung to them, staring blatantly, and then dismissed them as unimportant. The men turned back to their conversation as if Jess and Matilda didn’t exist.

“Sit here.” Henry guided them to two chairs in the corner. His gaze darted to the large clock over the fireplace mantel, and he nodded, pleased that they’d arrived on time. “We’re about to begin.”

She slid onto the chair with Auntie beside her. “Beginwhat, exactly? Why are we here?”

He hurried away before he could answer. He untied his leather portfolio and removed a sheaf of papers, then took a position against the wall in the middle of the room and waited.Apparently, he wanted to fade into the wallpaper as much as the women were expected to, for none of the men in the room gave him a second glance as they continued to debate the weighty merits of brood mares, bitches, and wives. Jess didn’t recognize any of the men, yet already she despised them. If these men were the cream of London society, no wonder Lucien wanted nothing to do with any of them.

The clock struck four. Before the last chime sounded, both doors were flung open wide.

Jess caught her breath.Lucien.

He paused in the doorway for a moment to let the attention of everyone in the room swing to him. Their conversations abruptly stopped.

“My lords,” he called out in the resulting silence.

His dark eyes flicked sideways to Jess, then back to the men without a change in his inscrutable expression. But that brief acknowledgement of her presence made her quiver.

So did the way he walked forward, ignoring her.

A knot of emotion tightened in her throat. His dismissal pained her. But what else did she expect him to do? She had ended things between them, in a most definite way, by swearing to never marry him.

“Auntie,” she whispered as she latched on to Matilda’s elbow and demanded, “what on earth is going on?”

“A happily ever after for my niece,” her aunt returned in the same low whisper. Then her brow furrowed with instant worry. “I hope.”

Jess noticed the sharp nod of recognition Lucien gave to Henry Graham. Sothatwas what this meeting was about and why the two women needed to be present. Lucien was helping Henry with his position in the East India Company and needed some kind of oversight decision from Parliament, just as he needed the two women to stand as witnesses to Henry’scharacter and future prospects on behalf of Amanda. That was all.

Her heart panged painfully in her hollow chest like a hammer striking a bell. Lucien wasn’t here to see her.

He stopped directly in front of the long table and nodded at the men in greeting. “Thank you for meeting with me today on such short notice.”

A paunchy peer in a bright red waistcoat and green jacket who resembled a strawberry snickered as he sank into one of the chairs lining the table. The rest of the men followed. “Don’t think agreeing to meet was out of respect for you, Crewe,” he said. “We’re only here from sheer curiosity to find out what you could possibly want from the Committee for Privileges.”

Jess’s heart skipped. The Committee for Privileges oversaw all rights and conduct for the House of Lords, from inheritance of titles to acts of criminality, and every behavior in between. They could make binding decisions themselves; for more serious issues, they could call for Parliament to take up an act. She swallowed hard. They could also recommend to the sovereign to go so far as to attaint a title, if circumstances warranted it. Of all the committees in Parliament, the Committee for Privileges held the most power over every lord in the land. Including Lucien.

She silently echoed the same sentiments as the strawberry lord. If anyone should have kept as far away from this committee as possible, it would have been the Duke of Deceit.