Page 45 of To Have & To Hold

She cleared her throat and shook her head. “I would like some more time to get to know Grace, if that is alright with you,” she said, noticing the drop in his shoulders as she took a step back.

“Of course,” he smiled, but it fell quickly. “I will take Oliver to the study and give you a chance to talk. We will join you later.”

She nodded as she moved to join Grace, but she could feel Nathaniel’s gaze on her as they walked down the hallway.

∞∞∞

“Would you care to explain why you were interrogating my wife?” The door to his study had barely shut, but Nathaniel couldn’t hide his frustration for a moment longer.

“I was not interrogating her,” Oliver replied, completely at ease. “I was simply asking her questions.”

“Do you not know what aninterrogation is?”

Oliver laughed as he made his way to the newly stocked bar cart that sat beside Nathaniel’s desk. If Oliver was going to insist on spending so much time here, Nathaniel had decided he might as well make a show of being a proper host.

“Interrogations are usually conducted when the questions are meant to lead to a certain conclusion. I was simply asking for curiosity’s sake.” Oliver looked over his shoulder at Nathaniel, arching a brow. “Am I not allowed to be curious about the woman my dearest friend has found himself married to?”

Nathaniel slowly lowered himself into one of the chairs situated by the fireplace. He rubbed a hand slowly over his face, letting the warmth from the fire slowly melt the tension from his body. He could not blame Oliver for being curious. Nathaniel knew he would have responded the same way had Oliver married a complete stranger rather than Grace.

“Is there a reason you do not want me asking questions?” Oliver asked, breaking the silence.

Nathaniel let his hand drop as he stared silently into the fire, searching for the right answer. It wasn’t the questions that had made Nathaniel uneasy, but Emilia’s answers.

“Nathaniel…” Oliver sat in the chair across from him. “Is there something you need to talk about?”

Nathaniel shook his head. A duke did not burden other people with his problems, but he knew Oliver well enough toknow that he would not leave him alone until he was given some sort of answer.

“I may have asked a few questions of my own.”

The admission felt heavy on his tongue, but Oliver seemed unfazed.

“That is understandable,” he shrugged. “Did you get any answers?”

Nathaniel nodded slowly. His mouth suddenly felt dry. He licked his lips, hoping it would make the words slip out more easily. “I asked Fawley to make some inquiries about Lord Moorfield. His findings led him to make inquiries more directly related to Emilia.”

“And?”

“There are a few discrepancies from what she has shared,” Nathaniel sighed. He had read over the papers his solicitor had sent countless times since they were delivered to him the week before. At first, nothing had struck him as particularly disturbing until he had begun to put the different pieces of information together, along with what he had learned from his wife directly.

He had been trying to find a way to broach the subject with her for days, and now Oliver’s line of questioning had only deepened his confusion and concern.

“Like what?” Oliver asked.

“She told you that she has no siblings, but Fawley found navy records for her brother, Lieutenant Alexander Talbot.”

Oliver leaned back in his chair, a crease forming in his brow. “That is odd. If Moorfield took her in after her parents’ death, would he not have taken the boy too?”

Nathaniel shrugged; he had been trying to answer that very question himself for nearly a week. “Based on the records, he is a few years older than her, but not old enough to have already been in service when his parents died.”

“Perhaps she did not know him,” Oliver said, his voice heavy with concern. “She said shehasno siblings. Is the brother still alive?”

Nathaniel huffed, “That is the question. Fawley said there has been no record of him in nearly three years. It is believed he was killed during a campaign in Spain, yet there is no formal record of his death. There are also rumors of desertion.”

“I am sure it was simply overlooked. We have only just emerged from a war,” Oliver replied. “What reason would she have to lie about her brother?”

Nathaniel shook his head. From what he could gather, Emilia’s father had allowed numerous debts to accumulate before his death. If he had a son to inherit the title after him, it was no surprise that the boy had entered the navy to earn a living for himself—but why would Emilia have kept him a secret? “If he is a deserter, then she has plenty of reason.”

“What are you insinuating?” Oliver leaned in closer.