Page 65 of Better Off Wed

Laura smoothed her skirts over her knees. “I wonder if you will feel the same about his wife?”

Mrs. Addison sat abruptly down in the chair closest to the fireplace. Julia’s eyes flared, and she stifled a gasp—or perhaps a giggle—behind her hand before sitting down near her mother.

Jeremy, who was standing beside Laura’s chair, gave her a stern glance before explaining. “What Miss Hopkins means is… Well, we—I was sent on a mission by my commanding officer. To find someone. I happened upon Miss Hopkins in distress.” Laura waggled her toes where they rested on the footstool and promptly regretted the gesture. “And, well, with one thing and another, it became clear that if we pretended to be a married couple, we would both be benefited.” Julia smothered another noise, definitely a giggle this time. “We explained that we were newlyweds, and misfortune had fallen upon us—”

“We said I had run away from you. Because I feared as Lord Sterling’s wife, I would be tainted by association with the woman who calls herself ‘Lady Sterling,’” she said by way of clarification to Julia and Mrs. Addison.

“The one from the papers?” asked his mother.

His sister nodded eagerly. “I’ve been teasing him about her for ages. I think it’s why he’s not married yet.”

Jeremy sent her a warning look. “It is not. Now, if I may?” Though his sister did not look terribly chastened, he continued. “The gentleman took us in and got medical attention for Miss Hopkins. But in general, he has a very bad reputation. He mistreats his servants. He’s…well, he’s something of a rake, I suppose you could say.” That description visibly piqued Julia’s interest, which earned her another chiding glance. “And he is in possession of information the British army and the Crown feel strongly he should not have.”

“Which must be why you were sent after him.” Pride beamed from his mother’s face, and Jeremy did not try to disabuse her of her conclusion. “That sounds like an important responsibility, my dear. I’m very proud of you—though it doesn’t exactly sound safe.”

“It isn’t,” Laura agreed. “Which is why we’re here.”

“The gentleman, Lord Thornton, has discovered the trick we played on him to gain his sympathies and get access to his house. I do not know whether he suspects all that we learned about his misdeeds. But I’m sure he fears it, and he would readily harm another, especially to save his own neck. He has come to London looking for us.” He gestured between Laura and himself.

“Well,” Mrs. Addison said, with a dismissive wave, “he isn’t likely to look here.”

“Actually,” he spoke in a soothing voice as he approached his mother, “he is. I feel quite sure he will have no great difficulty discovering that Lord Sterling is deeply in debt, was forced to take the king’s shilling and join the army because of it, and can do no better than rent a cottage in Fulham for his mother and sister.”

“Jeremy.”

Laura understood then where he had acquired the talent for speaking her name and freighting it with half a dozen meanings all at once. She heard exasperation, worry, and love mingled in his mother’s voice.

“This isn’t the time to discuss it, Mama,” he said.

“But why,” asked Julia, and though her eyes were not the same brilliant blue as her brother’s, they shared some of the same cleverness, “if he’s so dangerous, did you lure him to us?”

“It wasn’t a matter of luring—he would have found Briar Cottage inevitably, don’t you see? My commanding officer said that the safest thing would be for all of us to be together, so that a guard could be established for our protection.”

Julia hurried to the window and nudged back the curtain to peer out, as she had on their arrival. “I don’t see anyone.”

“You won’t,” Laura told her. “At least, not according to your brother.”

Julia’s lips twisted with something like disappointment, and she scoured the lane left and right again before letting the curtain fall and returning to her seat. “How long will we be stuck here?”

“Did you have plans?” Jeremy retorted, with unaccustomed sharpness. Regret immediately softened his posture. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I—I’m worried too. It’s one thing for a soldier to be in danger, and quite another to put you in harm’s way.”

“I think your commanding officer must know you well,” Mrs. Addison said. “It sounds as if this Lord Thornton would not scruple to use a threat to us to lure you out into the open. Your commander knew you would want to protect the women you care about, all of them”—and here she sent a pointed glance at Laura—“from danger.”

For just a moment, Laura thought that Jeremy, who had begun pacing back and forth in his familiar fashion, might have missed that look.

Then he stopped. “Mama. You understand that Miss Addison and I are not actually—

“But you could be—”

“No, we—”

“I did not set out to snag a husband, ma’am,” Laura interjected. “And to his credit, Captain Addison was quite clear from the first that he was not able to marry me, even if our game of pretend led to rumors and suspicions. It would have been folly on my part to have formed any expectations. Or any, ah…” Here, Laura had the greater folly to look up at Jeremy, to meet those eyes that had a way of seeing right through whatever part she had chosen to act. “Attachments,” she finished lamely.

His breath left him audibly, though whether a sigh of relief or of despair, she couldn’t decide. “You can’t mean—” he insisted. “You don’t know—”

“Julia,” said Mrs. Addison, “why don’t you take Miss Hopkins upstairs? I’m sure she would like to…” She made an aimless circle with one hand, as if searching for a word, an excuse, to get Laura out of the room.

“Freshen up?” Julia suggested helpfully.