Page 61 of Lady Tempts a Rogue

To Hades with coaches. They took too long.

~*~

Mrs. Everingham seeks an annulment and uses powerful friends to accelerate the process. I would advise you to return to London post haste.

I have also included a letter from your mother that she dictated for you when she knew she would not recover. Had you not left that night, I would’ve given it to you then.

By the by, your wife has spent nearly five hundred pounds, with my blessing. She is intent on acquiring a swearing parrot.

M. Shillingford

~*~

The letter from Devin’s mother proved the healing balm his heart craved. She had not been angry with him, nor did she blame him. If Mother could forgive him, then he needed to forgive himself and return to Trinity. And pray that she could forgive him.

He could make things right between them. He must.

Devin slipped in the side door, using a key hidden beneath an innocent-looking rock. He’d used that method of exiting and entering the house since before his university days when his parents had one of their roof-raising rows.

He slipped off his boots, left them beside the door, and ascended the first stairway.

On silent feet, he padded through the house, the polished parquet floor not revealing his presence. Flames flickered in the wall sconces as he made his way toward the second staircase.

He paused, searching the corridor, seeking a telling glow beneath the library, study, or drawing room doors.

Nothing.

Trinity must be upstairs.

Please let her be upstairs.

His wife, his love.

A few minutes later, he stood outside the only room with light seeping beneath the door.

Should he freshen up first?

He had bathed last night and donned fresh clothing this morning. Still…

“Come here, my darling.” Trinity’s voice filtered through the door.

What the devil?

“It is time for bed, sweetheart, and I sleep much better with you snuggled beside me.”

No. No.

He was too late.

Chin tucked to his chest, Devin braced a hand against the doorframe, struggling to drag breath in and out of his lungs. A clock struck the hour somewhere in the house, its rhythmic chiming a stab of pain with each peal.

Devin had come home to declare his love and adoration, but Trinity had invited another into her bed.

Before they’d even consummated their vows?

How the devil did she hope to attain an annulment if she was not chaste?

If he had not left…