Chapter Twenty-Four
What an evening!” Matilda turned her head on the pillow and smiled at the man beside her. He looked rumpled, but that was her fault. She found she could not help herself when it came to Freddie Hart.
It had been four years since Baron Brooks was taken from her, and although she had been very fond of him and still missed him, this was entirely different.
Freddie had muscles in his arms and thighs and buttocks, and when he made love to her, all of those muscles seemed to come into play.
Just thinking about his hard, trim body made her feel a little giddy.
“Where is Niki?” she asked suddenly. “You didn’t let him go out on the town, did you? The king seemed set on it.”
“Niki is tucked up safe and sound in bed.”
She breathed a sigh of relief.
“I hope Roberta does not change her mind about marrying him,” Freddie said, and she thought he was speaking to himself. “She always said she would never marry.” He looked concerned, his auburn brows drawn down and his mouth in a straight line.
“Never marry? Every woman must marry. And why on earth should she change her mind?” Matilda went on, irritated. “She is marrying a prince.”
She stopped, realizing she sounded like her father.
She had been told all her life that the only things that mattered for a blue-blooded woman were to marry well and produce an heir.
She had done both, and yet she sometimes felt as if she had wasted years.
Her society friends told her she was being foolish, that she was bored and needed to take a lover.
Freddie was watching her curiously, and she shook off her megrims.
“It is probably a good thing that Karl forced them to confess the secret date,” she went on mildly. “At least it gives me time to travel to Holtswig and begin preparations for the official ceremony.”
“I’m not sure Niki and Roberta would agree with you.”
She shrugged as if she didn’t care. The man was far too cautious.
She sometimes wondered what he was thinking and found herself wishing she could read his mind.
Once she had made the decision to take a lover and Freddie had agreed, she had been determined to enjoy every moment of their association.
It would not last forever. It was an affair, and when she tired of him, or him of her, they would go their separate ways.
Don’t get too fond of him, her friends had warned her. These things never last. But don’t worry, there is always someone else.
The trouble was, Matilda did not want someone else. She was perfectly happy with this man. He seemed to know exactly how to please her, and she rather thought she pleased him too.
“Will you come with me to Holtswig?” she asked.
He seemed to be considering her question. “Not immediately,” he said at last. “I will have to go to Grantham with Niki first. I’ll meet with the prime minister before we go and explain it would be best for me to travel to Holtswig to keep an eye on things.”
“And he will let you go?” Matilda asked.
“I think so. If not, then I will go in a private capacity.”
She beamed at him. A thought occurred to her. “What about the assassin from the theater? Has he said anything?”
Freddie was growing restless. He did not like to answer her questions when it came to his work, especially when they had such little time together.
“No, he hasn’t. I don’t think he knows anything to tell.
He comes from a poor family in Holtswig, at least he has told us that much, and was brought here specifically to assassinate Niki.
Whoever arranged it was clever and covered their tracks. ”
“One of those agitators,” Matilda said in disgust. “It really is too bad. Why can they not be happy without pining for the past? It was not so wonderful anyway. The country has been much better since the Lichtenbergs ascended the throne.”
Freddie smiled. “You would say that.”
She turned to face him, cupping his jaw where the prickles of his beard were rough against her skin. “I don’t want to end this,” she blurted out, and held her breath.
His eyes widened. “Then don’t,” he said.
She smiled with relief, but he wasn’t finished.
“Although if we stay together, Tomas may be a problem.”
“What do you mean?” she demanded.
“Matilda, you must be able to see it. He resents me. He wants his mother all to himself.”
“Nonsense,” she said, shocked and a little angry. “It is just that he doesn’t know you.”
Freddie said no more but she could tell he did not agree with her. Well, too bad. She would have a word with Tomas, and everything would be comfortable again.
Freddie rose from the bed at last. Matilda was sleeping, her lush, beautiful body half naked. He drew up the covers and tucked them in gently around her. It was hard to believe that after all this time, he had found someone whose company he enjoyed so much, in and out of bed.
When Matilda had asked him if he was willing to be her lover, he had thought he must be dreaming. Of course he had agreed, probably far too hastily, because she had giggled and suggested they begin as soon as possible.
Freddie was no innocent. There had been plenty of women since he left St. Ninian’s, but at the ripe old age of thirty-two, he was ready to settle down.
He just hadn’t realized it until he met Matilda.
It did not seem to worry her that he was a commoner from a dubious background.
She liked him for who he was, and she showed it repeatedly, in and out of bed.
Until tonight, he had suspected she was just toying with him, but when she told him she did not want to end their relationship, he began to think that maybe she would agree to marry him. If he got up the courage to ask her.
Niki’s offer of giving him a title…Well, he wasn’t sure whether to believe that or not, and anyway, did he want a title? If that was the only way Matilda would marry him, then he’d be inclined to agree, but then he might wonder forever more whether she really loved him. The real him.
He was being ridiculous.
Freddie finished dressing and cracked open the door. The corridor was empty, and he headed toward the stairs. He could have stayed, but the only time he had done so, Tomas had given him a look that could have killed him stone dead, so he preferred to go home and then return in the morning.
These days, “home” was a very nice apartment paid for by The Guardians, the organization he worked for.
They were secretive—and understandably so, as they worked to hunt down troublesome elements who threatened to disrupt the government and its officials.
The death of a foreign prince on British soil would certainly come under his remit.
It was unfortunate the prisoner had not been more helpful, but at least it confirmed to Freddie that the threat against Niki’s life came from his home country.
Someone clever and organized, and not the poorly educated insurgents Matilda spoke of.
Someone had paid for this man to come into the country, armed him, told him what to do, and then set him on his course.
It was only by sheer luck that he had not accomplished his mission.
Freddie gave a shiver. If anything had happened to Roberta that night, he dreaded to think what Gabriel would have done. His friend was absurdly fond of his six sisters, and now that Charles was married to one of them, he seemed to have grown equally protective.
As far as he knew, Freddie did not have any sisters, or brothers either. He was alone in the world and had expected to remain so. He had certainly never imagined he would meet someone like Matilda Brooks.
He slipped out of the house to the mews at the back. expecting his horse to be waiting. No horse. Instead, there was a cloaked man who came running toward him.
“Niki! Wake up!”
Niki lifted his head from the pillow and groaned. The room was still spinning, and the small amount of sleep he had managed to get did not help. His stomach lurched as he squinted at the intruder. “Tomas? What do you want?”
“Mr. Hart is outside with a man. I saw them. They are whispering and—and I heard them say your name.”
Niki tried to shake his brain awake. “My name?” he repeated as he sat up. For a moment, it was touch and go as to whether what was left of his dinner would remain in his stomach, but after a shaky few seconds, he managed to keep it down.
“I followed him.” Tomas sounded as if he thought Niki might reprimand him. “I wondered what he was up to.”
“And what is he up to?” Niki said.
“No good,” the boy said darkly. “Haven’t you ever wondered why he let that man at the theater try to shoot you? It seems very strange the fellow slipped through all of those guards and got right up to you.”
Niki was awake now. “What are you saying?”
Tomas gave a shrug. “I am saying that if Mr. Hart is being paid by the people who want you dead, then that would make sense. He could be pretending to protect you and at the same time…”
“He would be in a perfect position to get the job done.” Niki sounded grim. He tried to remember what Hart had said to him in the coach back from Grantham, about sympathizing with rioters and rebels. He had dismissed his doubts then, or at least set them aside, but now his hackles were raised.
“Where are Hart and this man?” he demanded, getting to his feet as the room tilted again. Why on earth had he allowed himself to be persuaded to drink so much? And he hadn’t spoken to Roberta either, and he had desperately wanted to explain…
“I’ll show you.” Tomas was already at the door.
Niki stumbled after him, down the stairs and through to the back of the house, then out into the mews. It was dark, and dank, and empty. The boy looked about them, obviously disappointed. “He was here,” he insisted. “Both of them were. A dangerous-looking fellow in a cloak and Mr. Hart.”
Niki didn’t doubt him. Although…“What were you doing up at this time of the night?” Or was it morning?
Tomas shot him a watchful glance. “I heard him. He was—”
“You were spying on Mr. Hart?”
“No!” The boy shuddered. “Not like that. I heard him come out of my mother’s room.”
Ah. Niki took a breath of cold air to try to clear his head. Tomas was jealous. Niki had noticed it already, but that did not mean the boy had not heard and seen Hart and this man.
“What did they say apart from my name?”
Tomas screwed up his face as he tried to remember the exact words. “They were talking about rallying those who were like-minded. Something like that. Overthrowing the government and marching to the castle.”
It sounded serious. Niki supposed the cloaked man could have been one of Hart’s numerous guards, or one of his spies, but to speak of such matters out here?
Tomas was right. What better way to kill your enemy than to pretend to be his protector?
“There’s nothing to be done now. Let’s go back to bed,” he said, leading the way inside the house.
“I was only trying to do the right thing.” Behind him, Tomas sounded anxious.
“I know you were. I am grateful to you for letting me know. I will deal with Hart.”
“Good.”
The word was spoken under his breath, but Niki heard it. He was sure Tomas wanted nothing more than to see Hart disgraced and banished. The boy’s bias made Niki less inclined to condemn the man out of hand. But one thing was for certain—he would be keeping a close eye on Freddie Hart.