Clandestine by Julia Ross Page A

to think that?”
    â€œI may have to.” More hot coffee burned down Guy’s throat. “Even though Rachel supposedly fell foul of her tormentor in February and March—”
    â€œWhen she was in fact living in perfect security with you in Hampstead?”
    Guy smiled dryly at his cousin. “Nice, isn’t it?”
    â€œYou said Rachel lied to you all along, even when she was your mistress? What about?”
    â€œAlmost every detail of her past, her identity, her real feelings. I knew it. I just let it go.”
    Ryder frowned into his empty cup. “I hate to have to ask this, Guy, but could she have been seeing someone else at the same time?”
    He had analyzed the idea to death, enough that he was able to smile at his cousin.
    â€œThat painful thought obviously occurred to me, so I rode out to Hampstead yesterday to browbeat my staff and pursue some discreet investigations. That’s why I was so late getting back for the ball. While she was living with me, Rachel was receiving and sending letters in secret, just as I’d already surmised from what Sarah Callaway told me. One of the maids helped her.”
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œThe same girl confirmed that Rachel never entertained visitors, and she never left the house without me—until the day she disappeared. All the rest of the servants swore the same thing, and I believe them. However, according to her cousin, Rachel first went to live in Hampstead as soon as Jack paid her for that day on the yacht, long before she and I moved back there together.”
    â€œYou know where?”
    â€œPerhaps, though I need to confirm it.”
    â€œSo if there’s really any furiously disappointed swain involved, Rachel must have met him either before or after she lived with you.”
    â€œExactly.” Guy stood and poured two more cups of coffee. “The cause of attempted murder is usually one of only two things: passion or money—”
    â€œMurder?”
    â€œPossibly. And since I fail to see how this can be about money, Sarah Callaway’s story may indeed hold an element of truth.”
    â€œWhy the devil would any gentleman want to kill a woman, merely because she’d refused his advances? That’s too melodramatic to be real.”
    â€œI thought so, too, at first.” He handed one refilled cup to Ryder. “However, while I followed up on some other leads, Jack visited Goatstall Lane disguised as a workman. We exchanged notes later by the orchid fountain. There’s no doubt that Rachel fled London in fear for her life.”
    â€œJustifiably?”
    Guy paced restlessly to the window and back. “I don’t know. Perhaps someone wanted only to frighten her. Either way, something damned unpleasant is going on.”
    â€œSarah Callaway may also be in danger?”
    â€œI’m certainly not taking any chances. That’s why I insisted she come here.” Guy dropped back into his chair. “I couldn’t leave her at Brockton’s, and obviously I can’t take her back to my townhouse.”
    â€œBlackdown House is yours as long as you want it,” Ryder said. “I’ll help in any way that I can.”
    Guy shook his head. “Your place is with Miracle and Ambrose. And Jack’s already done far more for me than I had any right to ask. Besides, I fear that Mrs. Callaway may insist on helping me herself.”
    Ryder laughed. “Then by all means send her down to Wyldshay. She can teach my little sisters all about the wickedness of plants, and we can give her a position there for as long as you like.”
    â€œThank you,” Guy said. “I may do that, unless I discover in the next day or two that all of my fears for her are groundless. In which case, I’ll simply send her back to Bath.”
    â€œWill she go quietly?” Ryder asked. “Jack didn’t think her a shrinking violet, and neither do Miracle and