His Jilted Bride (Historical Regency Romance) by Rose Gordon

that
you're not the dashing prince she'd always thought you to be but an
arse instead?”
    “ No, I believe she's always reserved those particular feelings
for you. And rightfully so.”
    Henry shook his head. “I still don't
understand why.”
    “ Because you were always the one being impolite.”
    Henry knit his brows. “Pardon me? What
did you just say?”
    “ I said you were always the one who was impolite to
her.”
    “ No, I wasn't.” Henry scoffed. “In my recollection, it seems
to always have been you who was impolite. Why just this morning,
you said—”
    “ Forget what I said this morning,” Elijah snapped. “You
tricked me into saying it.”
    “ No, I didn't. You allowed yourself to get
distracted.”
    Elijah snorted. “Yes, and Alex never
meant to let Sir Wallace best him at chess, he just got
distracted.”
    Henry grinned ruefully. “I still can't
believe it. And probably wouldn't had I not seen that with my own
eyes. But that was bound to happen eventually. As Alex used to tell
us when he bested us, nobody can win all the time.” He shifted in
his chair. “But Alex's win at chess isn't what we're discussing. I
want to know why you think it's me who's always been impolite to
Amelia when it's you who used to run away from her, dismiss her
foolish claims of being in love with you, and now you've gone so
far as to humiliate her—”
    “ That was unintentional,” Elijah interrupted. “Had I known she
was still behind me, I would have chosen my words with a little
more care.”
    Henry looked doubtful. “As I said, you
were distracted. But why?”
    Elijah ducked his head. He might have
perfected the stoic expression, complete with a clamped jaw and
cold eyes, but Henry knew him too well to believe Elijah was
unaffected by his words. “I am married now,” he said at last. “It
would stand to reason that I'd be distracted from time to
time.”
    “ But you weren't always married.”
    Elijah bridled at his remark and its
intended reminder of the hash he'd made of things the night before
he married Amelia. “Did you happen to see the missive?”
    “ I did,” Henry said, frowning. “What's your plan?”
    “ I don't have one.”
    “ Why not?”
    “ Because I haven't had long enough to puzzle out the clue yet
to know what my plan should be.”
    “ You haven't?” Henry burst out.
    “ No.”
    “ But you said this morning that you got it.”
    “ And I did. When we passed the hunting cabin coming in
yesterday, I saw that the window in the common room was open so I
sent Amelia to spend time with the ladies so I could go retrieve
the missive.” Elijah pulled the missive from his breast pocket and
tossed it on the table.
    Henry groaned. “You've been spending
far too much time with Alex. Any more and you just might best him
at being the most obtuse gentleman in existence.” He raked his hand
through his hair. “What I meant was did you solve it, not retrieve
it.”
    “ Then you should have said that,” Elijah retorted.
    “ I didn't think I had to,” Henry grumbled. “But not to worry,
from now on when I use a word that has more than one meaning, I'll
be sure to clarify which meaning I intend.”
    “ See to it that you do.” He scowled. “However, I did get—both
definitions—your other missive. The one about the fellow I
apprehended in Brighton escaping.”
    “ I haven't many other details on that. I'm to meet with a
runner tomorrow to see what else he's learned.”
    Elijah sighed. “Back to where we were
before, I suppose.”
    “ Or further back,” Henry commented. “Now, they know someone's
looking for them.”
    Elijah's heart twisted. That just
meant Amelia was more vulnerable than he'd originally
thought.
    Henry reached for the paper he'd left
in the cabin for Elijah yesterday and unfolded it. “I spent three
hours yesterday trying to solve this damn riddle.”
    “ I'd spent an entire three minutes trying to solve it before
you had to interrupt.”
    “ Perhaps you'd have