Dilemma in Yellow Silk~Emperors of London by Lynne Connolly

Author:Lynne Connolly [Connolly, Lynne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Published: 2016-04-11T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Marcus watched his mother take Viola away with a sense of foreboding. He knew her better than she imagined. She would do her best to break the connection with him. “She needs us,” he said.

“Yes, she does,” Julius said. “Are the documents the same as the others?”

Marcus nodded. “A copy of the marriage certificate, a birth certificate, and a letter. Very short and to the point. She obviously didn’t have much time. Placing Viola with Gates and his wife gave the child all the protection she needed.” He turned his attention to his father. “What happened?”

Lord Strenshall studied his son. “We were in Rome, and a lady approached us. She carried a letter of recommendation. This was not Maria herself, but one of her servants, who said she needed parents for a motherless child. Gates jumped at the chance. We could not take her, obviously. That was all. When I read the papers later, I wanted to return her to her parents. I advised Gates to have nothing to do with the whole sorry business, but he had fallen in love with the mother and the child by that point. As, I recollect, you are in the process of doing. The daughter, at any rate.”

Marcus considered denying the accusation, but not for long. He chose to shrug and let them make their own conclusions. What he felt for Viola was private, mostly because he was not sure himself. She confused him and intrigued him to such an extent he suspected he would never discover everything about her. That appealed to his rational mind. And taking recent events out of the picture, he’d enjoyed their race to London more than he should have. Protecting her gave him a sense of belonging, of having a worthwhile task.

No, he did not want Viola out of his life.

“I have some very safe, very secluded places I can hide her,” Julius said. “Nobody knows of them. I have been very careful not to keep the associated papers anywhere they could be discovered.” Unlike Gates, whose passion for order had led him to keep the bill of sale for the Scarborough house with his other official papers.

“I was so anxious to get Viola safe I left him to face the wolves. He was hurt in the previous attack, but not seriously. Do you think the accident in the park that broke Gates’s ankle was a deliberate action?”

Julius nodded and took another turn about the carpet. At this rate he would carve a track into it. “I wondered when you’d come to that. I believe it was. Easy to rig a trip line in his way. We can no doubt discover for sure, but at this time there is not much point. The man did not die easily.”

“You will not tell Viola,” Marcus said. He would not have her hurt any more than she was already.

“I did not, did I?” Julius turned an accusatory stare on to Marcus, but he met his cousin’s gaze without flinching. “Neither will I.

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