Page 65 of The Duke’s Hidden Duchess

Rowland drank. “There were payments.”

A chill moved through her that required no acting.

For a moment the garden seemed to sharpen around her: the thin sound of the fountain, the music beyond the awnings, somebody laughing too loudly on the terrace. The payments themselves were no surprise. Hearing them named by Rowland was.

“What payments?”

“So you do not know.”

He was pleased again.

Selina said nothing.

She could have corrected him. Instead she let him mistake silence for ignorance.

“Your cousin has found records you did not imagine he possessed. Regular sums, sent through an attorney in your name after the Merrow estate had been administered; at a time when you were supposed to have almost nothing. The payments can be traced to you.”

Selina looked down at her glass. A drop of condensation had begun to run over her glove.

“Payments made by me prove nothing.”

“Perhaps not.”

“What does Giles say they prove?”

Rowland’s gaze moved over her face before he answered.

“That depends upon how publicly he is obliged to say it.”

There it was.

Not an accusation. The possibility of one.

Selina lowered her voice. “And what prevents him?”

Rowland looked towards Nathaniel.

Nathaniel remained with Lord Fairburn, far enough away that no expression could be read clearly. Selina did not follow Rowland’s gaze for long.

“Good sense.”

“My husband’s?”

“Yours.”

“And eleven hundred pounds.”

“For the present difficulty.”

“The letters.”

“The letters are the present difficulty.”

Selina turned the words over as though trying to understand the distinction.

“And Giles?”

Rowland smiled.