The anniversary of Lucy's death. Their first anniversary, a year after being married. Either God was insanely cruel or generous, for he had been given a gift on the memorial of the worst day of his life.
"Home," he whispered in Gwen's hair. "Let us go home."
Montmouth and Dominique left with threats that they wanted details of the happenings of that day, or Montmouth would carry out his threat and truly shoot Hunter.
Ash pushed Lainhart through the door and wheeled him down the three stairs toward the carriage, which had been waiting a block down the street. Hunter and Gwen held hands and followed them out, but Lainhart began yelling again.
"Aghhh!" He swatted Ash's hand and pointed up.
Hunter ran to him. "Is it your hand? Did you get burned from the powder?"
Lainhart shook his head and pointed down, then grabbed a piece of chalk and pointed at Ash.
Ash reached into the carriage, pulled out the old duke's chalkboard, and handed it over.
Lainhart stuck his tongue out and concentrated hard as he wrote the word across the chalkboard. Hunter waited, still holding Gwen's hand.
After a few seconds, Lainhart smiled as a tear ran down his cheek. He held up the chalkboard. It said Proud.
He pointed at Hunter and pointed back at the chalkboard, over and over again, until he began sobbing. Hunter released Gwen's' hand and embraced his grandfather as the old man cried on him.
Chapter Thirty-two
Red—
Never again. From this day forward, you may never leave the house. I am locking you in our room and you must carry a pistol with you at all times. Never hesitate, just shoot. I do not care if you shoot into the air when a pigeon scares you. You will protect yourself even if it need be from animals!
—Wolf
It had been two days since the incident, and Gwen had seen Hunter a total of three hours in those days. Today was the day the questioning was finished. He refused to let Gwen leave the house, even though he'd allowed her to begin hiring a staff to clean up the forest.
She was, in a word, lonely.
Her sisters visited her often, but her thoughts were always far off, dreaming of Hunter and wondering if things would ever be the same. He shared her bed at night but other than kissing her on her cheek, he did not make love to her, nor did he say a word. He merely held her in his arms until she fell asleep.
Gwen could not help but wonder if he regretted marrying her, or if she did something wrong? Perhaps the fear of losing her had been too much. It felt as if he was pushing her away.
She walked into the ballroom, now empty, and sat in front of the fire, not caring that her new satin blue dinner dress would be crushed.
The light from the fire was all that illuminated the large room. With its impressive ceilings and murals on the walls, it was a sight to behold. She would have never dreamed that Hunter had the money that he did.
But she'd discovered that, next to Stefan and Dominique, he was alongside some of the richest men in England.
But riches did not warm her at night.
She sighed and watched the flames flicker.
"I thought I'd find you here," came a voice from behind her. Instinctively, she grabbed the knife from her bodice and held it out in warning, as Hunter sat down next to her.
"Ah, Gwen, always prepared." He chuckled and handed her a glass of wine. "We have a few things to discuss."
Here it was. Her heart ached as she watched Hunter — her Hunter, the man she loved — curse and run his free hand through his hair.
"Wilkins had been smuggling for a few years. When he got desperate, he began smuggling weapons to the French. The ciphers he left at my house were an attempt to implicate me for smuggling for the past nine years. The codes had documentation of my records. Who had paid me, and so forth. The idea, it seemed, or from what Hollins was willing to say, was that he would decipher the codes for the War Office, they would find me a traitor, and I would be put in prison or die."
Gwen closed her eyes as a tear ran down her cheek. "But why? Why you? I do not understand! He could have placed it on Redding's shoulders. He could have done anything. Was he truly that jealous of you? Or that angry at Ash? I'm sorry, Hunter, I just do not understand."
"And that is what I have to talk to you about." Hunter placed his wine on the table between them and turned his golden eyes upon her. "Ash and I have just been informed. Know that I had no idea of this woman's existence until now."
Gwen felt as if she had just lost all the air in the room as it whooshed out of her lungs. Woman, did he say woman? She felt tears form in her eyes as she watched him struggle to put into words what he was trying to say.
"Just say it," Gwen blurted. "Tell me there is someone else, that you do not love me, but please hurry! I cannot take the silence. I cannot do this! I love you!" Her chest heaved with the exertion of yelling at him.
Hunter's head perked up, and then his lips quirked into a smile before he threw back his head and laughed.
"I'm leaving." She rose from the chair and bolted for the door, but Hunter grabbed her by the wrist and flung her back against his body so she was sitting on him. "I have a knife."
"Then use it," he growled into her ear. "But please be sure to be naked like last time. I found it quite distracting."
She struggled to get free of his grasp, but he held her firmly and chuckled. "Yes, and please with your naughty foreplay."
Gwen huffed and stopped struggling. "Are you finished making fun of me?"
Hunter lifted her off the chair, and while holding her in his arms, kissed her firmly across the mouth, plunging his tongue into its depths. This was no invitation of a kiss. This was not polite — it was hot and needy. He groaned as he knelt down and laid her across the rug, then began slowly undressing her as he kissed her neck.
"I love you, Gwen. I will always love you. I have to admit to being the worst sort of husband these past three days, but there were things that needed to be settled, and finally I realized something."
Gwen gasped as he bit her lip, then swirled his tongue with hers, and pulled back again. "What is that?"
"It is not my job anymore." He sighed against her chest and began kissing across her neck.
"Because, oh…" She arched her back. "Because you retired?"
"Yes, and because Ash has taken responsibility for… what must be done. I was worried about having to take care of a situation and trying to find a way out of it, but now it seems — You are absolutely…" He ripped at the sleeves of her dress, exposing her corset. "Fully…" He growled as he bit her neck. "Completely…" He moaned as he exposed the top half of her body. "Mine."