A Husband's Wicked Ways Read Online Free PDF Page B

sign his death warrant, and that of others. I cannot stress this enough, my love.Too many lives are at stake, lives of friends, colleagues, both past and present, if the truth of Greville’s identity and my activities in the last three years becomes known. He will tell you so himself. Trust him, Ellie. Trust him with your life. He will protect you as I can no longer do. I’ve met many women in the last years who’ve fought side by side with their men, who’ve given their lives in the battle against Bonaparte, who’ve used their wits as ably as any man. Indeed, my life has been saved on more than one occasion by the quick thinking and daring courage of such women, women who have all put their trust in Greville Falconer, and not regretted it.
    In closing, my dear, I cannot sufficiently express my sorrow for the deception I have perforce practiced upon you. I can pray only that you will one day understand the imperatives that drove me to act as I have done. And I ask that you speak kindly of me to Franny. My heart aches at the knowledge that I will not see her grow to womanhood. But I made my choice and live with its consequences. I hope that you will marry again if that is what you wish for, and find fulfillment in your life, as I have found in mine. I give my life freely in my country’s service, although not gladly. There is still so much work to be done. But I must leave the work to others. To you, Ellie, I send my undying love. Think well of me when you are able.

FF.

    Aurelia watched her tears drop to the paper, smudging the ink. For a moment, there was satisfaction in the thought that her tears could obliterate the words, make them vanish as thoroughly as her husband had vanished from her life. Frederick had shed no tears for her. He had done what he chose to do, accepted the consequences for himself, but totally without consideration for anyone else affected by his choice. And then abruptly she snatched the letter aside, laying it in safety on the small, round table at her side.
    She stood up and paced around the softly lit chamber, holding her elbows, her tears flowing unrestrained, but they were tears of anger now. Patriotism was all very well, particularly in wartime. She had accepted Frederick’s death in battle. But this…this was too hard to accept. What would have happened if he hadn’t died? Would he have calmly come back to her at the end of the war? Shown up on her doorstep, all smiles, the prodigal husband returned, ready to take up his roles as husband and father…until he became bored…“stifled” was the word he’d used…and decided to go off adventuring again?
    How could she possibly accept such a thing? What if she had followed Cornelia’s example and married again? What part would Frederick have played then in her life?
    Oh, it was too absurd, too utterly insulting to think she had been duped in that dastardly fashion.
    What power could that man Greville Falconer haveheld over Frederick that he could compel him to behave in such a fashion…so alien to his character, to the open, honest, honorable man she had known him to be? There had to be a reason for Frederick’s going so meekly to the slaughter. Had this Falconer blackmailed him with some shameful truth? Bribed him with something…no, no, that was unthinkable.
    She leaned a hand on the mantelpiece and stared down into the fire as if the answer would somehow become manifest in the dancing flames. And slowly she came to accept that Frederick had given the explanation, incredible though it was. Greville Falconer had sowed his seed in fertile ground. Presumably he had been trained to recognize such ground, and in Frederick he’d seen the potential. He had seen what no one else had seen…what Aurelia still couldn’t glean from her knowledge and memories of the man who had been her husband. And presumably this Greville Falconer had persuasive talents that she herself had not discerned in their brief meeting that afternoon.
    His face