"I don't tend to believe in coincidences when it comes to any of Balfour's agents."
Gemma gave him a steady look. "Byrnes said you'd take care of it. Does this mean you're planning a little light interrogation? Cuffs and all?"
"It's not as though I can lock my wife in a dungeon and demand answers. There are other means to get the truth." His eyes narrowed. "What else would you recommend?"
"No, no. Cuffs and caresses it is. It's just... seduction's not your usual style."
"Not as far as you're aware, no." Not his usual style, but not completely outside his realm of experience. Malloryn preferred to keep his assignations simple. Or he had, in the past. It had been months since he'd been with a woman. Before his marriage, in fact, though his recent spate of chastity had little to do with Adele. "I told her it's time to begin thinking of an heir. She won't think anything of it."
"And how goes your endeavor?"
Only Gemma could get away with such personal questions.
Though they didn't speak of it, he thought of her as the little sister he'd never had. Gemma had seen him at his worst, and despite her penchant for gossip, she'd kept the state of his recent issues from the other Rogues.
"I'm uncertain. Adele's a cunning adversary when she wants to be. And even I need more than a few hours to break her down."
"I shall be all aquiver."
He didn't know what to make of that statement. One moment Adele was playing the coy virgin, and the next she was challenging him.
The taste of her bare throat lingered, even now. He didn't know how the hell he was going to get through the next couple of hours. He'd forced himself to take his leave once he saw her safely home, but his cock hadn't seemed to understand.
Intolerable.
The bloody woman drove him insane.
"And if she's not involved in this plot? What then? Adele might have expectations in regards to your sudden change of heart."
She'd better not. "I'll deal with such a matter if it arises."
Gemma cut him a chastising look. "I just find it difficult to believe your wife is a spy owned by Lord Balfour. He did try to have her killed on your wedding day."
"And if I wanted to plant an operative in my enemy's house without having him doubt her, the first thing I'd do is stage an incident to make her appear a target. If Balfour truly wanted Adele dead, I'd have found her lying in the middle of her bed with her throat slit. Instead, his assassin kidnapped her and led you a merry chase, where we just happened to rescue her in time. Convenient, in my opinion."
"She saved your life in the Ivory Tower."
"All the better to worm her way into my trust."
"Well, for someone who's supposedly an enemy agent in your bed, she doesn't appear to have made much progress getting in there."
Malloryn peered down his nose at her. "Have you been examining my sheets every morning?"
Gemma shot him a sweet smile. "I don't have to. I know what a man looks like when he's only had his hand for company for several months."
My God. "We are not ever discussing the contents of my bed." It came out as a faint growl.
"Why not? It might do you some good to get a little action. You've been so tense even Byrnes is tiptoeing around you, and Obsidian—of all people—said you need a good f—"
"Gemma."
She was outright grinning at him. "Prude. It might do you good. Ease a little bit of that pressure. You've been wound tighter than a corkscrew ever since you married her."
"My tension has nothing to do with Adele and everything to do with Balfour."
"Of course." Her drawl contained entire syllables of sarcasm. "It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact your very beautiful wife gets your back up in a way no woman ever has."
"Because I want to throttle her?"
"Because you very clearly want to do more than throttle her, and it drives you crazy. Because you can't control her. Because she challenges you. Because the second you get your hands on her I will place good coin on the fact the results are going to be... explosive."
"If I get wind of even a single bet placed on the outcome of this situation—"
"You won't," she promised. "Get wind of it, that is."
This was what he got for putting together a group of spies. Malloryn pinched the bridge of his nose. There'd been a flurry of wagers about whether he'd even get Adele to the altar or not.
"Don't you have something more important to attend to?" he growled. "Rather than interrogating me about my wife?"
Silence filled the study.
Gemma wet her lips and produced an envelope. "Actually, I was trying to ease my way into this conversation. A letter arrived for you several hours ago."
He stared at it.
The abrupt change in subject was somewhat jarring, which meant Gemma was nervous.
Even before he reached for the letter, an odd sense of foreboding filled him. Gemma had been trained as a child assassin. It was rare to ever see a sign of nerves about her.
He turned the envelope over. "You did an excellent job of replacing the seal. This almost looks untouched."
"That's because it is."
Malloryn looked up, all of his senses coming to high alert. He had few qualms about the state of any personal correspondence that came into this house. If Byrnes wasn't somehow listening in to his conversations, then Gemma was probably rifling through his mail.
His butler, Herbert, made sure to intercept anything of note he wanted to keep private.
"Herbert found it sitting on your desk. None of the other Rogues placed it there, and there's no sign of a break-in. It simply appeared, and we have no idea how it got there."
Flipping one of his knives out of his sleeve, he slid it beneath the seal and plucked the letter out.
Dearest Auvry,
Did you miss me?
It's time to bring this game to an end.
There was no signature.
There didn't have to be.
He knew the handwriting as well as he knew his own, and a chill ran down his spine.
After four tense months, Lord Balfour had finally resurfaced.