The Mayfair Affair by Tracy Grant Read Free Book Online Page A

past."
    "Darling—"
    "Sorry." He squeezed her arm with his free hand. "No sense in dwelling. In truth I could use your opinion. David revealed rather a lot about Trenchard." He recounted David's story about his belief that Trenchard had struck Mary.
    Suzanne's eyes darkened. "Men who strike their wives rarely do so only once."
    He drew her arm closer against his side, aware of the warmth of her skin through the layers of coat and pelisse. "Quite. David knew he was giving a motive for himself and for his father. I don't think he realized the same about Mary. Perhaps because it's beyond his comprehension that she could have committed murder."
    "It is beyond his comprehension about his father?"
    "No, David made a token protest, but I'd say he's all too aware of what his father's capable of. As am I. And as a father myself, I can well understand Carfax feeling the impulse to murder. It's damnably difficult for a woman to get out of a bad marriage. Money and family help, but even with a legal separation, she'd be likely to lose custody of her children. I find the thought intolerable in general. I can only imagine how I'd feel if it were Jessica and our grandchildren in the equation."
    "Your conscience would stop you. Carfax isn't given to moral quibbles."
    "No. The chief factor in Carfax's defense is that he asked me to investigate. It was actually David who pointed out Carfax might have known I'd investigate anyway, and he wanted me in the open as well as to keep a check on Roth. And that he then brought David in to keep a check on me. David knows his father well."
    He could feel Suzanne considering this as they covered the damp cobblestones between the yellow glow of two street lamps. "It's possible."
    "I was holding my breath lest Carfax say that Trenchard was a French spy." He looked sideways at her familiar profile. "He wasn't, was he?"
    "Not that I know of." She looked up at him, her eyes as hard and fragile as crystal. "I would tell you, Malcolm. Do you believe me?"
    He gave the question honest consideration. "I think so."
    "Impressive." Suzanne was silent as they turned into Jermyn Street. "Darling— We haven't talked about this part of it, but these are your friends."
    "It's hardly the first time we've been involved in an investigation involving friends."
    "But these are the people you grew up with. In a way they're family."
    Family. Always a tangled word for him. "Difficult to think of Carfax that way. What concerns me is that I don't want him anywhere near you."
    Suzanne's fingers tightened round his arm. "I don't think that's an option, dearest. Unless we go to a remote desert island."
    "Don't imagine I haven't thought of it."
    "I've told you before it isn't wise to try to protect me, Malcolm. The recent revelations don't change that."
    Malcolm looked down into her bright eyes. There had always been a hardness beneath the glow. He was just more aware of it now. "I'm not just protecting my wife. I'm protecting the mother of my children."
    "Darling—"
    "You've always run risks with your safety, Suzette. Knowing the truth of your past, I understand just how far you've gone. But it's different now. Colin and Jessica make it different. There's no room for extravagant gestures. Whether they come from indulging a craving for adventure or trying to expiate guilt."
    Her chin jerked up. "I'll own to a taste for adventure, but I'm not in the least given over to guilt. In fact, one could say I've been all too able to commit all sorts of betrayals without showing any proper guilt at all."
    "My dear girl. Don't show off. I may have been criminally blind to a number of things where you were concerned, but in other ways I can read you rather well. I know you. I know what you've been doing to yourself. And it's folly—it won't improve matters for any of the four of us."
    She glanced away. "Damn you, Malcolm—"
    "Because I think we agreed. Before anything else, we're parents."
    "I never forget that." Her voice was low and rough.
    "I