“He told you he is enjoying it here?”

“Yes.” She tipped her head back and met his gaze. He looked puzzled.

“He told you?”

She made a little moue of annoyance. Didn’t she just say that? “How else did you expect him to let me know he’s enjoying his stay in London?”

Noble frowned. “You are aware, are you not, madam, that my son does not speak?”

“Well of course I’m aware he doesn’t speak. It’s rather obvious, Noble.” Gillian pushed back from his chest and looked mildly insulted.

“And yet you tell me he has spoken to you. You will understand how I find this difficult to believe.”

“There are more ways of speaking than by tongue, husband. I’m a mother. A mother understands her children.”

“You have been a mother exactly”—he looked at the clock on the mantel—“forty hours. Hardly the experience I would imagine that was needed to read my son’s mind.”

“Regardless, I know Nick is having a wonderful time, and I would like him to accompany me on my visit to Charlotte.”

Noble was about to refuse when it struck him that he might be defeating his own purpose if he interfered too much. He had promised to give her a fair chance with Nick, and since she obviously wanted to include him in her plans, he thought it best to let her proceed. With a few precautions set in place, of course. He wasn’t about to expose his son to a nightmare like the one the lad had barely survived with Elizabeth.

Noble was about to suggest they reclaim their clothing when Gillian placed a hand on his chest and stroked him. “Noble, I will happily take as many footmen as you like with me, but I worry about you.”

He was having a hard time thinking about anything but the fire she was starting deep inside his belly. “About me?”

“Yes. This attack on you, Noble, was clearly carried out by someone who wants to harm you. If you would just share with me your thoughts about it, I believe I may be of some help to you. You said last night that you had a suspicion of someone who might have abducted you?”

Noble had a suspicion, all right, but it wasn’t about the person who had lured him to his small house in Kensington and left him naked on his mistress’s bed. It was a suspicion that Gillian had just used him, turned his desire for her against him, and used him physically in a manner much like Elizabeth had used him so long ago. Elizabeth, who viewed lovemaking as a means to an end, as a way to force him into acquiescing to whatever it was she wanted. With Elizabeth it was jewels or baubles; with Gillian, it was his soul. His muscles stiffened beneath the gentle caress of her hand. Elizabeth and Gillian—this turn of events was surely proof that they were both the same after all, both only after whatever they could get from him, by whatever means necessary. He struggled to keep his voice emotionless. “I have told you that is no concern of yours, my dear. Now perhaps you should get dressed if you wish to visit your cousin.”