“Christiana? Are you all right?” Langley asked with concern. “You are suddenly quite flushed.”

Torn from her increasingly feverish recollections, she blinked and then glanced around and waved her hand in front of her face, asking, “Is it hot in here?

I feel over warm.”

“Er . . . I do not think so. It seems fine to me,” Langley assured her and then asked a touch impatiently, “Did you get the chance to see if he has the birthmark?”

Christiana opened her mouth to say no, but then stopped, because that would be a lie. The truth was, of course, that she had had the chance, she’d just been too preoccupied with other things to take it. Finally, she said, “I am not sure if he has the strawberry or not.”

Langley sat back with a sigh of disappointment, but then just as quickly sat forward again. “Well, we shall just have to think of another way to find out. I was worried sick last night about the three of you here in this house with him. I’ll take you, Lisa and Suzie away today. You can stay at your father’s townhouse while I arrange for an exam and an annulment.”

“Er . . .” Christiana cleared her throat and then murmured, “I don’t think there can be an annulment.”

“Of course there can. The marriage hasn’t been consummated.”

“Well. . . yes, well, that’s the thing,” she muttered, “Last night I was trying to see the strawberry and—Well, I was trying to see it—I fear the alcohol had something of an effect on me, I—he—we definitely hadn’t consummated it on the wedding night,” she ended lamely.

“What are you trying to say, Christiana?” Langley asked slowly, looking like he already knew what she was saying but didn’t want to believe it.

“We consummated last night,” she blurted finally.

“Dear God,” he groaned, closing his eyes, and then immediately opened them again and asked, “How could you?”

“Rather easily as it turned out,” she muttered, and felt herself blushing.

Langley rubbed his forehead as if it were suddenly aching, and then sighed and sat up. “Okay. We shall have to force him into divorce then. We will pretend to be lovers, and flaunt the supposed relationship openly until he has no choice but to demand a divorce. There will be more of a scandal, but at least you will be safe. I—”

“Safe?” she interrupted sharply.

He frowned. “Well, surely you realize that if it is George, then it’s possible Richard’s death may not have been an accident.”

Actually, she hadn’t realized that, Christiana thought faintly. It simply hadn’t occurred to her that George could envy Richard so much he might kill him to take his place. She’d just assumed that Robert was worried that George had taken advantage of what was an accident.

“Chrissy?”

“Just a minute, I must think,” Christiana muttered.

Langley paused and waited, his expression questioning and she bowed her head, trying to gather her scattered thoughts. She was taken aback somewhat by his suggestion. It put a whole new slant on things. At least, it did for a moment, but as her mind raced over the events from the night before, her thoughts began to clear a little. While she might have believed the man she’d lived with this last year capable of such a thing, she just found it impossible to believe that the man who had been so considerate and kind at the ball , and then such a patient and giving lover last night, could have killed his own brother out of envy.