"LADY SANDS, PLEASE, YOU MUSTN'T CARRY ON SO." Iphiginia pulled a hankie out of her little white satin reticule. She bent down and thrust it into Hannah's shaking fingers. "Everything will he fine."

"Thank you." Hannah blew her nose and risked an anguished look at her stony-faced spouse. "I'm so sorry, Mrs. Bright. I never meant for this to happen. Marcus was right. I could not conceal the truth forever from my husband."

"What truth? What the devil is going on here?" Sands looked at Marcus, his face twisted with rage and pain. "And don't give me any more rubbish about taking one of Hardstaff's treatments, damn your eyes."

"Hannah is the only one who can tell you the truth," Marcus said. "I have given her my word that I would keep her secrets."

"What secrets do you share with my wife?" Sands exploded. "Did you trick her into coming here so that you could seduce her in that brothel bed over there?"

"No," Marcus said calmly. "Of course he did not do any such thing." Iphiginia straightened and glowered at Sands. "Really, sir, that is beyond anything. Masters would never seduce another man's wife."

Sands turned on her, his face still tight with fury. "How would you know?"

"Because I know him very, very well." Iphiginia patted Hannah's shoulder. "He is incapable of that sort of unprincipled behavior."

Marcus gazed at her with an unreadable expression. Sands eyed Iphiginia intently. "How do you come to be here tonight, Mrs. Bright?" "I received a note, just as you did, sir," Iphiginia said. "I arrived only moments before you and hid behind the curtain." She swept a hand out to indicate the erotic paintings, and the statuary. "Obviously, someone intended that I discover Masters together with Lady Sands in a compromising position. I suspect you were meant to do the same."

"Someone staged this entire affair?" Sands set his jaw. "Is that what you're saying?"

"It's the only logical assumption, is it not, Masters?" "Yes." Marcus regarded the small group thoughtfully.

"Hannah and I both received notes, too." "They could not have come from the blackmailer," Iphiginia said. "Mrs. Wycherly is dead. Besides, there was no demand for money in this night's work. Some other malicious person is behind this."

Sands stared at each of them in turn, more frustrated than ever. "What blackmailers

Hannah raised her head with sad dignity. "Someone blackmailed me, my lord. We believe it was Mrs. Wycherly from the Wycherly Agency. She also blackmailed an acquaintance of Mrs. Bright's. She was murdered by one of her other victims."

"That was our initial conclusion," Marcus said. "Good Lord," Sands whispered. He glanced at Marcus and then strode toward his wife. He pulled Hannah up into his arms. "Tell me everything, Hannah. For God's sake, the truth can he no worse than what I have been forced to imagine for the past fortnight."

Hannah's eyes Idled with tears. "You will turn from me in disgust."

"Never," Sands vowed. "Never, my love. You cannot have done anything that will give me a disgust of you. The only way in which you could break my heart would he to turn to another."

"Oh, Edward, I killed him." Hannah pressed her face into his shoulder. "I shot him dead. And I do not regret the murder. I only feared your discovery of it."

"Mo did you kill?" Sands moved his hand gently on her shivering back.

"Spalding," Hannah blurted. Sands frowned. "Your first husband?" "I killed him one night when he came home drunk and started to beat me. I could not endure any more of 6 rages." Hannah sobbed heavily. "I could not take the never-ending fear. The cruelty. I feared for the life of any child I might bear. Oh, Edward, I was always so afraid. Only Marcus discovered the truth."

Sands looked at Marcus over the top of Hannah's head. "Masters? How are you involved in this? The old rumors always labeled you as the killer."

"I walked in five minutes after she had shot him," Marcus said evenly. "I got rid of the body for her. Tossed it into the river. Made it appear as though he had hen killed by a footpad."

"That was the least of what he did." Hannah sniffed back tears. "He also bore the brunt of the suspicions and the gossip afterward. Everyone believed that Marcus profited from Spalding's death. But the truth was, my husband had cheated him and many others. The investment pool they had formed was on the verge of bankruptcy."

"I went to London that day to confront Spalding with the facts of his deceit, Marcus explained. "I arrived late in the evening and went straight to his house on Fulston Street. I discovered Hannah with the pistol still in her hand."

"I was in a state of near-collapse." Hannah looked at Sands. "Panic-stricken would be a better word. I was afraid that Spalding was dead but terrified of what would happen next. Masters took care of everything."

"I see." Sands gave Marcus a speculative look. "You kept quiet not only about Hannah's involvement in Spalding's death, but also about the financial state of the investment pool, did you not?"

"I had little choice," Marcus admitted. "There was too much at stake."

Hannah pushed a strand of hair back behind her ears. "If word of the instability of the pool had gotten out, there would have been panic. The investors would have sold their shares at a terrible loss. So many people would have been ruined." She smiled wistfully. "Marcus took charge of the investment pool and salvaged everything."

"And got very rich in the process," Sands observed neutrally.

Marcus shrugged but offered no further explanation. "Oh, Edward, I am so dreadfully sorry that you had

to learn the truth this way," Hannah whispered. "Marcus insisted I should tell, all. He claimed it was the only way to remove the venom from the blackmailer's fangs, but I was afraid to confide the truth to you. I loved you too much to risk turning you against me."

"I always suspected what sort of man Spalding was." Sands gripped her arms gently and pulled her against him. "I heard the rumors. But you know how such things are ignored by Polite Society."

"I know," Hannah mumbled. "Listen to me, Hannah. I am glad that you shot him. Do you hear me? I only wish that I had had the privilege of doing so myself. If I had been acquainted with you then, I would have done so."

"Edward." Hannah held him more tightly. "I told you, Hannah, there is nothing on the face of this earth that could turn me away from you except to learn that you loved another."

"Never," Hannah vowed. "You are the only man I have ever loved. The only one I will ever love."

Sands touched her hair. "Then from now on, will you also trust me?"

"Yes." Relief and joy were mingled in Hannah's voice. "I am so sorry that I did not tell you everything long ago."

Sands looked at Marcus. "It would appear that I am in your debt, sir. Not only for helping Hannah that night, but for shielding her from all the questions and suspicions that ensued."

Marcus shrugged. "It was nothing."

Iphiginia smiled proudly. "That is Masters for you, Lord Sands. A gentleman to his fingertips."

"It was Hannah who made me into a gentleman." Marcus thrust his legs out in front of him and leaned back against the scat of his coach. He stared out the window into the night and thought about the past. "She taught me everything I needed to know so that I could move confidently in Society.»

"One cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's car," Iphiginia said. "Lady Sands may have given you a polite polish, but the truth is, you must have been born with the proper instincts for noble behavior."

Marcus glanced at her, amused. "I was born a farmer, Iphiginia."

She dismissed that with an airy wave of her gloved hand. "What has that got to do with it? You would be a true nobleman if you fished for a living or sold vegetables out of the back of a cart."