When he’d thought about marriage, which wasn’t often, he’d always considered it a necessary thing in a longer line of necessary things. Title. House. Lords. Wife. Children. Done. He’d had a vague idea of what he expected from a wife. Pretty enough to catch attention, smart enough to not be embarrassing, and good enough at running the household. They’d see each other enough to create a peaceful home and go out enough to be interesting.

Good enough. He’d have had a life that was good enough.

Annabel had saved him from that.

His chest tightened, making it difficult to breathe, much less speak. “Dearest?”

“I know you’d hoped Graydon wasn’t involved,” she said at the same time. “I’m sorry.”

He shrugged as best he could while reclined against a seat with his arms full of his wife. “I just didn’t figure him for paying the queen’s money to his friends.”

“They aren’t friends.”

“Just because they were arguing? I hate to tell you, but male friends argue more than they have civil conversations. We save civility for other people.” He and Kit fought like devils at times. Perhaps that was because they were related.

“Spencer doesn’t have friends, Jasper. He has chess pieces.” She eased from his hold and straightened, putting them eye to eye. “Not all of us are pawns.”

She was no one’s pawn. He traced a finger down her cheek to the point of her chin. “You believe Spencer has something on Graydon.”

“I know he does.”

Her intelligence and her certainty excited him, but he envied her ability to form coherent thoughts. His brain was still after-sex fuzzy. “What do you know?”

“Jocelyn Fletcher threw Viscount Raines out of her…house for assaulting a girl.”

He liked Jocelyn Fletcher, trusted her, but she was as tenacious about protecting her staff as she was about ensuring her information was accurate. “Annabel, the ladies at the White Rose are paid for sex however their customers want it, within reason. If Raines got heavy-handed—”

“Not a lady, Jasper. A girl.” She put her finger to his chest. “And it shouldn’t matter who it is. Women have the right to be safe and respected in their own homes, whether they are paid for or bartered off for their dowry.”

The flash in her eyes reminded him of the night she’d scolded him at his own party. He’d suspected even then that, given the chance, she would fly. A smile stretched slowly across his tired face. “Yes, Lady Ramsbury.”

“Don’t patronize me over this. Under the super-fine and the horses, he is a brute and a bully, and—”

He pressed his fingers to her lips, and her breath warmed his fingers. “Tell me what you’ve learned.”

“Spencer was there when Jocelyn banned Raines.”

The road beneath them changed from the park’s gravel to city cobbles, rattling Jasper’s teeth and clattering through his head. He pushed himself upright.

“So he knows what happened.” His mind began to spin. “And he was already backing Graydon’s bid for lord high treasurer.”

“But he was appointed to the Exchequer instead,” Annabel said, continuing the story. “Because the queen wanted the ability to dismiss him if need be.”

God love a woman who understands Parliament. “That position carries a great deal of honor. A scandal could tarnish it.” He thought for a moment before shaking his head. “Getting barred from a brothel is still a weak excuse for blackmail.”

“Not if it ruined his son’s chance to choose the diamond of the Season and her lucrative dowry,” Annabel countered as she angled to face him.

“Which it hasn’t.” Jasper squared off against her, rising to the battle.

“They aren’t married yet,” Annabel said. “She may surprise you.”

A shadow crossed her eyes, merely a flicker but enough to raise questions. “Annabel?”

She shook her head. “We will not use this story in our scheme.”

The carriage slowed for the turn into the rear lane and then eased to a stop. “Home, sir.”

“Thank you, Lawrence,” Jasper called up. He stared at Annabel for a moment, taking in her half-down hair, loose pins, and wrinkled gown. “Ask Frederick to stay atop, please. I’ll see us into the house.”

Jasper lowered the stairs and stepped down before offering his hand to Annabel. As she reached the middle step, he met her gaze. “Then we’ll find a way to stop him.”

They were at the base of the stairs when Jasper decided to share his last piece of the puzzle. “The queen and the prime minister suspect embezzlement because funds are not available for improvement projects she had promised.”

“But only in the poorest districts,” Annabel said. “At least, that’s what I’ve read in the news.”

“You’ve read correctly. The prime minister has investigated every supplier and contractor.” He snorted a laugh. “It’s likely the only time someone has hoped for graft.”

“Which only leaves the treasury,” Annabel said as they entered his room.

Jasper paused at the door and watched her move about his space as though she’d never left it.

“Taxes.” She looked in the mirror and gasped. “Why did you let me walk through the house like this? If your mother had seen me…” She filled the basin with water and set to work cleaning her face.

If Mother had seen you, she’d have been relieved that I’m trying everything I know to save my marriage. Not to mention his country and his queen.

Annabel had found a purpose in the capture of Collins, Spencer, and Raines. That shared challenge had let the two of them form an easy truce. They were friends. They always had been. Good marriages were born out of worse.

She dried her face and began fumbling through her ruined curls to find the pearl-headed pins that caught light whenever she moved. “Reports say so many shillings are flowing into the queen’s coffers that it’s difficult to count them all.”

Jasper pushed away from the wall. “We’ve thought the same thing.” He tugged an overlooked pin free and offered it to her. “But we’ve looked at the books and can’t find a discrepancy.”

The laces at her back gave way under his fingers, revealing his favorite corset. Satin stitched peonies winked at him, their delicate pink matching the marks under her shoulder blades. They’d be bruises by morning.

“You said I didn’t hurt you,” he whispered as he traced the undergarment’s unyielding curve. Her shiver made his mouth water, and he prayed she didn’t stop talking and remember where she was.

“You didn’t.” The shy look she gave him over her shoulder bested the flirtations of any experienced mistress.

Friends would never be enough. A good marriage would be a betrayal of everything he knew was possible with her. Jasper unbuttoned his waistcoat and shrugged free of it. Then he hooked his thumbs under his braces.

Annabel lifted his hairbrush and tugged it through her thick hair. It stopped halfway down, barricaded by a mass of tangles. “This will take forever. Whose receipts are you using?”

He gave her his comb. Anything to keep her from going to the dressing table in her room. “Everyone in Lords has—”

She looked at him like he was the slow boy in maths class. “Jasper, he’s not going to skim from anyone who has the right to review his ledgers.” She smoothed one section of hair and moved onto another. “We need to find a different group.”

“A shilling here and a sixpence there?” He tossed his shirt aside. “It would take forever.”

Her touch stopped him in mid-reach for his trousers. Her fingers traced what would be a permanent reminder of how much danger he’d placed her in.