Secrets for Seducing a Royal Bodyguard by Vanessa Kelly Page A

considered.”
    “Yes, we were fortunate in that respect.”
    His chief cocked an eyebrow. “Ah. Then she wasn’t—”
    “No, she was spared that degradation, thank God. They drugged her, but they obviously had instructions not to do her grievous harm. But she wasn’t well treated, which tells me something.”
    Dominic frowned, the harsh angles of his face looking grimmer than usual. And since he almost always looked grim, that said something to Aden too.
    “Was she able to tell you anything useful?” Dominic asked.
    Aden started to answer but then glanced at Lady Vivien, still nestled in his mother’s embrace. She had not cried once during her entire ordeal this night, but now she was sniffing like a heartbroken child, tears trickling down her face. What the devil had his mother said to upset her?
    Dominic glanced over at the women, then back at Aden. “She’s fine,” he said. “It’s just relief, now that she’s safe.” A mocking smile lifted the corners of his mouth. “Of course, you could always go over and give her a hug.”
    “With all due respect, sod off,” Aden growled.
    Dominic simply snorted in reply.
    His chief could frequently be annoying as hell, but Aden was also irritated that he actually did want to hug Lady Vivien. Fortunately, his mother prevented the need for him to act in so idiotic a fashion by murmuring something that brought a watery smile to the girl’s face. She settled Lady Vivien onto the settee in front of the fireplace, before finally deigning to acknowledge his existence.
    Aden braced himself against the rush of emotions that swept through him whenever he met his mother.
    As always, reluctant admiration warred with bitterness. His mother stood barely five feet tall and was as slender as a reed, but she packed a formidable will in her petite frame. Few could stand against that will when she chose to exert it, and Aden remained convinced she could have exercised it to protect him from his stepfather’s resentment—hatred, even, toward the child who was living proof that his wife had betrayed him, and with a prince, no less. Only once had his mother intervened, when Lord Thornbury had raised a hand to him when he was thirteen, striking Aden across the face. Then, she had stepped between them, telling her husband in a quietly lethal voice to never again lay a hand on her son.
    Thornbury had turned on her with a snarl, but his mother had simply placed a restraining hand on her husband’s chest and stared back at him. To Aden’s everlasting amazement, the old bastard had retreated. Aden’s mother subsequently never mentioned the incident, and although his stepfather didn’t stint on the tongue-lashings, Thornbury never struck him again.
    “Good morning, Aden,” his mother said. “Why are you skulking by the door? Can you not give your mamma a proper greeting?” She finished with her most charming smile, clearly wishing to take the sting from her words.
    Too bad it didn’t work.
    Not bothering to repress a sigh, he trod wearily across the library to pay his respects to the one person who still had the ability to make him feel like an awkward schoolboy. He also couldn’t help glancing at Lady Vivien, whose sleepy eyes had just popped open with astonishment. She stared at him for several long seconds, her lips thinned into an irritated line. “You are Lady Thornbury’s son?” she asked.
    His mother threw her a startled glance. “Aden didn’t tell you?”
    “No. Apparently he did not find that detail to be of any importance.” Lady Vivien glowered at him.
    Wonderful. Just what he needed after a long and trying night.
    His mother looked at him and he shrugged, expecting her to make one of her typical sarcastic responses. She didn’t. In fact, she looked wounded, as if he’d insulted her somehow.
    “I didn’t do it on purpose, Mother,” he said. That wasn’t quite true, but he had no intention of admitting that. “We were rather busy, what with the escape from