A Duke's Wicked Kiss (Entangled Select) (34 page)

Humor touched gray eyes, which stared unwavering at her, over the cup he held to his mouth. “The blackguard.”

Mesmerized, Suri watched the muscles ripple along his throat as he swallowed. The man was decidedly not spy material. Not if he was a drunk. Where had those thoughts come from? And how brazen had she been just now?

“Forgive me,” she said. “I have no right making judgments. I’ve recently been through a rather arduous time, and I am not myself.”

The gray in his eyes darkened. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

She fidgeted under his stark assessment of her. “And I, yours.” What did she say now? And would he please cease looking at her as though she owned not one secret?

He set his empty cup down, shoved his chair back, and stretched out his legs. “I see by your clothing that you ride?”

“Indeed,” she answered, glad for the change in subject.

“Would you care to ride with me?” His smile was soft now, almost shy. “I can show you a bit of Ravenswood Park, point out some of our stock that traces back to Bridgeford Hall.”

When she nodded, he rose, crossed over to where she sat, and held her chair while she stood. She turned to him. He placed his hand at the small of her back and guided her from the room. The heated contact—ever so gentle—penetrated the fabric of her riding habit and sank into her skin. Just like the way John had touched her.

She wished Edward wouldn’t.

C
HAPTER
E
IGHTEEN

Two weeks after her arrival, Edward sent formal notice for Suri to meet him in the library. Her palms were sweaty when she entered the large room resplendent with more books than she’d ever laid eyes on.

She despised meetings in libraries.

They did not bode well for her. Not after the debacle with her brother, anyway. And she was uncomfortable calling Edward by his Christian name. She had tried using the more proper Lord Edward after he refused his new title, but he’d denied her even that. Nonetheless, they’d got on decently these past days, even though his stark appraisal of her over dinner each evening set her nerves on edge. Oh well, she doubted he was entirely present at the table, what with the way he came to it smelling of spirits.

“You wished to see me?” Could she be mistaken, or did he look uneasy?

“Please, sit.” He motioned toward a richly colored burgundy leather chair and sat on the edge of his desk, hands folded over his lap.

Why did men always take to sitting on the desk when they wanted authority over someone? Her palms perspired. She fought the urge to wipe them on her skirts.

“Trent tells me you are concerned about where you’ll go from here and what will happen to your nephew should your sister not return.”

She nodded. “Yes, but once we arrived here, Trent wrote to the Duke of Bridgeford and told him where Jeremy could be found in case his mother returns. I intend to keep her posted wherever we end up.” Lord, but she had no idea where that might be. She’d have to travel to London and sell Shahira’s collar and chain soon. Perhaps Trent would take her.

Edward studied her through a froth of dark lashes, reminding her of how he watched her over dinner each evening. “You no longer need to concern yourself about a place for either one of you.” His voice took on a husky quality that set Suri’s nerves on alert.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I am asking for your hand in marriage, Suri.”

Thoughts screeched to a halt inside her head. Blood pounded in her ears. And her heart nearly gave way. “You…you
what
?”

“You heard me. I’m asking for your hand.”

She scooted sideways in the chair until she viewed him from out of the corner of her eye. Resentment burned a path behind the harsh words wanting to spill from her mouth. “For pity’s sake, Edward, I’ve only been here a fortnight and you ask for my hand? What’s got into you? Surely you’ve figured out your brother and I were lovers.”

“That, and for other reasons, is why I am asking you to be my wife.”

His wife?
For other reasons?
Good God! The idea of crawling into bed with any man, let alone one who so closely resembled John, was more than she could stand. She barely managed to make it to her feet. “Please, you’ve no need to be your brother’s keeper on my account.”

The bottom of her skirts quivered. He glanced down at them. Did the man not miss a thing?

When he raised his eyes to meet hers, the gray in them was soft, like fog on the moors. “Oh, but I do carry the obligation. I’ve spoken at length with Trent,” he said. “I’m well aware that John intended to marry you, but he is gone, and he gave you his ring to take to me. Surely you are aware that he intended for me to see to your well-being in his stead. Why else would he have bothered to see that you got it? It’s merely a piece of gold that could easily have been duplicated since the casting mold is kept in a vault here.

“I am also aware that your brother has left you homeless and penniless, and that you have no place to go. What if your sister fails to return, Suri? Not only do you have yourself to think of, but there’s also your nephew. As the new duke, I am in need of a wife and heirs. If it is not obvious to you, I live an isolated life here in the country with little occasion to meet anyone. As my wife, you and Jeremy would reside here safe and sound. Things don’t get much simpler than that.”

He eased off the desk and stepped toward her with an outstretched hand. “If you will agree to my terms, you may also build your school for orphaned half-castes here.”

Agree to his terms? “Don’t!” One hand flew out to stop him while the other fisted against her mouth to stifle a cry.

He paused mid-step. “Suri?”

“You mock John with your proposal. You are doing little more than placing a value on me as…as…you wish to use me for breeding purposes in exchange for shelter. I will not have it.”

She stared at his quizzical gray eyes, at his raised eyebrow. “How crude of you, madam. I speak of an arrangement that could work for both of us. I doubt you are so naïve as to think you might find love again. Arranged marriages occur all the time. Especially with someone of my newly acquired status. Tell me, do you have any better offers?”

The air grew thick as miasma between them. A spent log tumbled in the fire, spitting and hissing. In the deceptively profound silence, the mantel clock ticked louder and louder.

Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

He stepped forward.

Tick-tock. Tick-tock
.

She gripped her skirts.

And bolted.

She ran from the house, down the steps, past the stables, and into the field where a herd of horses grazed with no inkling her world had just spun out of control. She ran until her lungs were about to burst, until her hair hung wild about her shoulders, until she stumbled to the ground and landed on all fours, gasping for air.

Rolling onto her back, she screamed at John into the cloud-studded sky. “Why did you have to die?”

She lay there, panting, the clouds spinning in the sky above her. Or was it her head doing the spinning? What had happened back there? God, she was about to spill her breakfast on the ground. She rolled onto her side, clutching her cramping stomach. Could life get any worse? What was she to do? What if Edward was right and Marguerite never returned?

Suri moaned. She couldn’t give up hope. Marguerite would return. She would.

But what if she didn’t?

Suri gulped air into her lungs until the pain in her stomach eased and her heart settled back into a decent rhythm.

Behind her, a soft nicker floated in the breeze. She shot up and glanced over her shoulder. A large horse slowly made his way toward her. He shied at her eye contact. “Come,” she whispered. “Come to me in all your magnificence.”

The beast moved closer and nudged her shoulder. She laid a hand between his eyes, stroked down over the velvet of his nose, and blew softly into each nostril, offering him her scent. The horse nibbled at her hair. In her sadness, she managed a small smile. “You lovely thing. If only I’d been born one of you so I could spend my life in a place such as this.”

She looked around at the rolling green pasture, at the apple trees hanging thick with fruit. Fruit for making warm apple tarts, she recalled John telling her. The horse raised his head, twitched his ears and stepped away. Trent came into view, nearly upon her. She turned her back to him. “Go away.”

He plopped down next to her, picked a blade of grass and shoved it between his teeth. He said nothing for a long while.

“I cannot marry him,” she blurted out.

“Well, Suri, where else do you have to go?”

A shudder ran through her. “George will help me.”

He gave a scornful snort. “Grasping for straws are you? Where
is
your brother, by the way?”

She drew a quivering breath. “I don’t know.”

“How do you manage to stay in touch with him?”

“I don’t.” She pulled her feelings around her like a shroud. “What I mean is, he sends letters to me at Bridgeford Hall, and tells me where he’ll next be.”

He gave a soft, derisive laugh. “And Rupert will forward them to you? Wherever that may be?”

Fear tripped through her blood and sent an angry thrum through her temples. “Never mind. I can sell Shahira’s collar and chain.”

“And how long will those proceeds last you? Five years? Ten? Rupert has ruined you for a decent husband in London.”

“I despise London. Besides, I’m a half-breed, in case you forgot. I am also nearing eight and twenty. I am firmly on the shelf.” She grabbed a handful of grass and threw it as far as she could. “I will never forgive myself for refusing to marry John. Had we married, he’d likely still be alive, and I would not be in this terrible predicament.”

“Turning bitter won’t help matters,” he said.

“I have a right to be bitter.”

“That’s the talk of a pitiful victim.” He turned to her. “You have to let go of the past. Let John go.”

“I do not speak of him much any longer.”

“Your memories hover close to the surface, my friend. You hold on to his essence as if he’s going to walk through the door any minute. Christ, Suri, talk amongst the servants is that you’ve fashioned some kind of altar or shrine for him in your chambers. That’s not healthy.”

She swore under her breath. “Have you ever been in love, Trent?”

“Is that what you think all this is about? Love? For Christ’s sake, Suri, you spent one night in Ravenswood’s bed. I know. I carried you to him, if you recall.”

Fury boiled in her like a volcano about to erupt. She jumped to her feet and hovered over him. “Do you recall, aboard ship, when I told you John kissed me ten years prior in my father’s stable?”

He nodded.

“Well, I fell for him back then, Trent.” Unable to stop herself, her voice rose until she yelled. “The night you carried me to John’s bed, he confessed he’d never forgotten me. Even when he took a wife, he had never let go of me.”

Pacing back and forth in front of Trent with her fists clenched, she screamed, “When I walked into dinner that first night in Delhi, we found each other again. I just didn’t realize it until it was too late.”

Trent stood, took a step back, and raised troubled eyes. “I didn’t know this.”

She sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve. “Well, now you do.”

He reached into his jacket and handed her a handkerchief. He strode over to a nearby tree, leaned a shoulder against it, and watched her pace. “I thought marrying Edward would be the best solution—for both of you.”

“What?” She marched over to him, lifted her chin, and glared as a dawning took hold. “Why, you thought this up all on your own, didn’t you? And here I thought you were a bastion of decency.”

His hair, usually neatly combed, was untidy. He shoved back the lock falling across his forehead. Nothing in that composed face gave away what he was thinking, but she guessed he was upset.

“When did the idea occur to you, Trent? Oh, I think I know—when we were in the carriage, and you asked how George felt about me. When we were speaking of brothers, you knew then George was out of my reach but John’s brother was not. That’s when the idea popped into your sorry little mind, wasn’t it? I saw that look on your face back then, but I couldn’t figure out what it was at the time. Now I know.”

When he failed to deny her words, Suri shoved at his shoulder. “Damn you, Trent. That’s why Edward was drunk as a sailor our first night at dinner, wasn’t it? He resented you trying to pass me off on him. His brother’s leavings.”

“He changed his mind after he met you,” he responded. “Surely you’ve noticed how much kinder he has become toward you. Toward Jeremy, as well,”

She wrapped her arms around herself. “I haven’t noticed.”

“How convenient for you.”

Her insides began to tremble. “I do not want to hear this. I cannot possibly wed John’s brother. It feels indecent.”

Trent’s jaw clamped and fury sparked in his eyes. He pushed away from the tree and stood to his full height. “Damn it, Suri. What the hell are you going to do? You are a woman without means, and you have no family to help you. Edward is suggesting a viable solution. His offer of marrying his deceased brother’s woman is not uncommon amongst those of his ilk.”

He swept his hand through the air. “Look around. Do you think you’ll get a finer offer? How many women can either one of us name who found herself in your position and didn’t fare well?”

“I’m not another woman.”

He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “Think, for God’s sake. What choice do you have? Edward is a decent man about to be named a duke. You can work things out between you.”

She shrugged off his hands. “Edward is a drunk.”

“Well, then, ask yourself why and, for God’s sake, help him!”

She stood in startled silence for a long while. “I cannot fix someone who doesn’t want fixing.”

Trent raked his hand through his hair. It was his turn to pace. “As the Duke of Ravenswood, Edward has a purpose now, a reason to mend. As the youngest son, he’d never had much of one before.”

“I am in no position to marry anyone. Not in my pathetic condition.”