Fenella J Miller - [Duke 02] (5 page)

*

Ralph heard the woman move. He kept his limbs relaxed and peered through his lashes to see what she was about. She was out of sight and without turning his head and alerting her he was awake he couldn’t see what she was doing. Perhaps a call of nature took her to the dressing room.

No, she was beside him again. One by one she removed lumps of coal and placed them on the dying fire, this was followed by three small logs. He stiffened as she pushed the poker into the growing flames and did not remove it. Was she going to attack him whilst he slept?

She sat back on her heels and he saw her face clearly for the first time. He expected to see a painted Jezebel - a light skirt his idiot brother had been inveigled into marrying. Instead he saw a young woman with dull brown hair worn in a severe, unflattering style, a pleasant countenance and brown eyes. Certainly nothing to suggest she was a femme fatale or a fortune hunter. In fact, she was a plain dab of a thing. She was as different from his expectations as chalk was to cheese.

There was something else going on here. Was it possible he’d jumped to the wrong conclusion? He watched her spring gracefully to her feet and move back across the room; she returned with a laden tray and placed it on a small foot stool in front of the fireplace. He tensed as she pulled out the poker but she plunged it into the coffee pot. Then she skewered two slices of bread on a toasting fork and held them in front of the flames.

His mouth began to water; he hadn’t eaten since heaven knows when. His stomach rumbled loudly and the toast fell into the flames.

*

“Botheration! Now look what you’ve made me do.” Anna spoke without thinking quite forgetting the sleeping giant was her enemy.

A lean brown hand snaked past her and removed the bread before it was ruined. “There, perfectly edible. Is that feast for me?”

“Lord Shalford was too bosky to eat his supper. You might as well have it instead.” She stood up and moved away from the circle of light. For some reason she felt uncomfortable beneath his scrutiny. His strange tawny eyes fixed her like a hawk. “Do not think I am going to wait on you, your grace, I shall retire to my own chamber now that you’re here to make sure my husband doesn’t choke on his own vomit.”

She hid her smile and headed for the door. With luck her comment would put him off his supper. It had been a long night but perhaps for the first time in years she would be able to sleep without fear. Somehow she doubted her stepfather would try and snatch her back when the duke was present.

She stumbled, stubbing her toe painfully on the doorstep. Good heavens! What nonsense was this? Shalford’s autocratic brother had ridden pell-mell across country in order to prevent her marrying his brother. He would hand her back in a moment given half the chance. What had made her believe for an instant he would protect her?

Molly was fast asleep on the truckle bed in the dressing room. She would not disturb her; she was quite capable of removing her garments without assistance. Clad in her chemise she slipped between the covers surprised the sheets were not icy. Dearest Molly must have run the warming pan through them not long ago.

It scarcely seemed a quarter of an hour before she was roused by the sound of curtains rattling back on their poles. “Molly, surely it’s not time to get up already?”

“Bless you, madam, it’s after eight o’clock. It has been that busy downstairs I had to queue to get your hot chocolate and warm water.” Molly bustled over almost heaving Anna up the bed in her eagerness. “Lord Shalford is waiting to speak to you, miss … I beg your pardon, madam. There have been two messages already asking when you will be going along to his chambers.”

“Westchester arrived in the middle of the night, I expect it will be he who’s sending these demands. I’d best be quick; his grace is not a man who will take kindly to being kept waiting.”

*

Ralph had no sympathy with his sibling’s pounding headache or bilious attack. “It serves you right, Rupert, I’ve warned you many times about drinking to excess. For heaven’s sake take your coffee and sit down we have matters of the utmost importance to discuss.”

“Nothing you can say will make any difference. Miss Hadley and I were married in the sight of God and two witnesses. I am free of your interference, Ralph. I now have access to my inheritance and shall remove to the estate in Essex.” He pushed out his chin and glared, looking more like a spoilt schoolboy than a man old enough to have a wife. “I am done with your rules and regulations and from now on I shall suit myself how I go on.”

“And whose idea was this folly?”

“Rolly Banister and Freddie said I couldn’t do it, wagered one hundred guineas against it. Jack Simmons decided to help me.” He rubbed his forehead and sipped his coffee noisily.

“I see, I might have known those buffoons were involved. Where if I might enquire, did you find Miss Hadley?”

“Jack’s sister, I misremember her name, was at school with her. She suggested Miss Hadley would be ideal as she was in a similar situation.” He scowled at Ralph. “It ain’t your place to poker up, I’m one and twenty, can suit myself what I do. If you’re thinking she’s not good enough then you’re wrong. Her grandpa was an earl or some such, her pa a colonel in the artillary. Mentioned in dispatches, I dare say.”

Ralph ground his teeth barely restraining an impulse to tip a bucket of cold water over his brother. An unpleasant shock was exactly what the boy needed in order to come to his senses. “I take it there is some reason why the young lady was prepared to tie herself to a nincompoop like you? No doubt your money is enough to compensate for the lack of substance between your ears.”

“I say, that’s doing it rather too brown. I ain’t as clever as you, but I’m no nodcock.”

“I beg to differ. Only a complete ninny would marry for a wager – and to such a dull creature too.” Ralph shook his head, quite baffled by Rupert’s inability to see what was obvious. He would have to make it clear. “No woman of sense would contract herself to a complete stranger, even one with a title, unless there was a pressing need to do so. She must be with child and intending to foist her by-blow off on you.” His brother’s shocked expression did nothing to reassure him. “Or maybe the lure of your title
was
enough.”

“She married me to get away from her stepfather. Sir John Radcliffe has been using the interest from her inheritance to fund his gambling. Not satisfied with this he was going to coerce her into marrying one of his friends and then split the trust fund with her unwanted husband. I’ll not have you say such things about her, if I didn’t have a crippling headache I would draw your cork.”

For the second time Ralph wondered if he’d misjudged his putative sister-in-law. Perhaps her reasons for embarking on this unsuitable arrangement were not avaricious after all. He would make enquiries—someone would know if the girl was indeed an heiress or a fortune hunter as he suspected.

“Whoever she is, she is taking a devil of a long time to appear.” He frowned as he viewed his brother’s dishevelment. “I suggest you go back into your bed chamber and let Evans improve your appearance. It’s a good thing he arrived this morning with your carriage. I’ll not have you letting down the family by greeting Miss Hadley in clothes you’ve slept in.” Ralph’s lips quirked, at least one Shalford would be clean and respectable. His togs had yet to appear; they were travelling behind him in his coach. Evans had done his best to improve matters but he was still decidedly unkempt, not something he was accustomed to.

Rupert waved a limp hand but remained slumped in the armchair. “I ain’t well enough to bother about such niceties, My wife won’t mind how I look. She’s a game girl, a crumpled shirt don’t offend her.”

*

Anna paused outside the parlour door waiting for her pulse to steady. The thought of being interrogated by that arrogant, objectionable man was not a pleasant one. Nevertheless it must be done. She drew herself up, straightened her shoulders and pinned on a polite smile. As she was raising her hand to knock she heard the duke speaking.

“Get up. Do it now. I don’t give a damn what Miss Hadley thinks, it is
I
that am offended by your indolence.”

She froze, uncertain whether to proceed or retreat to the safety of her own apartment. Then anger replaced her fear. Shalford was her responsibility now. How dare that horrid man speak to her husband like that? She pushed open the door with rather more vigour than she intended and it crashed back with as much noise as the duke had produced when he’d appeared so unexpectedly last night.

Shalford grinned apparently unbothered by his older brother’s rudeness. However the duke’s lips thinned and his tiger eyes flashed dangerously.

“Good morning, Shalford, I’m relieved to see you up and about. I expect you have a headache this morning.” Anna ignored the fuming man towering above her and walked over to join her husband. “I expect you would rather postpone our departure until tomorrow, my dear. I am perfectly content to stay another day.” She gestured towards the windows. “Indeed, it is most inclement today, not at all seasonable for April. Much better if we remain in front of a warm fire.”

She could almost hear the duke’s teeth grinding. Treating him as discourteously as he had treated her was rather enjoyable. Then her husband’s expression changed to one of alarm. Too

Late! She turned and Westchester loomed over her.

“Enough of this nonsense, madam. Do you think I intend to stand here listening to you two simpletons discuss the weather?”

It would have been better to have remained silent but something prompted Anna to tip back her head and stare directly at him. “I have no idea of your intentions, your grace, I am not a clairvoyant after all.” If he had been furious before now he was incandescent. She saw his hands clench, bright spots of colour appeared along his cheekbones and instinctively she stepped backwards.

In her haste her heel caught on the hem of her gown. She teetered and lost her balance. He reached out just before her head cracked against the mantelshelf. Heart pounding, she was lifted to safety. She rested her cheek against his chest for a second, could hear a corresponding thumping beneath her ear. Then she was dumped unceremoniously on a
chaise-longue
and his grace was once more towering above her, his face hard and uncompromising.

Shalford finally reacted. “My word, that was a close call. If Ralph hadn’t caught you…”

“In which case it’s fortunate I did so. Whilst you are changing your apparel, Miss Hadley and I can begin our discussion.”

Anna was too shaken to protest at his high-handed behaviour and his incorrect usage of her former name; Shalford pushed himself unsteadily upright and tottered off to his bed chamber.

Despite her upset her mood lightened. She’d only known him a short while but she was quite sure it would be at least an hour before he returned. Unfortunately he favoured the macaroni school of fashion, luridly striped waistcoats and shirt points so high he was unable to turn his head with any degree of comfort.

She risked a glance at the duke. He was preoccupied, frowning after his brother and she was able to stare freely. Without his riding coat and dressed in the best that Weston could produce she was forced to admit he made a fine figure of a man. At almost a head taller than his brother and much broader in the chest he filled his dark blue, superfine jacket to perfection. His hair was not the colour of ripe corn but brown.

“Do I meet with your approval, Miss Hadley?”

Her eyes flew down to meet his amused gaze. She felt the heat spreading from her toes to her crown. Drat the man for making her uncomfortable yet again. “Your exterior is quite satisfactory, not the equal to Shalford’s of course, but good enough, I suppose.” There was a flash of something that could have been admiration reflected in his eyes. Emboldened she continued. “However, one must not judge a book by its cover, must one, your grace?” There was no need for her to elaborate—she’d made her meaning abundantly clear.

Instead of reacting angrily his mouth widened in a smile that made her toes curl in their slippers.

“Well said, my dear girl. Now preliminary skirmishes are over we can we talk about what really matters.” He stretched out and picked up a heavy oak chair, lifted it as if it weighed nothing at all and folded his long length on to it.

“I have no wish to discuss anything without my husband being present, your grace. I’m sure you understand. It’s not my place …”

“Fustian! We both know my brother will be incapable of saying anything sensible until tomorrow.” He leant forward, pinning her like a butterfly to a board with his fierce stare.

“Why did you marry him? If you have your own fortune then you were not motivated by greed. Was it his title?” He allowed her no time to reply then continued his expression grim. “I believe there can be only one explanation—you are expecting a child …”

This was the outside of enough. Anna surged to her feet closed the gap between them and dealt him a resounding slap. The crack of the blow echoed around the room. “How dare you suggest such a thing? You are despicable; I never wish to see you again. You are
persona non grata
in your brother’s life from this moment on.”

Anna tumbled into her chamber and lent against the door expecting at any moment the duke would arrive and demand entry. She pressed her ear to the wood but could hear no sign of pursuit.

“Lawks, my lady, whatever next? You’re as white as a sheet. Come along and sit yourself down.” Molly tutted and muttered under her breath as she escorted Anna to a convenient armchair.