Heartless (32 page)

24

The words were already said. There was no going back in time to rescind them. The damage was done. And if Leandra had known quite how much damage she’d done, she would have stayed and attempted everything in her power to make it right.

But she didn’t.

“Have you been trying to save me, Merri?”

She made no reply to his horrified query. Instead, she walked away from him.

Derringer watched her leave and wondered why he’d ever made the idiotic mistake of falling in love. All his experience of that emotion had not ended well. And Leandra was more proof of that.

And he was. In love. Completely, irrevocably, head-over-ears in love with his own wife. He didn’t know when it happened or how, but he admitted the truth of it.

So he did the only thing he could to prove it. He let her go.

Ten minutes later found the Duke of Derringer in the drawing room with his and Leandra’s families. He looked them over with acute dislike, wanting nothing more than to throw them all bodily from the castle… tower. In some obscure way, he blamed them for his recent falling out with Leandra.

Taking up a defensive stance near the hearth, Derringer announced, “Just as soon as my servants have packed your things—which I estimate to be in less than five minutes”— glancing at the watch hanging from his waistcoat—“you will all depart Derringer Crescent. We will, of course, be sorry to see you go and all that rubbish, but I fear your welcome has long since been worn thin. Thank you.” With a bow that lacked any mocking, the duke walked out on a sea of shocked expressions.

Gabriel followed his cousin into the hall. “Hart, wait!”

The duke stopped and turned, his left eyebrow raised in silent inquiry.

“What was that all about? And where is Merri?” asked Gabriel as he caught up with Derringer.

Save for the lowering of his brow, the duke’s expression didn’t change. “It doesn’t concern you and please refer to my wife with more formality.”

As he turned to continue on his way, Gabriel caught his arm and swung him around. “Just what the devil is that supposed to mean? You act as though I have committed some indiscretion with Lady Derringer.”

The duke stared at his cousin’s hand where it lay on his arm in the way that usually indicated his displeasure to the offending creature. Gabriel, however, was not afraid of Derringer as others were. He merely shook the duke’s arm when no answer was forthcoming.

Derringer looked up and sighed. He had never had secrets from his cousin before, why start now when he had finally proven beyond a shadow exactly what a cad he was?

“If you must know, Gabe, Leandra has decided to take her glorious presence from my home and I find I am sick of playing gracious host to her blasted family, not to mention yours. If you and Martin would like to stay, you know you are welcome to. But,” he shook his head, “I need to be alone.”

The door to the drawing room opened to disgorge Greville and his wife. Aurora took one look at the duke, marched over, and glared up at him. “That was badly done, Hart, and well you know it. How could you be so very rude? Do you know that poor Michaella is in tears at the thought of leaving Leandra here with a monster like you?”

“Lady Michaella is crying?” asked Gabriel. Without waiting for an answer, he disappeared back into the drawing room.

“And what do you have to add, Vi?”

“Nothing, Hart. I agree that you have every right to ask us to leave. But,” he said pointedly with a look at his tiny but furious wife, “I also think you could have been more polite about it.” He shrugged. “But I also know that’s not really you.”

“Where is Leandra, Hart? Why didn’t she come with you to extricate your unwelcome guests?”

“You will be pleased to know, Lady Greville,” Derringer snapped, “that dearest Leandra has finally made an intelligent decision. She’s decided life without me in it is far preferable.”

Aurora paled slightly. “You jest. Please tell me you jest.”

“I do not. Now, if you will be so good, I wish to be alone.”

“No, Hart, I want to speak with you about this.”

“Vi, when have I ever bowed to your wishes?”

“Never. But you will start now.”

The determination in Greville’s voice convinced Derringer that he would stop at nothing to get his compliance. “And if I don’t?” he challenged anyway.

Greville smiled. “I’ll thrash you. Or let you die. The choice is yours.”

Derringer did not trust his friend’s look. He supposed if Greville thought it necessary, he would simply step aside and let whomever it was that desired Derringer’s death to have at it.

“Will you leave me be if I assure you it was my fault and the best thing for her to do is leave?”

“How was it your fault?” inquired Aurora. A look of disbelief crossed her features. “Did I just ask how it was
your
fault?” She shook her head at his mocking expression and continued, “Allow me to rephrase that. What did you say or do to make her leave?”

The duke shrugged with apparent nonchalance. “Nothing she didn’t already know.” He was secretly ashamed of his behavior with Leandra but he’d be damned before he’d admit it to even these, his closest friends.

He was saved from a closer examination by the exhumation of the drawing room. The rest of the family poured out and Derringer took a step back. “You are welcome to stay, of course, Vi, but I want everyone else gone.”

Everyone assembled in the hall watched the duke stride away. Just as he was about to make good his escape through the front door, Stark opened it to admit Sir Adam Prestwich. Derringer groaned.

“Get out, Prestwich. I don’t want or need your help.”

“That’s a fine attitude, Derringer,” scolded the vibrant beauty that was Adam’s wife, Lady Brianna. “You know very well this is one problem you can’t solve on your own.”

Without further ado, she pushed the duke out of the way and entered the castle. Following closely in her wake were her children, six-year-old Callie, two-year-old Jessamyn, and the baby, eleven-month-old Lucien, was carried in by a chubby nursery maid.

“You brought them all?” asked Derringer. He glanced at the smiling baby boy and felt an odd pull that he refused to explore or even acknowledge. He addressed the baronet once more. “Why did you bring your whole family?”

The look of incredulity on Adam’s face made Lady Prestwich laugh. “Do you think he could have stopped me, my lord duke?” she asked sweetly. “I assure you, he could not.”

Her husband shrugged. “I choose not to argue with her. If she gets involved more than I would like, I’ll tie her up.”

Lady Brianna’s expression reflected uncertainty at this calm announcement. That he would do it was not in doubt. Derringer got a twinge of malicious pleasure from this.

“Mrs. Stark!” The housekeeper bustled forward, a smile of welcome on her round features. “Put my new guests somewhere.” Then, having decided he’d had enough of unwanted company, the Duke of Derringer made good his escape.

Greville glanced at the new guests and then at the old guests. He frowned. “Mrs. Stark, I know you would never disregard his lordship’s wishes but please rescind the order to eject them.”

The woman frowned right along with him. “I could never do that, my lord.” She waved her husband over. “Stark, his lordship requests that we rescind the order to remove his grace’s unwelcome guests.”

“Indeed, my lord?”

“I have my reasons, Stark.”

The Starks glanced at each other, saying nothing yet communicating as only a longtime married couple could. Then, decision made, Stark returned his wooden expression to Lord Greville. “We trust that your lordship is fully aware of the risk you are taking?”

The earl smiled. “I am.”

“Very well then, my lord.” A flurry of activity began in which Stark managed to make the change in orders known without drawing his grace’s attention. The efficiency was a sight to behold.

That taken care of, Greville came forward and greeted his cousin and her husband. “I apologize for our host’s rather rude welcome, but…” He shrugged.

Aurora said a few things to Mrs. Stark and then took little Jessamyn by the hand and led the newcomers away. Prestwich stayed behind.

“I never expected better, Vi, believe me. Is there some place we can speak privately? Something has happened that perhaps you should know about.”

25

The lateness of the year brought darkness early, the sun descending though night still lay hours away. Leandra gazed through her bedchamber window, watching the sun begin its descent, streaking reds and golds across the sky. She saw nothing. Liza scurried around the room behind her, packing a valise at Leandra’s request. No tears marred her round cheeks, no wrinkle disturbed her pale brow.

She felt nothing. She refused to consider her husband’s hateful words, to recall the contempt in his face and voice. Tears were scorned in the face of her injured pride. It was outside of enough that he’d managed to shatter her heart, dismantle her world, and otherwise destroy everything she’d come to believe about love and marriage. He couldn’t have her tears too.

She didn’t know where she would go, however. Her allowance was enough she could go anywhere in the country but she hated the idea of using a penny of her husband’s money. On the other hand, how was she to get away if she did not?

“Oh, bother.”

Liza looked up, pausing briefly in the act of folding her mistress’s underthings. “Your grace?”

“Nothing, Liza. I’ve just remembered something. Don’t bother with the valise. I may not need it quite yet.”

The duchess rose to her feet and retrieved the childish book of spells she had hidden in her nightstand. As she pulled it out, she inadvertently knocked out one of the late duchess’s journals. It fell to the floor, an ominous crack sounding. Leandra clenched her teeth and bent to pick it up. As she did so, she noticed a very small piece of foolscap protruding from between the cover and the vellum carefully glued to it. Her eyebrows rose slightly at this and she gently removed the protrusion.