The Reluctant Duke (4 page)

He didn’t seem to be having the same trouble where
she
was concerned.

‘Yes…’ Lexie confirmed warily.

He nodded tersely. ‘I finally managed to return Barton’s call earlier. After careful consideration I’ve decided that
I
should
go to Gloucestershire to deal with the problem personally after all.’

Lexie’s heart gave a sickening lurch. ‘And this affects me how?’

Those dark eyes glittered down at her with mocking satisfaction. ‘I would have thought that was obvious, Lexie.’

‘Humour me, Mr St Claire,’ she bit out between gritted teeth.

He shrugged those broad shoulders beneath his tailored jacket. ‘For the next three days you work for me. I need to go to Gloucestershire for the next couple of days at least, to assess the damage to the house there and to organise repairs. Obviously I expect my temporary temporary PA—namely you—to accompany me.’

Lexie felt the colour drain from her cheeks as she stared up at him in stunned disbelief.

Lucan wanted her to accompany him to Gloucestershire? To Mulberry Hall? The St Claire ducal estate in the village of Stourbridge?

The same village where Lexie’s grandmother still lived…

L
UCAN
couldn’t help but see the way Lexie reacted as he outlined his plans for spending the next couple of days in Gloucestershire; her eyes had become dark and haunted, her cheeks deathly pale.

Obviously Lucan had a personal aversion to going anywhere near the family estate—which was the reason he had decided to take this intriguing woman with him—but he saw no reason why she should feel the same way. Unless, of course, she had personal commitments that kept her in town—maybe a boyfriend or a live-in lover?

‘Do you have a problem with that? ‘ he rasped harshly.

Did Lexie have a problem with that?

She couldn’t even begin to list the problems she had with going anywhere near the village of Stourbridge in the company of this particular man. With Lucan St Claire. The head of the despised St Claire family.

Lexie had been visiting the village of Stourbridge for years, of course, on frequent visits to her grandmother and Grandpa Alex. As a child she had gone there with her parents, and latterly on her own. Stourbridge was a delightful village, full of charming thatched cottages, and Lexie always enjoyed spending time there with her grandmother.

Which was the pertinent point, of course.

To go anywhere near Stourbridge, the village where Lexie had been known by many of the locals from the time she was a baby, with Lucan St Claire of all people, was simply asking for trouble.

Oh, what a tangled web
…

And that web had just become more tangled than Lexie could ever have imagined when she had allowed curiosity to get the better of her!

Her throat moved convulsively as she swallowed hard, and her gaze avoided meeting that probing dark one as instead she looked somewhere over Lucan’s left shoulder. ‘I can’t simply up and leave London at a moment’s notice…’

‘I’ve already checked with your agency, and part of your contract of employment states that you agree to accompany your employer in the course of his/her business,’ Lucan informed her coldly.

Having worked at the agency alongside her parents for the last three years, Lexie knew exactly what the Premier Personnel contract said concerning their expectations of employees. As the daughter of the owners of the company it was also a contract
she
hadn’t signed—a fact Lexie obviously couldn’t share with him.

Her mouth firmed. ‘Your reasons for going to Gloucestershire appear to be personal rather than business-related.’

‘Correct me if I’m wrong—’ his icily taunting tone implied that he already knew he wasn’t ‘—but I believe the initials PA stand for Personal Assistant…?’

‘Yes. But—’

‘In which case, as you are my PA, I fully expect you to accompany me to Gloucestershire.’

‘I disagree—’

‘And do you believe that your opinion on the subject is of
any
relevance to me?’ he cut in brutally.

Lexie looked at Lucan searchingly, easily noting the hard glitter of those dark eyes, the pulse pounding in his rigidly clenched jaw, the thin, uncompromising line of his mouth. ‘No,’ she finally acknowledged heavily. ‘But surely this visit could wait until my replacement takes over on Thursday?’ she added brightly.

‘I have no intention of altering my plans to suit you, Lexie,’ he bit out coldly. ‘If it makes you feel any better, I shall be taking a briefcase full of work with me.’

‘Oh…’ She gave a pained grimace.

That ruthless mouth twisted into a humourless smile as he nodded haughtily. ‘I’ll expect you back here in an hour, then, with your case duly packed.’

Lexie could feel the panic rising inside her. She
couldn’t
go to the St Claire estate in Gloucestershire with this man. She simply couldn’t!

Her grandmother’s cottage was only half a mile away from Mulberry Hall, the majestic mansion that was the St Claire ducal home. Lexie had played in the woods there when she was a child, had taken long walks in the grounds with her grandmother and Grandpa Alex, had often used the indoor swimming pool that had been built onto the back of Mulberry Hall.

Admittedly Lexie had never stayed at Mulberry Hall itself, her grandmother having always refused to live there with Alexander even after his divorce, but Lexie knew she would only have to make one slip, one remark that revealed she had been inside the house or on the estate before, for Lucan to demand an explanation. An explanation she had no intention of giving him.

This wasn’t just a tangled web, it was a steel trap, waiting to snap shut behind her.

Lexie gave a firm shake of her head. ‘I really would prefer not to accompany you to Gloucestershire—’

‘In that case,’ he interrupted grimly, ‘I have no doubt that Premier Personnel will have no choice but to dispense with your services altogether. For their own sake.’

‘Are you threatening me, Mr St Claire?’ Lexie snapped, easily able to guess what that meant. This man had the power and influence to totally ruin Premier Personnel’s reputation in the business world with only a few cutting words.

Something Lexie should definitely have thought of earlier.

‘I haven’t even begun to threaten you yet, Lexie,’ he assured her succinctly.

There was no mistaking the hard implacability of that coal-black gaze—an indication that Lucan was determined to have his own way. What Lexie didn’t understand was why. Why was he was so set on her accompanying him to Gloucestershire when she so obviously didn’t want to go?

Unless that was the very reason Lucan was being so insistent?

This man was hard, cold, ruthless. A man used to people doing exactly as he wanted them to. Who insisted on it. By arguing with him Lexie had no doubt she was just making Lucan all the more determined to bend her to his indomitable will.

And Lexie, fool that she was, had placed herself—and Premier Personnel—in a position where she could do nothing to stop him.

Her eyes glittered her dislike as she glared up at him. ‘An hour, I believe you said?’

Lucan felt absolutely no satisfaction in having forced Lexie to his will. Just as he had absolutely no idea what
thoughts had been going through that beautiful head while Lexie deliberated as to whether or not she was going to do as he asked. But whatever those thoughts had been they didn’t appear to have been particularly pleasant ones.

He couldn’t read this woman at all—which was unusual in itself; most women of his acquaintance seemed intent on either sharing his bed or attempting to get him to the altar. Usually with an avaricious eye on the fortune and power he had amassed these last ten years.

Lexie Hamilton made it obvious she was unimpressed with both him and his obvious wealth, and behaved towards him accordingly. Namely, she treated him with an offhand disdain that—contrary to what she’d obviously hoped—had only succeeded in increasing his interest in her.

Enough so that he welcomed the distraction of her presence, unwilling or otherwise, during this forced second visit to Mulberry Hall in as many weeks.

‘An hour,’ he confirmed abruptly.

She nodded. ‘Would you like me to find out the times of the trains?’

‘I intend driving up,’ Lucan dismissed. ‘Normally we would have flown up in the company-owned helicopter, but it’s being serviced at the moment.’

The St Claires really were a breed apart, Lexie decided slightly dazedly. Super-rich. Super-powerful.

How on earth her gentle and unassuming grandmother had ever dared to fall in love with the head of that rich and powerful family was a wonder in itself!

‘Silly me.’ Lexie grimaced.

He nodded. ‘You should pack warm clothing—’

‘I believe
I’m intelligent enough to have worked that out for myself,’ she snapped in her irritation.

‘I don’t think I’ve ever given you reason to think I believe you lacking in intelligence, Lexie,’ he assured her huskily.

‘So far,’ she challenged.

‘Ever,’ Lucan corrected gruffly.

Lexie looked at him uncertainly, slightly unnerved by the throaty huskiness of his tone, and even more so by what she could see in those dark eyes as Lucan steadily returned her gaze.

Dear Lord, she was going away with this man for two days. Would be in his company for the same amount of time. Constantly in his disturbing company…!

‘I’ll be back within the hour,’ she confirmed.

But first Lexie had to go to the office of Premier Personnel and explain the situation to Brenda.

Attempt to explain something Lexie couldn’t fully explain to herself!

‘Put your seat belt on,’ Lucan advised as he turned on the ignition of his black Range Rover.

Lexie had looked disturbingly attractive when she’d returned to the offices of the St Claire Corporation an hour or so ago, carrying a thick calf-length woollen coat and an overnight bag, and dressed in a blue sweater the same colour as her eyes, with denims that fitted snugly over that shapely bottom and slender legs before being tucked into calf-high boots. The long length of that gloriously wild black hair was secured in a loose plait down her spine, revealing that she wore small pearls in the lobes of her ears. An oval gold locket was also visible against the blue of her sweater.

Closed in the confines of the Range Rover with her, Lucan was also aware of the subtleness of the perfume she wore, along with a softer, even more subtle smell that was provocatively feminine. In fact the small and very womanly
bundle beside him was—as Lucan had hoped she would be—a distraction from the fact that their destination was Mulberry Hall.

Although Lucan knew that no one, and nothing, would ever make him feel completely relaxed about returning to the house he had lived in until he was eleven years old.

Lucan knew from attending Jordan’s wedding almost a week ago that the house had changed little since he’d last spent any time there. There was no reason for it to have done. The furnishings and draperies were antiques, the floors downstairs mainly marble, the paintings on the walls originals, as were the ornamental statues, and the impressive chandeliers that hung from the high ceilings were of very old Venetian glass.

No, there was no doubting that Mulberry Hall was a beautiful house. A gracious house. A house fit for a duke. The Duke of Stourbridge. A title Lucan currently held.

Something else he had avoided thinking about for the last eight years.

As the eldest child of a broken marriage Lucan had found it all too easy to blame Mulberry Hall and the demands of holding the title of Duke of Stourbridge, as much as his father’s and Sian Thomas’s affair, for wrecking his parents’ marriage and creating a schism in his own young life and that of his brothers. Lucan wanted to avoid all of those things. Mulberry Hall. His father. The title of Duke. Most of all, Sian Thomas—the woman Alexander had loved enough to sacrifice his whole family for.

Initially, after the divorce was over and emotions had calmed somewhat, Alexander had tried to encourage his three sons to meet and get to know Sian Thomas. An encouragement that had fallen on stony ground as they’d all refused to go anywhere near the woman they held responsible for their parents’ separation and divorce.

Damn it, Lucan wouldn’t be going near the place again now if John Barton, the caretaker, hadn’t made it so obvious that he thought Lucan should see the damage to the house for himself.

Lucan had insisted on Lexie Hamilton coming with him because he had hoped her sharp-tongued presence would be enough of a diversion for him to repress these grim and disturbing thoughts—at least until he actually reached Gloucestershire and could no longer avoid them!

A scowling glance in her direction showed Lucan that she was, in fact, gazing out of the side window of the car as they drove out of London, obviously enjoying the winter wonderland England had become following yet another heavy snowfall two days earlier. The roads had been cleared, at least, but the countryside was still covered in a thick layer of cold and haunting beauty.

Those blue sooty-lashed eyes were bright with pleasure when Lexie turned to return his gaze. ‘Everywhere looks so beautiful when it’s covered in snow, doesn’t it?’

Lucan’s mouth twisted derisively. ‘Much like papering over the cracks in life and hoping no one will notice!’

Lexie frowned slightly as she became aware of Lucan’s obvious tension. ‘It doesn’t have to be like that.’

He gave a weary sigh.
‘Please
tell me you aren’t one of those people whose glass is always half-full rather than half-empty?’

Lexie felt her cheeks warm at Lucan’s obvious derision. ‘It’s preferable to being a cynic!’

‘I prefer to think of myself as a realist,’ he rasped.

‘Which is just a polite way of saying you’re a cynic,’ she dismissed.

He gave her a derisive glance. ‘I don’t believe that politeness is exactly your forte, Lexie!’

‘Or yours!’ she came back tartly.

‘True,’ Lucan murmured softly.

Lexie gave him a sharp glance. ‘Don’t tell me we actually agree on something?’