Читать книгу Misleading a Duke - A.S. Fenichel - Страница 11

Chapter 3

Three weeks later

Parvus Castle

Shropshire County, England

By the time Nick arrived at Parvus Castle the light waned in the west. He’d ridden steadily, stopping only at dark, for more than three days after receiving Geb’s note of an urgent matter. Geb might have finally gotten him the names and locations of the French spies he’d been researching the past year.

At the front drive, a young boy took Nick’s horse to be cared for. There were rarely many servants at the small castle, which was used mainly as a hunting lodge or to get away from life for a while.

Knowing there was no butler, Nick didn’t bother to knock. Besides, he was tired and badly in need of a warm fire and a good draught of brandy. He banged open the front door. “Geb!”

Brushing off the snow from his coat, he tossed the wet outerwear on a bench by the door and stomped the mud from his boots.

A shuffle of movement came from the salon.

A white ball of barking fur loped into the foyer and jumped on Nick’s legs.

“Who are you?” he asked in a softer voice. “Has Geb gone and gotten himself a puppy?” Nick knelt to scratch behind the pup’s ear.

Nick stood, and the puppy continued his happy yipping and followed along as they drew closer to the salon.

“Geb?” Nicholas turned into the salon and froze.

Nick blinked several times as if doing so might erase the vision of Faith sitting in Geb’s hunting lodge. She was as lovely as the first time he’d seen her, though less formally attired in a pale green day dress. Several brown curls had escaped and hung around her heart-shaped face.

Gathering his wits, he stepped inside, careful not to stomp on the puppy, who continued his elation. Nick searched for Geb in the large salon before turning back to Faith. “Where is Geb?”

“Mr. Arafa is not here.” Her voice was soft and melodious, while she was wide-eyed and clasping her hands so tightly, her knuckles had turned white.

Was she afraid of him?

“What are you doing here, Lady Faith?” Nick loomed over her.

She craned her neck and looked at him. “Mr. Arafa has loaned me the use of this castle for a fortnight.”

A level of anger that only Faith could conjure built inside Nick. “Geb sent me a message. He said it was urgent I meet him here immediately.”

Standing, she forced him to step back. Though it didn’t keep her from having to look up to him. She might be bold, but she was petite. “I’m sorry we were forced to deceive you, Your Grace. It was necessary for you and I to have some time together where you cannot ignore me.”

“Are you saying you talked Geb Arafa into deceiving me as well?” Nick continued to blink. He was certain at some point his friend would pop out from behind some door, tell him it was all a bad joke, and explain why Faith was at Parvus.

“It was necessary and he was very kind to comply.” She pursed her lips and pulled her clasped hands to just under her ample breasts.

His gaze fell to her splendid décolletage before he could help himself.

Turning away, he stormed to the window. None of this was possible and yet, here she was with no sign of her friends or his. A steady snow had fallen for the past twenty minutes and the ground was coated already. “I can’t even imagine how you have coerced my dear friend to go along with your schemes. It is clear that you have powers of persuasion that I have underestimated.”

He expected her to appear smug when he turned, but her slumped shoulders and bowed head didn’t look pleased with herself. She looked contrite and ashamed. “I wish there had been another way. I tried to speak to you at Mr. Arafa’s dinner party, but you wouldn’t give me a chance. Besides, I want more than to apologize for spying on you.”

What he should have done was leave immediately. Curiosity kept him rooted to the floor near the large window. “What do you want now?” It came out harsher than he intended, but he wasn’t sorry. This infernal woman had duped him for the last time. He would go back to London and tell her mother the engagement was off. Let her reputation be damned.

The puppy sat between them and swiveled his gaze back and forth. His black eyes were curious in his puffy white fur. A few black spots on his floppy triangular ears were his only markings.

Stepping closer to him, she met his gaze. “It is what I have always wanted, though I have not gone about it in the best way. I want us to get to know each other and then decide if we might suit. This means you must be willing to tell me something about yourself that has happened in the last five years and lower that mask you insist on wearing.”

The idea that she saw he wore a mask disturbed him. It was some comfort that she couldn’t see through it. Yet that, too, put a knot of unease deep in his belly. This woman would be the death of him. “I have no intention of marrying a woman whom I cannot trust. You have gone out of your way to take that trust and batter it to a pulp. You have shown your character to be sneaky, underhanded, and ruthless. Why would I want to tell you anything?”

Sorrow welled in her golden eyes before she could mask the emotion.

Despite his dislike of the woman, and his frustration over his attraction to her, he wished he could take back the words that hurt her. Damn it all.

She returned to her seat, picked up the book on the table, and schooled her features to reveal nothing more. “I see. Then I suppose you will wait out this storm and be on your way, Your Grace.”

The dog trotted over and lay down on her feet.

Looking out at the snow, Nick sighed. He couldn’t leave until the snow stopped. Perhaps by morning, the weather would clear. Surely, he could survive one night with Faith Landon without succumbing to whatever spell she put on men like Geb. He sat in the wingback chair across from her. Noting the book, he asked, “You read Descartes?”

“I read everything.” Her chest lifted and fell in a deep breath that distracted him from his stance of not liking her.

It really was unfair that she should be so impossible yet so beautiful.

“What is the dog’s name?” He snapped his fingers and the ball of fur loped over.

She lowered the book. “Rumpelstiltskin, but I just call him Rumple.”

Lifting Rumple into his lap, he gave the puppy a scratch behind the ears. “I suppose that means you’re a bit of a troublemaker and always up to mischief.”

Rumple cuddled in closer and exposed his belly for more attention.

“You like dogs.” A hint of a smile tugged at her full red lips.

He shrugged and thought of the hunting dogs, Milo and Merry, that he’d grown up with. “I like well-behaved dogs that have a purpose.”

Once again Rumple’s attention was drawn from one to the other.

Eyes narrowed, whatever she was about to say, she abandoned. Her expression changed to serene indifference. “Shall I call for tea or do you need to rest before dinner?”

He’d not heard a footstep or any indication that whoever was chaperoning her was about to join them. The castle was silent save for Rumple, who whined as he chewed on Nick’s hand. “Who is here with you?”

A warm blush bloomed on her cheeks. “No one.”

Confused, Nick must have misunderstood. “What do you mean? How did you get here?”

“Rhys and Poppy brought me, but they have gone to their country home a few days’ ride from here. I have a lady’s maid and there is a cook. The castle has a young boy acting as the groom, whom you probably saw when you rode up. Jamie also serves as the houseboy. I’m told there is a groundskeeper, but I’ve yet to see him.”

“You must be mad to come here by yourself. You’ll be ruined. Have you no care for your reputation?” It was not to be believed that a member of the ton would put herself in a situation where she was alone with a man not her husband. “People will think you a tramp.”

She cocked her pretty head. “Is that what you think?”

Putting the puppy on the floor, he stood. “I don’t know what to think. You never do what a proper young lady should.”

“Don’t I?” Placing Descartes on the table, she folded her hands in her lap and studied him.

“No. Any other woman of your station, when told they are to marry a duke, would simper and fawn over her intended. You acted as if I’d handed you down a death sentence.”

“Is simpering and fawning something you are fond of?” She kept her voice even, but a spark of anger flashed in her golden eyes.

He couldn’t help it, he loved to see her emotions fired up. “When I introduced myself at that ball last spring, you scolded me for introducing myself, then acted bored when we danced. When I wouldn’t answer your inappropriate questions, you became angry and stalked off.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

So drawn in by her growing temper and how well she held it in check, he’d forgotten for the moment what she’d asked. Retracing the conversation, he remembered. “Simpering and fawning…Not particularly.”

“Then why would you want me to have done so?”

“I didn’t. I don’t.” She had trapped him with his own words. “I just meant you don’t respond to things in a common way.”

“And you don’t like that? You want me to be like the rest of society and conform to expected behavior?” She closed her eyes for a moment, then stared down at the rug, thinking the matter over. “It isn’t likely that I could do that even if I wanted to.”

“That is not what I want. I don’t want anything. It is merely an observation.”

“I see.” She lifted Rumple, who curled onto her lap and closed his eyes.

“Why wouldn’t you just call off and be done with me, Faith? Why go to all this trouble and possible disaster for a man you don’t like?”

A girl of perhaps sixteen, with brown eyes and light brown hair poking out from under a white cap, stepped into the room. She crossed to the table and picked up the tea tray. “Shall I fetch more tea for the gentleman, my lady?”

Faith looked at him.

He shook his head.

“No, Thea. You probably have enough to do getting dinner prepared. It seems His Grace is not hungry.”

Thea’s eyes went wide and she made an awkward curtsy before rushing out of the room.

“I heard the old cook retired,” Nick said. “Just as well. Hopefully that little girl won’t poison us.”

Faith idly scratched Rumple behind the ears while the puppy slept. “I hadn’t realized you’d been here at Parvus Castle before.”

He hated himself for being jealous of the mutt on her lap. He longed to rest his head against those thighs and have her thread her fingers through his hair. Wishing he could dismiss his desires wouldn’t make it so. He shook away the thoughts and focused on what she said. “Geb uses it as a hunting cabin. We have come here several times to get away.”

“You have known Mr. Arafa a long time?”

“Are you interrogating me again, Lady Faith?” The hair on his arms prickled with the old feeling of an adversary trying to get the better of him.

She put the dog in the crook of her arm and stood. “I was trying to have a conversation with you, Your Grace. However, it is clear that is not possible currently. I will see you at dinner.”

Nick watched her stride out of the salon. Her head high and shoulders back like a queen.

The woman was mad to have arranged this, and he was insane to still be standing on the property.

He couldn’t just leave her alone with the storm, and he would be a fool to leave in the midst of such weather. This early snow was damned inconvenient.

Pulling on his coat and hat, he went in search of the one person on the property who might actually know what was going on. At the back of the small wilderness behind Parvus, a shed had been converted years ago for the groundskeeper.

Nick pounded on the door and tucked his hands under his arms. The temperature was dropping as night fell. “MacGruder, you in there?”

The door flew open. “There’s no need to break the door in. I’m not twenty, you know. It takes a minute to get out of the chair at my age.”

Jacob MacGruder had been at Parvus since he was a boy, and fifty or more winters had passed since them. His leathery skin was scarred and marked by time and his bony hands swelled at the knuckles. The scraps of hair on his head had gone full white, but his steel-blue eyes were still sharp and fierce.

“I thought you might have gone deaf in the years since I last saw you.”

MacGruder grunted. “I thought you might have got yourself killed with that nonsense on the Continent, but Master Arafa assured me you were still alive. Come in before you freeze me to death.”

Doing as he was told, Nick kicked the snow from his boots and hung his overcoat on a rusted hook near the door.

A fire burned in the rough hearth and soon dispelled the cold from the opened door.

“The master sent a letter that you would be joining the little miss. I thought I’d seen everything, but this is something new. You being courted by a fine lady like that.” McGruder’s laugh was like grated steel.

“Is that what she’s doing?” The idea that Faith would try to woo him, sent a pleasant thrill through him despite his decision to be done with her.

MacGruder shrugged. “The master just said the lady had need of Parvus, and I was to see that no harm came to her. He said you would be joining her and would behave like a gentleman. Since Cookie left, there’s been little good food to be had.”

“Cook was a menace in the kitchen. She could kill hogs with the swill she served.” Cringing at the memory of the terrible food from past visits, Nick sat on a low stool near the fire. “What else did my friend say in that letter?”

A shrug. “That the girl, Thea, would cook, and the boy, Jamie, would help out where needed. She’s a fair cook. I sampled the fare yesterday and again at breakfast. I’m happy to not have to cook for myself.”

“Why am I here?” Nick said it mostly to himself, but needed to know.

“The little lady wanted you here, so you’re here. The master must think highly of her to have gone along. Caught a glimpse of her when she arrived with her friends. She’s a pretty little thing. Only brought one small trunk and a few books with her. Sensible that. Why did she need to lure you here, is what I want to know.”

“She didn’t.” Nick ran his hands through his cropped hair.

“You’ll be leaving after the snow blows through then.” There was a knowing lilt to MacGruder’s tone.

Nick stood and walked to the other side of the one-room residence. A bed was half hidden by curtains in one corner and the other had a small stove and sink with one cupboard. He stood by the sink and stared out the small window into the snow. “If I leave, she’ll be here alone until her friends can be contacted and return for her. That could be a week’s time at least.”

“She’s a grown woman. I’m sure she can manage with a handful of servants for a few days. If something happens, we’ll send for the magistrate. He could be here in two days.” MacGruder peered over his shoulder at Nick.

Shaking his head, Nick couldn’t figure out how she had such a hold on him. She’d been rude when he’d first met her, and haughty at times. Then she’d sent her Wallflower friends to spy on him. She always asked questions he wouldn’t answer and she never acted like he was a duke. “I thought all women wanted to marry a duke.”

“But not this one?” MacGruder was far too intuitive.

“I don’t know. It seems she wants to know the man behind the title.” His stomach growled and he regretted turning down tea, which likely would have come with biscuits at least.

“I’m liking her more and more.”

“My life is not for public display.” Nick slammed his hand on the edge of the sink, cutting the palm. Blood seeped from the tiny wound.

MacGruder got up much faster than one would have thought possible. He grabbed a towel from the cupboard and handed it to Nick. “Don’t drip blood on my floor.”

Nick pressed the cut and held tight.

“It seems to me”—MacGruder paused—“you’ll have to trust the woman you intend to marry, or why bother? If you just intend to marry someone to breed sons for you, you’ve picked the wrong lady. Now, that’s just my opinion.”

“Once she finds out the kind of man I really am, she’ll wish she had run from the start.” Wishing he could change the past wouldn’t make it so.

Deep creases marked MacGruder’s frown. “You did what needed doing. No one likes the memory of war, but many of us live with it just the same.”

The old groundskeeper had been a batman in his youth, and served several officers before being wounded and returning home.

“She’d be better off with some simple gentleman, with little to regret besides a bad gambling habit.” Nick wished it wasn’t true, but his past always came back to haunt him.

“Best to let the lady decide if that’s the case. Women have a sense about such things.” MacGruder ambled toward the door and opened it. “You’d better get yourself back to the house before you miss dinner. Maybe clean up some too. You smell like a horse.”

Nick laughed. “Glad you’re still alive, old man.”

Raising a brow, MacGruder said, “I imagine my time will come soon enough. Now you go and be nice to that lady. She’s gone to a lot of trouble to get you here. The least you can do is listen to what she has to say.”

Nick rushed through the snow. Why had she gone to all this trouble? Perhaps he should take MacGruder’s advice and listen. Maybe he could forget his past and be the kind of man a woman like Faith needed.