Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

R ichard knew that he had left Selina feeling confused, and the joy of that knowledge had him nearly skipping to the pavilion where he had been resting. He found Eli already sitting there, along with his mother. They seemed deep in conversation, but while his mother looked engaged, Eli looked uncomfortable.

Serves the bastard right for inviting her.

“Seymour!” Eli called, rushing to his side. “Where have you been?”

“Taking a tour of the gardens,” Richard answered, moving to claim a seat.

“With a possible prospect, I hope?” the Dowager Duchess asked.

“When I find a wife, Mother, I will let you know.”

She snorted and then took a sip of her tea.

“All the men your age are married already, yet you insist on being picky about a bride,” she complained. “I still do not see wh

y you ended your engagement to the Barnes girl.”

“Can we not discuss this again, Mother?” Richard snapped. “I did it for good reason. I do not need you to question my decision.”

“I was only offering my opinion,” the Dowager Duchess argued stubbornly.

“I do not need it.”

“Have you two sampled the flavored ice?” Eli said, trying to break the tension between Richard and his mother. “Helen says that they’re divine , and I’m inclined to agree.”

Helen was his Marchioness and since they’d been wed only a few months prior, anyone could tell that Eli was besotted with her. They had been a practical match and had hated each other from the outset, but it seemed that things were progressing quite smoothly now.

“We have, dear boy, and your Marchioness is correct in her assessment. It is indeed rather lovely,” the Dowager Duchess answered with a nod. “I spy Lady Frisbery. Excuse me for a moment.”

She stepped away to greet some friends, and Richard took the opportunity to turn to Eli.

“I am still upset that you invited my mother here while knowing that we do not get along,” he scolded. “I’m starting to question our friendship. You do not seem to know me at all.”

His friendship with the Marquess of Mulford was one of the oldest he had, dating back to their school days when he had gotten in trouble for always starting fights. They were a trio, including their friend James, the Marquess of Crawford but considering the man’s prolonged period of absence from society’s events, they were mostly a duo.

They’d bonded over a shared love of violence and had been inseparable since—at least until Eli started courting Helen, who now occupied most of his time even more so during marriage.

“I actually didn’t expect you to accept the invitation or attend. Your mother was a welcome representative of your family,” Eli argued. “You never wrote back. Just know that my mother is upset with you.”

“Yet, she happened to have a room prepared for me,” Richard retorted with a smirk.

“You know how she is,” Eli sighed.

“You should have known that I would never turn down an invitation from you.”

“There was one time you?—”

“Let us not discuss the past,” Richard interrupted.

“Its near impossible with you here.” Eli said with a pointed look that hinted at another failed attempt to contact their friend.

“Did he at least write back this time?”

Eli nodded much to his surprise.

“What did he say?” Richard asked unable to hide his curiosity.

“He is assuming his father’s place as the duke of Pembroke.” Eli answered.

“Why?” he asked. “I thought the duke’s health was improving.”

Eli shook his head looking grim.

The duke of Pembroke’s rapidly declining mental health had been a topic of controversy for years but considering he was started on a new trial of medication, he seemed to be have improved.

A somber mood settled over them but thten suddenly Eli clapped his hands together as though remembering something. He looked up to frown at his friend but spied his mother returning and said nothing.

“That reminds me,” he announced. “Lady Justina and her daughter Beatrice left early this morning before most of the house had awoken.”

“Lady Justina and Beatrice?” the Dowager Duchess asked, settling into her seat. “What happened?”

Eli leaned in close enough to whisper because, even though the incident had passed, he didn’t want the rest of the ton to know about it, and he didn’t want to shame the girl for the rest of her life because of a moment of foolishness.

He was a stickler for justice, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know how to mete it out with compassion.

She was young and desperate and obviously under much more pressure than she could handle to find a husband in the competitive marriage mart. It was almost pitiable.

“Lady Beatrice tried to trap Richard in marriage last night.”

The Dowager Duchess’s dramatic gasp made Richard roll his eyes. She placed a hand on her chest as though she had heard something utterly sacrilegious.

“My word!” she exclaimed. “What is wrong with young girls these days?”

Richard had informed Eli of the incident as soon as he had returned to the party, although he hadn’t expected his friend to act on it so quickly.

“Did you…?”

“I didn’t say anything to them,” Eli answered, shaking his head. “Perhaps she had the decency to feel embarrassed of her actions.”

“Hmm,” was Richard’s only response.

“You do realize that you are rather intimidating when you meet strangers. She must have realized that you would be even more intimidating once she’d tried to make an enemy of you,” Eli said.

“It is a necessary skill, my friend.”

“Thankfully, she had the decency to feel remorse for her actions,” the Dowager Duchess sneered.

It was a good thing that the girl had thought to leave before his mother caught wind of what she had done. His mother didn’t believe in forgiveness and would have no doubt made the girl and her mother’s lives a living hell.

She had used her influence as Dowager Duchess to build up and tear down the reputations of girls who didn’t live up to her standards of propriety in the past. Now would have been no different, and very few families would have been willing to risk her wrath by marrying their sons to anyone she deemed unsuitable.

Even now, Richard sincerely hoped that someone else would catch her attention, or the reason for Lady Beatrice’s ruin would fall entirely on him.

“I absolutely detest girls who lose all decorum in the rush for marriage,” the Dowager Duchess said with a frown. “In my day, we knew the power of flirtation and good manners. It just goes to show poor breeding if she could behave so filthily. What a disgrace! It just goes to show the extent of decadence that has taken over Society these days. It is a good thing she left, or I would have given her and her mother a piece of my mind.”

Richard wondered what his judgmental mother would make of his deal with Selina. She would no doubt sneer at her for depending on a man to help her secure a match, and Selina, with her short temper, would not hesitate to shove his mother off her high horse.

It was a battle he would love to watch, and the mere thought of it had him smiling. That earned him stares from Eli and his mother.

“What is it?” he asked with a frown.

“You think about her and smile,” Eli said, an awestruck look on his face. “I must meet this wonderful woman.”

“There is no need to meet her. There is nothing between us,” Richard argued, not knowing why this conversation was even happening.

“I surely hope there is,” the Dowager Duchess said. “I need you to give me grandchildren before I die.”

“You’re not dying yet,” Eli said with a smile. “You’re much too stubborn.”

The Dowager Duchess frowned playfully but took no offense.

Since her relationship with her son was strained, she had developed a soft spot for Eli. The ease with which they communicated had angered Richard at first, but since it freed him from some of her unwanted attention, he didn’t mind it so much.

“Thank you, Eli.” She smiled. “But I do need to be healthy enough to care for them.”

Richard rose from his seat, opting for solitude to escape the conversation he was currently having. If he sat still, no doubt the truth of Selina’s identity would come to light, and he didn’t want his mother to focus her attention on her.

Selina would no doubt be incensed that he would call attention to the friendship no one was supposed to know they had… if he could call what they had a friendship.

“I will remove myself from this conversation now,” he said to the two of them. “Enjoy your tea.”

“Why are you…?”

He was off before they could protest.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Selina conversing brightly with her sister. She looked so animated that he couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face.

He had heard her laugh once and been stunned by the sound and how beautiful she looked when she was not laboring under the weight of trying to find a husband.

It wasn’t hard to imagine how beautiful she would be with her hair down and in less restricting garments. His body tensed as he realized the direction his thoughts were taking.

There was nothing innocent about the sensations he had found himself feeling around Selina since they had bumped into each other the night before.

He had only ever observed her from a distance. Previously, he hadn’t given too much thought to her, as she was of no importance to him, but the accursed party had set her more often than normal in his sights and arms.

He had never been attracted to innocents, preferring bolder women like Lottie, but the fact that Selina seemed disturbed by his closeness rather than using it to her advantage stirred his blood in more ways than he liked.

He had been happy that Lottie was bold with her flirtation, for it meant that he would not have an awkward wedding night. He had even found her attractive, but he had never felt an inkling of the desire he felt for Selina.

He would have kissed her if there hadn’t been other people present, and the fact that it had been painfully hard to pull away from her had annoyed him endlessly.

She had caught him unaware earlier when she had stepped up to him and looked him in the eye. So unlike the shy girl who had struggled to maintain eye contact with him. And that was just with a little influence from him.

He wondered if she would become a vixen if he were to seduce her and teach her all the forms of pleasure he’d learned to give. She looked to be the sort that would challenge him in every way possible, and his mind teased him with images of her writhing beneath him. He could almost hear her pleading cries as he pinned her down, taking his pleasure from her as hard as she desired him.

Feeling the surge of arousal in him, he groaned, promptly pushing the thoughts out of his mind. He should not be thinking about Selina in such a way.

She hadn’t given any inkling that she was interested in him in that manner, even though he could see what his proximity did to her. But he understood that she had never been that close to any man before him.

She was a nobleman’s daughter first and foremost, and worse still, an innocent. If he lost control with her, he would find himself trapped in a scandal that would end with him married to her, and he didn’t think that was the kind of match she wanted or her brother would approve of.

Considering her brother, their friendship, which was founded on their shared ideals, would be strained.

There were more than enough reasons why attempting to corrupt her in the slightest would be a terrible miscalculation on his part.

Perhaps he was having such feelings because she possessed the qualities he desired most in a woman. That had to be the only sensible explanation because his hands hadn’t itched to undress a woman to see if she flushed everywhere just as beautifully.

Her smooth, creamy skin, spotted with a light dusting of freckles across her nose and collarbone, teased him every time she wore a low-cut dress, and he was taunted by her long legs, which cut an elegant line as she walked. He knew they would look beautiful wrapped around him.

Then, there were her lovely green eyes, which changed hue with every emotion she felt. He wanted to see what those eyes looked like when she found her pleasure.

The image that flashed through his mind had him hurrying to his chambers to hide the evidence of the strong desire he felt for her.

Damn.

He had gone too long without visiting his courtesan. After the party, he would be paying her a long visit to rid himself of the tension in his blood.

Knowing that still did not calm the salacious thoughts racing in his mind. Usually, he would have avoided a woman who tempted him so, but he had agreed to help her, and he was nothing if not honorable. He would just have to ensure that he maintained a safe distance from her at all times.

Yes. He would maintain a safe distance from her no matter how her body just begged to be touched.

Damn .

He so very dearly wanted to see if she would wear the dress he had suggested.

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