Chapter 2
Elias Leedway, the Duke of Reeds, lifted his niece Evelyn off the ground and carefully spun in a circle, taking care not to treat the child too roughly. Evelyn clapped her hands together and squealed in delight. “Look at you!” Elias exclaimed, laughing. “Flying in the air like a bird!”
He spun the child around once more before gingerly placing her onto the ground.
Evelyn shoved her pudgy fingers in her mouth and kicked her legs, as her nurse gathered the child to her.
To Elias, it seemed as though the entire garden was filled with children.
His nieces and nephews ran through the long, sweeping grasses and the tiny blue and purple wildflowers.
It was unusual for children to attend garden parties such as this, but Bridget had insisted on having the entire family enjoy the day.
If his sister was anything, it was willful. But then, all his sisters were.
As if she sensed his thoughts, Bridget dropped onto the ground beside him. She grinned, her green eyes shining with mirth. “You are good with her.”
Elias shrugged. “I suppose.”
“So good.” That was Dorothy, the eldest of Elias’s sisters. She would know better than anyone if he was good with a child, for she was the most maternal of them all. At one point in her life, Dorothy had even resigned herself to spinsterdom, so determined as she was to take care of everyone else.
“It does make one wonder…” Bridget trailed off.
“Wonder what?” Elias asked.
“Well,” Dorothy said, sitting beside them and smoothing out her skirts. “We are all married, so I think it is well past time that we start considering your marital prospects.”
“There are none.”
A mock gasp followed. “None?” asked Catherine, joining them.
Elias realized the danger too late, for he was surrounded by his sisters.
He looked futilely at the other guests, searching for someone who might save him from the inevitable.
Lewis and Gerard stood nearby, engaged in a seemingly spirited conversation if the latter’s hand gestures were any indication.
No, he could not count on them to save him. Lewis might provide a decent distraction, but Gerard would do whatever Dorothy wanted.
“You are the Duke of Reeds,” Catherine said. “It is a very distinguished title.”
“With a significant fortune,” Dorothy added.
“And a good reputation,” Bridget added.
“You are like the three witches from Macbeth,” Elias said dryly. “Come to curse me, no doubt!”
“At least, Macbeth had a wife,” Bridget replied.
Elias might have liked a woman like Lady Macbeth; she had a darkness of her own. It would have been the perfect complement to his.
Elias sighed and cast a helpless look at Gerard, but although the man was looking towards Elias, he did not seem to recognize the plea for help. Perhaps he was too distracted conversing with Lord Dudley.
“Shall we help you find one?” Dorothy asked.
“No,” Elias said, forcing every ounce of ducal authority into his voice. “That is entirely unnecessary.”
Any marriage of his would be doomed to fail, but his sisters could not know that. If Elias told them, they would never let him have a moment’s peace. Like all good sisters, they were determined to see the best in him, even when there was nothing good.
“Is it?”
Catherine and Bridget exchanged a sly look. “The dukedom needs heirs,” Catherine said.
Elias said nothing, instead choosing to watch Hannah and Hester, Catherine’s adopted daughters, run along the path. Hester had a strong fascination with the natural world, and she ran about like a wild thing most of the time.
A bit like Catherine, honestly.
“I do not know why you are opposed to the idea,” Dorothy said. “You always said you delayed because of us, but that cannot be entirely true.”
Elias carefully avoided her gaze. While his sisters were all clever women, Dorothy had spent years being a wallflower, and denying herself the pleasures of dances and suitors for so long had sharpened her observational skills.
If any of his sisters could see the true depth of his inner turmoil, how vehemently he opposed marriage, it would be her.
“I am young,” Elias said, forcing a rakish grin. “There is no need to marry just yet.”
“We married at younger ages than you,” Catherine pointed out.
“It is different for women.”
The women in their family were not cursed with darkness like the men were. Elias was quite certain that none of his sisters had ever imagined men being bound, weeping and wailing, and entirely at their mercy.
Bridget huffed and crossed her arms. For a heartbeat, Elias saw the impulsive, easily frustrated woman she had been before marriage softened some of her edges. “If you want an heir, you must marry soon.”
“And I will. Eventually.”
Maybe. Preferably never.
“Besides,” Elias added, trying to bring some levity to his voice. “There are too many beautiful actresses and singers in London. I fear that I have no time for courtship, as my schedule is regrettably full.”
The remark seemed to have the opposite effect, for his sisters exchanged worried glances. Dorothy even placed her hand over his, the silk of her gloves very soft. “Elias,” she said. “We do not want you to be alone.”
He fought the childish impulse to scowl.
They spoke as if his life depended on marriage to some lady.
While touching, his sisters’ concern was beginning to cloy.
Elias gestured broadly to the gardens, filled with laughing children and their guests from the ton.
“How can I possibly be lonely when I have all of this?” he asked, lifting a brow.
“Leave the matter. I have made my position on the subject clear, and I am certain there are more enjoyable pursuits on this beautiful day.”
Glass shattered. Elias’s head snapped in the direction of the sound.
Lord Dudley stood a small distance away, glass glittering at his feet.
But the dropped glass was not nearly as startling as the woman who stood before him.
She was tall, statuesque, with the reddest hair that Elias had ever seen in his life.
Her gown was simple and gray, entirely out of place among the lavish garments worn by Bridget’s guests.
Elias was too far away to hear their conversation, but the woman gestured chaotically, angrily, with her hands.
Maybe the glass had not been dropped. Maybe she had knocked it from Lord Dudley’s hand.
“Who is that?” Catherine asked.
“Not someone I invited,” Bridget said. Her eyes darted around the garden, likely in search of her husband Lewis.
“I will handle this,” Elias said, climbing to his feet.
If nothing else, the woman would present a distraction from his current plight. As Elias strolled to the pair, his sisters’ whispers followed him. Doubtlessly, they were just as curious as he was and would want to watch the drama unfold.
“I expect you to take accountability for your actions!” the woman snapped.
Lord Dudley’s face reddened. “And what right do you have to expect anything of me? I owe you nothing! I do not even know you!”
Elias cleared his throat, halting a few paces away from them.
Lord Dudley visibly started, clearly having not noticed Elias’s approach.
It was impossible to say if the woman had noticed or if her anger was so great that it drowned out every other emotion, surprise included. And Elias caught his breath.
She was fury incarnate, her cheeks flushed pink and her eyes glittering like gemstones.
Her face was soft and fair, as beautiful as the moon.
Now that he was close, he saw that a streak of silvery-white nestled among her fiery curls, most of which were pulled back beneath a well-worn straw hat.
Elias let his gaze drift lower, indecently so.
The woman’s gown did nothing to flatter her figure, but he could still discern that she had full breasts and a large, soft body.
She was not the usual woman that he took to bed, but she was striking.
Beautiful and fierce, like fire or lightning.
Beautiful in a way that would make most men a little anxious. Beautiful in a way that awakened darkness inside Elias. He ached to see her bound and breathless, her body flushed and aching for him.
“This matter does not concern you,” she said in a clipped tone.
She spoke to him like a queen, dismissing an exceptionally incompetent servant. Elias grinned. “My, you are brazen!” he exclaimed, laughing.
Her expression darkened. “I am not here to amuse you, my lord.”
“Your Grace,” Elias said, tilting his head towards Lord Dudlley. “Why are you quarreling with this woman?”
Lord Dudley’s face grew somehow impossibly redder. He was a man with pale blond hair and blue eyes, and the contrast with the color of his face made for a nearly comical image. “I—I have no dealings with her!” he snapped. “How can you believe that I would have any association with her?”
“Well, she seems to know a great deal about you,” Elias pointed out.
“She thinks she does!” Lord Dudley snapped, pointing a shaking finger at the woman.
She narrowed her eyes, as if she was thinking about breaking that finger. “He is an irredeemable rake!” the woman insisted. “He believes that having a title somehow absolves him—”
“How dare you question my honor?” Lord Dudley interrupted. “Your Grace, I insist that this woman be removed from this party. If you do not cast her out at once, I will leave! She should have never gotten this far without being turned away!”
Lord Dudley stormed away without waiting for an answer. The woman was made to follow, but Elias stepped in her path. Her lips parted slightly, and her brow furrowed. She looked offended, as if she believed a duke had no right to tell her where she could or could not go.
“If you wish to achieve something here, you should know that the ton has rules—many of them—and the worst way to try and achieve your ends is through a scandal.”
She laughed. “How ironic.”
Elias arched an eyebrow. “Do you know me?”
“No, but I know that most scandals are started by men. And you—” Her eyes snapped deliberately over him. “—are a man.”
Elias grinned. Would she say that if she knew Elias’s sisters?
He was admittedly a rake, but Elias had miraculously managed to avoid any scandals thus far.
His sisters were another story. Dorothy had engaged in an affair with Gerard before she married him, and Bridget had been the cause of two scandals.
“I tried to be reasonable,” the woman continued. “I tried to be discreet. Lord Dudley refused to answer any of my letters and would not speak to me directly, so I was forced to resort to some other means of getting his attention.”
“I see.”
Elias could believe that easily enough. Lord Dudley had always been a coward, and if given the chance, he would avoid every confrontation he could.
“And now, you are deterring me,” she said.
“So I am,” Elias said, glancing behind him and finding that Lord Dudley had already vanished to some other place in the gardens. “I am sympathetic to your plight.”
She raised her chin in defiance, the effect a little ruined by her height.
Elias was at least a head taller than she was.
If he took two steps closer, she would be forced to crane her head back to meet his eyes.
This woman was extraordinarily bold. Most would have given up the chase already and resigned themselves to the unfairness of the world.
Maybe this one would, too.
“But this garden party is my sister’s first event of the Season,” Elias said. “It is being held in celebration of my niece turning one year old. I would prefer that the occasion not be remembered for your dispute with Lord Dudley.”
“Then, you will sacrifice justice at the altar of convenience,” she shot back.
Elias could not decide whether he was more amused by her boldness or vexed that she refused to let him finish speaking.
“You are rather bold in your mannerisms,” he said.
“I do not intend to sacrifice justice at the altar of convenience or anything else. Before you interrupted with such an uncharitable estimation of my character, I was going to offer my aid.”
She crossed her arms, suspicion written across her face. “How so?”
“I do not know yet,” he admitted. “But I am certain I can. If you promise to leave and take my carriage to my townhouse, I will speak with you after the garden party has ended. And I will help you resolve this problem with Lord Dudley.”
The woman narrowed her eyes, searching his face as if she expected some deception. “You would do this?”
“I give you my word,” he said. “It is quite possible that Lord Dudley has wronged you, but in pursuing justice, I would advise you not to wrong someone else in turn.”
For a heartbeat, she only stared at him.
“If I break my promise, I have no doubt you will haunt me until I make good on it,” he added wryly.
At last, she gave a small, assenting nod. “Very well, Your Grace.”
Elias flashed her his most charming smile and beckoned her forward. “Then, your chariot awaits.”