Chapter 16
Sixteen
Austin walked into Deena’s chamber. She sat upright at her dressing table with an astonished expression. Her nightgown hung loosely over her body and the sheer material revealed parts of her that he would cherish in his memory forever.
“What are you doing in here?” she asked nervously.
“Am I not allowed to visit?”
“You can’t just—” she began.
“I can,” he said, shutting the door behind him with a deliberate click. “No one saw me coming.”
She rose so quickly the chair scraped against the floorboards. “Austin—”
“Sit down.” The words came out rougher than he intended, edged with something he hadn’t meant to show. Deena immediately obeyed him. “Have you been pretending this entire time?”
“What are you on about?”
He stepped forward. “Yes or no?”
“I have never pretended with you! It is you who has been pretending.” She crossed her arms over her chest, causing her breasts to plump up deliciously.
She’s distracting me. The temptress!
“That’s not what I heard.” He looked down at her and begged his body not to react.
Deena scoffed. “Maybe I should have pretended.” Her voice trembled as she continued and lifted her chin.
Her eyelashes fluttered angrily while she gazed up at him.
“I should have used every moment to dig deeper, to find whatever my blackmailer wanted. But I didn’t.
And now…now my friend and I might be ruined. ”
Austin let out a humorless bark of laughter. “Why didn’t you just betray me, Dee?”
“Because I couldn’t!” she said simply.
“Did you write a new article?” he asked her.
“Yes, but it needs some work.” He froze and saw the ink on her hand and the quill on her desk.
What did she write about?
“I want to see the article before it’s published,” he demanded.
“The blackmailer will not be satisfied with what I wrote so far. Tomorrow, if he doesn’t get what he wants, he’ll expose the secret of the… friend I’m protecting. Unless I give him something more. Something that proves you are—”
“Illegitimate?” he finished, the word flat and ugly between them.
She flinched.
“When were you going to tell me, Dee?” His voice was rough with anger, and she looked up at him. There was fear in her eyes, but defiance in her lifted chin.
“Weren’t you supposed to tell me this important bit of information before we made our deal?” She shot back.
“It’s not important.” He gritted his teeth.
Deena laughed humorlessly, standing up, and this time she began to pace. “Not important? Austin, you could lose everything!”
“Deena, I’m warning you now. That rumor needs to be buried and never brought up again.” He glared at her and spoke firmly. Deena stopped in her tracks and pursed her lips.
“What do you suppose we do?” she asked him after a moment of tense silence passed between them.
“It seems like we need to write something so scandalous we’ll hear the gasps across London.”
“I can’t.” Deena shook her head.
“You can and you will.” He closed the distance until only a breath separated them. “Don’t you dare give up now.”
She backed up until her shoulders met the wall. “You don’t understand. Writing about you makes me feel so…guilty.”
Austin planted one hand beside her head, caging her without touching. The other hovered near her waist, close enough he could feel the heat of her body through her gown. “If you’re tired of playing this game then walk away.”
Austin studied her face, the pink on her cheeks, the way her lips still looked faintly swollen from the meadow. Even though he was angry, he longed to pick her up, pin her against the wall, and kiss her senselessly until she begged him for more, but he did not act on his desire. Not with her.
“If I walk away, she’s ruined.” Deena’s voice shook.
“Then stop with the excuses and write the article. What are you so afraid of?”
“I’m afraid that if I don’t give him what he wants, he’ll find another way. He’ll keep digging until he finds proof. Until he destroys you, me, and Penelope.”
“Ah! So that’s the name of this mysterious friend of yours.”
Deena gasped and clasped her hands over her mouth.
Austin frowned and stepped away from her.
“Your friend means nothing to me, so there’s no point being afraid that you exposed her name.”
“Then why did you keep pushing me to speak about her?”
“Because you gave me nothing! You left me guessing, Dee, from the beginning. It’s exhausting when I’m trying to help you.” Deena lowered her gaze. “How do you know it’s a man that’s blackmailing you?” he continued.
“The writing is not very feminine.”
His jaw clenched when he remembered the letters in his pocket. He pulled them out, grabbed her hand, and placed them both into her open palm. Deena’s skin felt hot against his. She quickly removed her hand away from his grasp.
“I gave this to you,” she said, confused as she folded the first letter and put it aside.
“Yes, you did.”
Deena frowned, unfolded the second piece of paper, and softly read it out loud. “Duke of Windemere.”
She glanced at Austin, who nodded at her to continue.
“I know the secrets that stain your father’s legacy, those countless affairs, and the whispers of mistresses that the ton has long pretended to forget.
But what of your mother’s affairs? A woman in love with another, bearing a son before marriage.
The apple, they say, does not fall far from the tree.
Or does it? For if you are not truly the son of the late Duke, then who are you?
And who is the rightful heir? Are you worthy of the title you cling to so desperately?
“If you are truly illegitimate, the right thing to do would be to step down from your stolen throne. And allow the rightful heir to claim what is his by blood and law. Resist, and I shall ensure the world knows the truth. Your dukedom will crumble, your name will be mud, and the apple will rot where it lies. Yours truly. The man who knows the truth.” Deena bit her lip as she looked at him.
He ignored his growing temptation and the tight feeling in his chest. “You’re a writer, Dee. Feel the paper. Is it not the best quality?”
She frowned as she rubbed the piece of paper between her fingers. “It’s the opposite. It’s the worst paper to write on and quite common in Paris. Why didn’t I recognize it before? In Paris, we call it ‘le gris’ because of its grey color.”
“Do you have any idea who would use this kind of paper?” Austin asked, pretending not to notice how her fingers deftly moved across the page.
“Mostly working-class people. It’s used for receipts because it is affordable.”
That confirmed some of his concerns.
“Why do you ask?” She looked up at him questioningly.
“I originally believed that our blackmailers might be the same person, but the handwriting differs. So, my second opinion is that it is two or more people working together and that they’re not noblemen.”
“But even if any of that is true, are they in Paris or England or both? We cannot tell just because they used the same type of paper.”
“Of course, the paper is common, but it is not common that a Duke would receive more than one similar poorly written letter.”
Deena blinked. “You received more?”
Austin cussed under his breath for revealing more to her. “That’s not important.” Deena looked stung. “I know that paper, Dee. And I know that everything is connected somehow. I will prove it,” he continued confidently.
“We don’t have much time for you to play detective.” She handed the letters back to him.
He took the letters and froze when a memory struck him.
Austin had a few affairs in Paris, yes, but so did his father in the past. He remembered his mother’s tears when he was just a boy, and she had received letters from one of his father’s mistresses.
Austin was too young to read them, but he would never forget how that paper felt between his thumbs the day he snuck into her chamber and looked for the reason behind her tears.
Was my father merely taking revenge on her?
“Are you all right?” Deena peered up at him through her lashes.
Austin let out a breath. “Yes, Deena. I’ll just have my solicitor investigate this.” He spoke more calmly than before.
“Austin,” she said softly, “you claim that you’ll lose everything if you’re truly an illegitimate child, but what is everything to you?”
The question struck him.
“Like I always say. It’s my title, estates, and my seat in Parliament.
The name. The legacy. All of it, is everything to me.
” His voice was steady, but the words tasted like ash.
“I will become nothing without my title. And I simply cannot become useless.” He could hardly believe all that he was admitting to her.
Deena swallowed and whispered. “And marriage? How does marriage help?”
Her breath smelled temptingly sweet, and the tension between them slowly melted into something more as he gazed into her eyes.
He leaned in until his lips were a breath from hers. “You really need me to spell it out for you, Dee?”
“Yes, go on, spell it out.” She teased him defiantly, and he enjoyed it.
Austin’s hands settled at his side.
“Even after marriage,” he said steadily, “I can still lose everything. If I’m illegitimate, I will lose my credibility and my place in society.
I will never be respected, and that will result in my wife not being respected either.
But I know my father, and he would never have accepted a bastard as his rightful heir. ”
He took a deep breath before he continued.. “My plan was simple: I’ll behave like a proper gentleman from now on. No more rakish scandals, no more fuel for gossip. If I’m boring enough, the lords will lose interest. They’ll stop snooping, and the whispers will fade.”
“And if the worst happens?” she whispered.