Chapter 12 #3
‘Yes, yes, whatever. What will it be this time, Arden? I propose pistols instead of swords. I will not commit the recklessness of letting you manipulate me into being the one to challenge you to a duel. This time you will do it, and I shall choose the weapons,’ said Tentwall.
Eveline froze at what she had just heard. Arden did not speak. There was no need. The silence did it for him.
She looked first at Tentwall, then fixed on the scar that split his face, and at last turned her eyes towards Nathaniel.
‘Did you do that to him?’
Arden kept his jaw clenched.
‘Eveline…’
‘Yes or no?’
‘This is not the moment.’
‘When was the duel?’ She did not need confirmation. He would have denied it at once had he not taken part in a contest with the viscount.
‘So she did not know it…’ Tentwall let out.
‘I shall enlighten her, Lady Eveline.’ Cedric was certainly not going to commit the recklessness of addressing her without formality before her betrothed.
Arden was a very dangerous man whom it was not advisable to anger.
‘It was more than four years ago, just after your brother’s wedding to the Fairfax daughter. ’
She brought a hand to her heart.
‘So long, and you never told me?’ she asked Arden. ‘Why? Why have you never told me that you…?’
‘That I what, Eveline?’ he asked wearily.
‘Must I also confess your own feelings?’
Tentwall laughed.
‘I always intuited it, and now it has been confirmed. Lady Eveline, your fiancé did not dare tell you what he felt for you, because he has always been afraid that you could never forget me. ’
Arden turned to him.
‘Open your mouth again and this time you will not fall onto the carpet to get back up.’
‘Enough,’ said Eveline.
The word came out with more force than she expected. The two men looked at her. For once, both obeyed.
Eveline drew from within the cloak the small packet of promissory notes Gabriel Hope had given her. Her fingers trembled, but she did not hide them.
‘There will be no duel,’ she said. ‘No swords, no pistols, no other scandal that can be used against me. Lord Tentwall, you will hand me my two letters in exchange for your promissory notes, and afterward you will forget me forever.’
The viscount ran his tongue over his split lip.
‘And if I refuse?’
Arden smiled again.
‘Then you will discover that the ear you would have paid as forfeit for not settling your debts with Mr. Hope was a small price. Give thanks that I allow her to return your promissory notes to you. ’
Tentwall looked at the documents Eveline held in her hand. Pride, need, and fear contended in his face for a few seconds. Arden waited still beside his betrothed. If the bastard made a single wrong move, Nathaniel would knock him down again, and that time a hard punch would not suffice.
‘Very well,’ the viscount said at last.
‘The letters,’ Eveline demanded.
Tentwall called a servant who appeared full of fear. He gave him an order in a low voice. The man disappeared down the corridor and returned a short while later with a narrow wooden box. Cedric opened it, took out two folded envelopes, and held them between his fingers to give them to the earl.
‘To her, not to me. They are hers.’
Tentwall smiled with contempt.
‘How accommodating the great Arden has become. You are not the same man. ’
‘No, I am not, but I am still capable of giving you your due again, you stupid pup.’
Cedric muttered something under his breath and handed Eveline what had been agreed.
She recognized them at once.
She tucked the letters under the cloak and held out the promissory notes to him.
Tentwall took them quickly.
‘A pleasure doing business, Lady Eveline, though I had hoped to receive hard cash and not all these debts I shall no longer have to pay. I suppose I come out the better.’ He would not confess that he had summoned her with the idea of seducing her and then forcing her to marry him, for the earl might kill him.
‘Do not come near me again,’ the duke’s sister demanded of him, ‘because if you do, it will be neither Lord Arden nor my brother who kills you. I will do it. ’
He inclined his head and smiled at her.
‘A problem in skirts, but a charming one.’ Arden took a step towards him, and Cedric quickly added: ‘I wish the two of you luck in finding your immense happiness.’
‘If you write to her, speak to her, or breathe within twenty paces of her skirt again, I will not need a duel to finish what I began. Death would be too sweet for you; I will arrange to put you aboard an anonymous ship bound for Australia.’ That was where the kingdom’s murderers and worse malefactors ended up doing forced labor.
‘So I shall. Now I beg you to leave my house.’
‘With the greatest pleasure,’ the earl noted, as he took his betrothed by the wrist to get her out of there.
They went out together, without looking back or speaking to each other. Arden helped her into his carriage. Then he gave an order to the coachman and got in after her. The door closed with a sharp slam.
Eveline knew she was in serious trouble.
He looked furious.
And what if she ended up losing him?
Unacceptable! She could not lose him.