Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
“Do you have any idea?” Deborah seethed as she was pushed into the carriage with the red devil, “Any idea of what you have just done?!”
Although she was sure she should be afraid, rage had taken over her again, and it had only built with every step she had been forced to take away from Sylvester and toward the man who had won her bid. She had been so close! Then the man before her just swept in and ruined everything.
With a bored sigh, the man pulled off his mask, revealing not just youthful, handsome features, but familiar ones. Deborah blinked, shocked into silence at who her bidder was.
“I believe I just won your bid,” he replied, his deep voice radiating with boredom as he tossed the mask to the empty seat beside him, “And I believe your next words should be ‘thank you. Miss Deborah Hunt.”
Deborah’s jaw dropped. Cedric Redwyne, now the Duke of Calder if she remembered correctly, had always been a bit of a pompous snot, yet it seemed as he grew older, such traits had only worsened.
He had always been good-looking. Even when he was younger, but now that he was thirty, his features were practically devastating.
Ladies and common women alike swooned over him, and if the rumors were true, he had become one of London’s most infamous rakes, despite his atrocious personality.
“Thank you,” she finally breathed, slowly shaking her head as her rage rose through her moment of shock. “Thank you?! You want me to say ‘thank you’ after what you just did?!”
“Indeed,” Cedric mused, running a hand through his ear-length, oak brown hair as his dark, nearly black eyes swept almost dismissively over her. “Trust, you did not want the gray-masked gentleman to win you if you knew who he truly was.”
I know exactly who he is! She wanted to snarl as the carriage took off.
Instead, she threw her hands up and pushed her back into the carriage seat, straining to rein in her rage.
“Why were you even there?” She demanded, trying hard to wrap her head around her new reality.
“Are you not famous for your rakish ways? Why would you need to go to a place like that? And why, for heaven’s sake, would you need to spend Fifty.
Thousand. Pounds. On a woman? Do they not practically beg you to lie with them? ”
Cedric raised a single brow, clearly amused by her frustrations. She wanted to reach out and slap such a look off of his stupidly handsome face, and she dug her nails into the carriage seat to stop herself from doing just that.
“I remember you being much kinder when you were younger,” Cedric mused, his dark eyes locking on her green ones.
His words made Deborah pause. She was kind. Once. Just as every woman in her family had been. She liked being kind. Wanted to be kind. However, life had other plans, and she had learned to take such inclinations and bury them deep. Especially toward men.
“Is that why you purchased me?” She asked, a little calmer now. “Because you remember me being kind?”
“In part,” Cedric admitted. “My wife must be kind.”
That part startled her.
“Redwyne the Divine wants a wife?” She asked, using the little nickname his various lovers had given him.
Cedric’s full lips split into a grin, and he chuckled.
“Is that what they call me? Hm. I like it,” he mused. Then gave a casual shrug as he crossed one long leg over the other. “And to answer your question, yes. I do want a wife. Expeditiously. Which is why I did not bother to take the traditional route of obtaining one.”
“Rumors of your sport getting to you?” Deborah asked, her tone sarcastic, and Cedric chuckled again.
“Please. The gossip mill of the ton is of little importance to me,” Cedric answered, his casual tone reflecting the truth of his words. “It is merely amusement for the dull-minded, and I am anything but that.”
Then, to her surprise, a touch of empathy passed through his dark eyes.
“Though I did hear what such gossip did to your sister. Terrible shame, that.”
Deborah pressed her full lips tightly together, willing herself not to think of the great loss she had just experienced.
If Cedric had just purchased someone else, she would be avenging Hester’s reputation as they spoke.
It did not matter now, though, she supposed.
It was done, and she was not purchased by Sylvester, as she had hoped, but by Cedric; and now that she had shown her true face and features to the crowd, it was not likely she could run away and go back to try again.
Eventually, someone would recognize her, and Sylvester would never fall for her trick if he knew who she truly was.
“You were saying about your expeditious need for a wife,” she replied, choosing not to respond to what he’d just said about Hester.
“Yes,” Cedric stated, his tone matter-of-fact, “I have rather suddenly become a parent. I have tried to manage such responsibility on my own now for a year, but it seems the only thing I can fail at is being a guardian. The girl will not speak to me. Will not listen to nannies or governesses. In fact, she is quite clever with the tricks she orchestrates to get rid of them, and I am almost proud. However, she is a young lady, and thus needs a lady to guide and raise her.”
Deborah’s lips parted as her mind tried to determine which piece of information to unpack first. His haughty response about only having one failure?
His confession of having a child? The pride he felt that the child was obviously wild?
Or the fact that he thought the best route to take was to purchase a wife for said child at such a lowly auction?
“You have questions,” Cedric stated, looking her up and down.
Deborah let out a dry laugh.
“Just a few,” she replied bitterly.
“Go on then,” Cedric sighed, lacing his fingers together before resting his hands on his knees. “Let me hear them.”
“How did you find out about the auction?” She asked.
Cedric rolled his eyes.
“Surely you do not care about that.”
Deborah shrugged. She was curious about how such an illegal place was advertised. She’d worked it for two years and still did not know. Still, she supposed it did not affect her current situation.
“Do you go to the auction often?” She asked next, then, with a sarcastic tone, she added, “Have you run out of willing women so quickly?”
This earned her another chuckle from him, and he shook his head.
“I will admit that this was not the first auction I attended. I found it amusing- and slightly disgusting- to watch my fellow men drool and draw themselves into a frenzy over the process. However, tonight’s was the first one I have participated in- for reasons I have already explained.”
“Why me?” She asked after a moment of silence.
The bored, if not slightly amused, expression on Cedric’s face shifted into a serious one.
“Several reasons,” he replied stiffly.
“And they are?” She prompted.
“Well, I already gave you one reason,” he replied, annoyance starting to lace his deep tone. “I remember you being kind.”
“And what if I am no longer kind?” Deborah retorted, staring at him challengingly.
His dark gaze raked down her body, sending an alarming tingle through her core and into her limbs.
“I believe you could be kind again. For a child. Perhaps if for nothing else,” he stated quietly.
Her nostrils flared in annoyance, hating that he was right.
“What other reasons?” She demanded.
Cedric took his time raking his eyes back up to hers, and to her surprise, they glittered with respect.
“The way you held yourself. As if you knew exactly what you were doing and you were proud of it. You did not care what anyone thought of you. Like you were exactly where you wanted to be.”
I was. Until you ruined it.
“If you could face a crowd of lustful men without a trace of fear, then surely you would have no problem handling a wild little girl with a temper,” Cedric explained.
“Two very different creatures,” Deborah stated dryly, and Cedric chortled.
“Hm. I suppose you are right about that,” he mused.
Deborah studied him for a moment longer, putting all the pieces together. He wanted a mother for his child. That much was clear. It was also clear that such a need arose with such haste that he wanted to bypass traditional courtship. It all made sense, she supposed. Only there was one issue.
Herself.