Chapter 18 #2
She let him in, then closed the door. She was wearing the same dressing gown again, buttoned up to her throat, belted at her waist, falling in smooth lines over each curve of her body.
By candlelight, her hair shone in its loose braid, and her spectacles were nowhere in sight, letting him see the glistening blue of her eyes.
She waited patiently for him to begin.
“Meriel, almost every servant saw you in that red dress, and those who didn’t surely heard about it from someone else.”
She inclined her head as regally as a queen. “I saw the way everyone looked at us when we came out of the woods. I simply took it a step further.”
She was a proud woman; this could not sit easily on her. Why didn’t she yell at him?
“But Meriel, flirting would have been enough. They were all betting on whether I’d win.”
“Or how long I’d resist,” she said. “And how long do you think that charade would have contented everyone who knew the duke? I could not have delayed my answer to you beyond a few days. Will this masquerade be over by then?”
He had no answer for her.
“I thought not. I’ve solved your problem. As long as Mrs. Theobald and Hargraves know the truth of our relationship, I’m content to let the other members of the staff think what they will. The duke has captured his newest prize.”
A feeling of tenderness washed over him, startling him, leaving him speechless for a moment. She was so strong, so courageous. Finally he cleared his throat. “But Meriel—”
“And in return, I demand answers,” she said, advancing toward him.
He found himself backing up a step toward her bed.
“Meriel—” he repeated, this time with a warning in his voice.
“No, you are not keeping me in the dark a moment longer. Stephen is with me more of each day than he’s with anyone else.
I will not go on in ignorance, now that I know he could be in danger.
You think you’re protecting me, but you’re wrong.
Only the truth can help us now. So what is Sir Charles up to? ”
He sighed and sat down on the edge of her bed. Her eyebrows shot up, but she remained silent, only crossing her arms over her chest.
“Cecil did ask me to take his place so that he wouldn’t look weak, but it’s because of our cousin Charles.
He’s next in line to the dukedom after Stephen.
Cecil owes him money, and is repaying it on time, but Charles used this to press his advantage on the subject of Stephen’s guardianship.
He wants to be named the legal guardian should something happen to Cecil. ”
“Is there one already appointed?”
“No. But Cecil is thinking about naming me, and he knows that won’t sit well with the part of the family that is offended by the circumstances of my birth.”
Meriel tried to distance herself from her sympathy toward him. She could not allow her thoughts to be muddled by mere emotion. Only her intellect and logic would help Richard.
“You would make a good guardian,” she said evenly.
One corner of his mouth lifted. “High praise indeed.”
“Better than Sir Charles, at least.”
He put a hand to his chest. “You wound me, my lady.”
“I am not your lady. Kindly remember that, and go on.”
He smiled. “It’s simple. I’m here to protect Stephen, should Charles nurture any ideas about controlling the dukedom through the boy.”
“But the duke is alive.”
Richard nodded, but she saw the grim look in his eyes.
“But he didn’t look well. He’s frightened, Meriel, and that succeeded in swaying me more than anything else.
There is a chance that he is holding something back from me.
” He went on after a sigh. “But I have no way to know. I can only take things as they happen. So far, I would have thought Charles was content to hover out there and take a chance for control if he saw it. I haven’t given him that chance—in fact, I’ve consolidated a bit and eased Cecil’s financial problems, at least temporarily. But after today…I just don’t know.”
She remembered her fright when she’d seen Richard crumpled unconscious in the woods. The thought of him dead, of never seeing his smile, of never again being the recipient of his attention—she couldn’t imagine it.
“I knew it wasn’t thieves,” she said with subtle sarcasm.
“My head was a bit muddled when I came up with that,” he admitted. “But…I didn’t want to involve you any more than you already were.”
“I’m very much involved, Richard. Obviously it can’t be a coincidence that Charles arrived at Thanet Court when you were unconscious in the woods.” She felt a shock. “Or do you think he meant to kill the duke, not knowing it was you?”
“No. Whoever it was could have done that easily. Charles had succeeded in making me believe he was just sniffing around for any weakness, and so I let my guard down. But now I know he’s making his own gambit, and it involves Stephen foremost.”
“Charles asked for you when he came to the door,” she reminded him.
“Just covering for himself. He wanted to see Stephen.”
“Do you think he would have taken the boy?” She hugged herself against a chill, moving even closer to Richard as if he offered a warmth she no longer could feel on her own.
He reached for her hand, and she found she couldn’t draw away. It felt natural to touch him.
“Taking Stephen would have exposed his plot to harm me,” he said. “No, I think he just wants Stephen to get to know him should there come a time he’s able to exert guardianship.”
“But then why render you unconscious? Why not just lure you away, so you wouldn’t suspect him?”
He grinned at her and rubbed her fingers with his.
“Ah, Meriel, you’re far too good at this.
Yes, that would have been the smart thing.
And I have received many invitations of late from friends I have in common with Charles.
I’ve refused them all, which perhaps foiled his plan to get me away from the house.
But it’s hard to believe he was desperate enough to resort to something so obvious… unless he doesn’t care that I know.”
She opened her mouth in shock, but could think of no response.
“You see,” Richard continued, “Charles might believe he has the upper hand.”
“He thinks he’s controlling the duke monetarily,” she said slowly.
He nodded.
“And that the duke couldn’t go against him.”
“But I’m not the duke.”
His voice was low and dangerous, promising a strong response to Charles’s threats. Meriel looked at him and couldn’t control a shiver. Without the mask of the duke’s arrogant amusement, Richard looked like a man who succeeded at whatever he wanted to.
She hadn’t thought it possible, but she was even more drawn to him now, as if the truth had wiped away the chasm that had once gaped between them.
He was looking at her, and she was looking back.
She tried to school her features, but wasn’t certain she succeeded.
The candlelight was low and bathed him in a warmth that made everything intimate.
They were alone. No wonder young ladies were always with a chaperone.
She had to distract them both.
“So what do you plan to do next?”
He turned her hand over and stared at her palm.
“Do you see the future there?” she asked, hoping levity would lighten the intensity between them.
But he looked at her from beneath dark brows, and only said, “My future or yours?”
Oh good heavens, why didn’t she think before speaking?
“Richard, you know what I meant.”
Again, his mouth turned up at one corner, and she began to associate that little half-smile with Richard, not the false grin he used to represent his brother.
“I spent this afternoon sending word to men who work for me in Manchester. We need more guards at Thanet Court, and I don’t mean gardeners and grooms. I don’t want Charles getting through the front gate again without advance warning.
I have been content to wait here and see what Charles is up to, but no more.
If he can keep an eye on us, we’ll keep an eye on him. ”
Throughout his speech, he let their linked hands drop to his thigh, where he continued to absently massage her fingers. His thigh felt rock hard and warm and far too intimate a thing for her to be touching.
“The police probably can’t help us,” she said, wincing at how breathless she sounded.
He smiled. “So you’ve considered them recently?”