Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
“Unless you are here to offer an apology and an explanation, I am afraid you have wasted a trip.”
Solomon’s voice was cold and curt. Laurence stood in the doorway of Solomon’s Wynter estate. The Duke of Wynter’s gaze was even colder than his voice.
Laurence figured he deserved that.
“I am here to offer you both,” he replied, tilting his chin up as he boldly met his friend’s cold gaze.
Solomon narrowed his eyes at Laurence as he kept his hands in his trouser pockets and his body firmly planted in the doorway for a moment longer. Then Solomon rolled his eyes, pushed away from the doorframe, and inclined his head as a subtle invitation as he walked back into his house.
“You revealed yourself last night,” Solomon scolded.
“I know.”
“You played into the auction. You supported their disgusting business and paid a handsome fee for it!” Solomon spat out, sounding angrier as he led the way to his study.
“I did.”
“You attacked Benedict!” Solomon boomed, whirling around to glare at Laurence just as they reached the study.
Laurence gave a curt nod of acknowledgement.
Solomon’s lips twitched. Then he huffed a laugh as he slid his gaze to the side.
“I suppose I might have enjoyed that part,” he muttered.
Laurence smirked.
“I certainly did,” he admitted.
“But did you have to do it there?” Solomon snapped, his moment of amusement clearly over. “After you slid your mask up and revealed yourself? After you clearly went after him in front of all of those men? Do you have any idea how quickly this could ruin our plan?!”
“Solomon, please,” Laurence sighed, holding his hands up in surrender. “I understand all of these things. But what was I supposed to do? Just leave her there? A woman who clearly did not want to be there. A woman with bruises on her face and silent pleas on her lips for me to help her?”
Solomon glared at him for another moment, then his gaze softened and his rigid stature relaxed.
“No,” he sighed. “No, you should not have left her there. Though I am curious as to how you knew one another.”
A jolt moved through Laurence as his mind moved at once to the kiss he’d shared with Ellen.
He should tell her, at some point, that it was he who had given her that first kiss.
He’d almost hoped, when their faces were so close in the carriage the night before, that she’d recognize him somehow.
When she had not, he could not help the disappointment that swept through him, but after the night she’d had, he’d thought it was poor timing to bring up such an intimate confession.
“We met at Benedict’s dinner party,” Laurence said, forcing his tone to stay casually measured. “You left with Madalene before the announcement, but Ellen is… was… Benedict’s betrothed. She caught me rifling through Benedict’s study, and the conversation turned to her.”
Solomon gaped at him.
“Please tell me you are playing a cruel jest,” Solomon pleaded.
Laurence shook his head as he recalled that night.
“You should have seen her, Solomon. When Benedict announced they were to be married, it was a wonder she did not faint. And the way she flinched at him? He has hurt her before. I knew it then, and I certainly know it now. The man’s a monster.”
Solomon’s expression darkened. He turned and went into his study, going directly to the drink cart.
“If that is true and she is—was his betrothed, then why did he have her at the auction last night?” he asked, pouring them both a whisky.
Laurence sniffed at the smoky notes of the liquor but did not take a sip yet.
“From what she told me last night, she tried to tell him to stop the day after the party. Benedict did not take her rejection well, so she tried to run away and he caught her. He took her to the auction to teach her a lesson.”
He downed the whisky, hoping that it would dampen his rising rage.
It did not.
Solomon sneered.
“What a cowardly lecher,” he spat out. “Willing to sell his own betrothed as a punishment.”
He expelled a heavy breath, then shook his head before he took a sip of his own drink.
“When she caught me in Benedict’s office that first night, I asked her if she wanted help.
At the time she took great offense to it, but last night, at the auction, when she saw who I was…
she must have remembered my offer, and it was then she decided to take it.
You saw the other men bidding on her. I could not, in good conscience, just let her be taken home with one of them.
With me, I knew she would not be forced into anything. But with them…”
He didn’t finish his sentence, didn’t need to. He and Solomon both knew what would have happened.
“I suppose,” Solomon said after a moment of silence, “I cannot fault you for winning her bid then. But you must know that it is only a temporary solution. Benedict expects to get her back at some point.”
Laurence didn’t look up at his friend as he walked to the drink cart and poured himself another drink.
“That is why I am marrying her,” he muttered.
He flicked his gaze toward Solomon, just in time to see his friend’s eye begin to twitch.
“You’re what?”
“It is the only way to keep her from having to go back to him,” Laurence countered, feeling his defenses rise. “You saw her bruises. The fear in her eyes. I could not let her go back to that! He could kill her!”
Solomon flinched.
“She is not Annabel, Laurence,” Solomon said quietly.
Laurence scowled as he looked down into his drink.
“I am perfectly aware,” he grumbled. “Annabel is dead.”
He drained his glass and slammed it down, cracking the bottom.
“Saving Ellen is not going to bring her back,” Solomon said with an edge of warning.
“I have not gone mad,” Laurence snapped.
Yet, as he said the words, his guarded heart shuddered. He sneered at the feeling and looked anywhere but Solomon’s studying gaze.
“I am worried for you,” Solomon said after a tense moment. “I fear you are getting too close to Benedict with this. It was one thing to get the better of him for a night. But if you take his bride and make her your own, this could put us in serious danger.”
Laurence shook his head as his lips set into a grim line.
“I cannot allow him to hurt her again,” he gritted out.
He cast a glance toward Solomon and, as he suspected, found him with his head cocked and his eyes narrowed, as if Laurence were a puzzle he was trying to solve.
“Do you have feelings for this woman?” Solomon asked. “Is there something you are not telling me?”
Laurence scoffed as a tremor passed through his body.
“Do not be ridiculous; I do not even know her,” he replied.
When Solomon’s intense gaze did not waver, Laurence shifted on his feet awkwardly and looked down again.
“Though I must confess I do feel immensely protective of her; Her father recently disceased , her mother long gone. Benedict is her only remaining family, her guardian, and he was trying to blur those familial lines into marital ones that she did not want. I cannot imagine what it would be like to feel so trapped.”
Solomon’s expression softened.
“I had not thought about it that way,” he confessed. “You are right, of course. She needed help.”
Laurence gave a curt nod.
“In turn, she is helping us. Once we’re married and her protection is secured, she is going to tell us all she knows about Benedict. She could be the key to taking him and the entire auction down,” Laurence explained.
Solomon’s brows rose in surprise.
“It would be good to finally be done with this,” he mused, crossing his arms. “Do you think she knows much?”
“I will not know until I speak with her,” Laurence replied.
“She’s currently at my cottage just outside of Blackford.
I thought it best that she shouldn’t come back to the city until our marriage is finalized.
I figured…” he paused, letting out a sigh.
“I figured after everything she’d been through, she could use some peace and quiet before we start questioning her. ”
The memory of leaving her there, alone, flashed through his mind.
The mixed look of apprehension and relief as she’d closed the cottage door.
The overwhelming urge he’d struggled with to stay and watch over her.
He’d chosen to leave his driver there instead, paying him well to stay hidden in the small shed beside the cottage and watch over Ellen in secret.
Geoff had been loyal to Laurence for years and was married to one of Laurence’s house servants.
He knew him well enough to know that he took his vows seriously and that Ellen would be safe with him.
Still, he would have preferred to take the task on himself, and would have if he hadn’t needed to take care of acquiring their marriage license and smoothing things over with Solomon.
“What?” Laurence asked, catching the trailing sound of Solomon’s voice.
He looked up as his chest grew warm, realizing only then that he’d gotten lost in such thoughts.
“I asked when you two were getting married,” Solomon repeated.
“Tomorrow,” Laurence answered. “At the church outside of town near the cottage. You will come. We need a witness.”