Page 85 of When Dashing Met Danger

Lucia felt heat in her cheeks. She looked down and murmured, “Oh.”

“You care for him, but you can’t understand why he won’t admit he feels the same, even though you see it in his eyes.”

Lucia glanced at Camille suspiciously. “You sound as though you speak from experience.”

Camille shrugged—a distinctly French gesture that neither confirmed nor denied. Lucia couldn’t decide if she was being helpful or inching her sword into a vulnerable piece of Lucia’s armor.

Lucia took a shaky breath. “Sometimes I do sense he feels something more than—” More than lust, she thought, but couldn’t bring herself to say it.

“Did you know his father?”

Lucia recoiled, the question throwing her off balance. “The old Marquess of Selbourne?” she stammered. “No, when he died, I was still very young.”

“And has Alex ever spoken of him?”

Lucia tried to remember, frowning because she was unsure of Camille’s battle strategy. Lucia advanced cautiously. “Not very much, no. But I know from Ethan that he squandered the Selbourne fortune, leaving the family almost penniless when he died. Alex had to work for years to build it back up, but I don’t think it’s a topic he likes to discuss.”

“I’m sure that’s true, but with the Winterbourne fortune safely intact, Alex never had any need to worry. Ethan would have provided for him.”

Lucia shook her head. “He’d never allow charity. And I don’t think it was the financial insecurity but the rumors, the gossip, that was—” Lucia stumbled over the words.

“Humiliating?”

Lucia nodded.

Camille sat back, looking every bit the child with a juicy secret to tell. “You only know the half of it. Do you know where the money went?”

Lucia shook her head, not certain she wanted to know.

“Women,” Camille said. Lucia felt the first tiny prick of Camille’s weapon.

“I already know the old marquess was a rake.”

“No, che´rie,” Camille said, leaning forward confidentially. “Alex is a rake, but his father did more than seduce the women he wanted. He ran off with three of them, leaving Lady Selbourne, Alex and Ethan’s mother, to fend for herself. Unfortunately for her, he did not stay gone. His affections were fleeting, and he soon tired of his paramours. Within the space of a few months, he would return to London and search for his next ladylove.”

A chill ran down Lucia’s spine. She could imagine the pain Alex had felt when, as a child, he’d discovered his father had left his mother for yet another of his mistresses.

The scandal alone would have been crippling, but if he’d cared for his parents at all, he must have been devastated.

As if reading her thoughts, Camille said, “Old Selbourne was the laughingstock of London. They called him Love’s Fool. Alex once told me he’d been taunted with his father’s escapades at school, and he rarely escaped the abuse. His mother certainly didn’t want him at home where he would witness his father’s follies.”

Lucia stared at her, horrified by the smug little smile she saw on Camille’s lips. She’d revealed her secret and was obviously pleased by its effect.

Lucia’s head was spinning. It all made sense now— why Alex thought any man in love a fool, why he was so afraid of love himself. He didn’t want to become like his father. Alex refused to be the source of the ton’s amusement. Not for her. Not for anyone. But how could she convince him that it didn’t have to be that way? He didn’t have to make a fool of himself to love her. Why couldn’t he see that?

“I understand now,” Lucia said quietly.

“Do you?” Camille arched a thin brow in triumph. “Then you must know that Alex will never marry you. He will never risk falling in love. Being called a fool. If he felt a little less for you, well, then perhaps it would not be so great a risk. But as it is . . .”

The proverbial knife slid cleanly into Lucia’s heart. She wondered weakly why she hadn’t seen it coming. Camille was obviously far more adept at this game than she. The woman had vanquished her effortlessly and probably thought the way open to win Alex for herself.

But Lucia tucked her white flag away. She was not such an easy victory. It was she, not Camille, who was with Alex, and that meant she still had a chance. It also meant risking her heart.

She glanced at the shield and swords behind the gloating Camille. Alex’s armor. Was her weapon— her love—strong enough to penetrate the hurt and pain he’d suffered? Did she dare try? Could she go on if she didn’t?

Chapter Twenty-five

Alex stared out the window of the drawing room, drapes pulled carelessly open so he could see the vendors and students going about their morning routines. Camille was gone. She’d left to make her own inquiries about Dashing, and he hadn’t really tried to dissuade her. His own efforts had failed miserably. None of his contacts had seen Dashing. It was as if the boy had simply slipped off the face of the earth.

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