Page 33 of Claimed By Her Forbidden Duke
“Did you go to Cambridge, Lord Graham?”
“Yes, and I finished with very good scores, Your Grace.”
“And yet you cannot string a good, decent sentence to answer me with.” Edmund raised an eyebrow. “You understand I will not settle for less than the best for Lady Arabella. It is ultimately her choice, but Iwillendeavor to influence her choices.”
Visibly, the lord swallowed, looking at Arabella as if searching for a way to redirect the conversation. When it was clear there was none, he backed away, smiling nervously.
“I-I must meet with my father,” he mumbled. “He is right over…”
He did not finish his sentence, already turning on his heel and hurrying away.
As soon as he was gone, Arabella rounded on Edmund, her pretty face tight with annoyance.
“Must you do that?” she huffed. “He was perfectly lovely!”
“And you deserve perfectlyperfect,” Edmund corrected. “You were being foolishly drawn in by a kind smile.”
“And you were being rude,” she countered. “I was enjoying myself, Brother.”
For a moment, his confidence faltered, but he quickly regained it. “I am looking out for you. Shall I ask more questions next time to hasten the process? It will wheedle out the idiots better.”
“No! You absolutely should not. You must allow me to choose for myself.”
“I will,” Edmund told her. “But I will not see you married to a fool when you are so brightly intelligent, Arabella.”
“A fool you may think he is, but I found him to be a gentleman.”
Without thinking, he rolled his eyes, sighing his exasperation. “That is because you are still innocent, and men can be snakes who will take advantage of that.”
His sister reared back at the insult, her lip curling. “Yes, but perhaps I should find that out for myself instead of it being dictated to me by aman.” Her eyes narrowed. “I would have had to find out without your help if you had not made it back. I am ever so glad you did, but I am more grown than you recall, and I can use my intelligence to navigate a ballroom.”
With that, she walked away, leaving him quite berated and feeling slightly off-kilter.
He chewed on the inside of his cheek, his confidence wavering once again.
Guilt spread through his stomach; Arabella was right. Had he not made it back, clawed with every ounce of his being to return to his sister, shewouldhave had to go through this alone. Or at least with Benjamin, and Heaven help her if that happened.
He thought about going after her but found himself utterly exhausted by the whole ordeal already. He did not want to cause further aggravation. Besides, he had sworn to himself that he would see Arabella chaperoned and then continue his hunt.
His night was far from over, even when the ball ended.
And although he was ready to leave, staying only for Arabella’s sake, there was one other reason to linger at the fringes of the ballroom.
Lady Penelope, and the fact that despite not being able to spot her now in the crowd, his body remembered the feel of hers. His arms ached, as if aware of how empty they were without her.
He could not help but cast his gaze over the ballroom, ignoring the pang of disappointment when he could not see her.
Lady Penelope had struck a match within him, and now he burned for another glimpse of her.
ChapterNine
London’s streets were quieter at this time of night, when the dark had already encroached upon the sky and the moon hung in the air. Edmund was nothing but a shadow, moving from street corner to street corner, lurking in the even darker shadows of buildings.
He hated these parts of London. While he cared little for the aristocracy, at least they knew how to flood a place with light and life. Here, there were only shadows upon shadows, darkness to hide darker things, and he had witnessed far enough of that already.
He hadusedthis sort of darkness and these sorts of places—far from London—to enact his plans.
To hunt through places like this again caused dread to pool in his gut even as he composed himself as stoically as possible. He was detached from himself, taking himself away from the mind that wanted to remember every terrible thing he had done in the dark, and put himself in the mindset of the man who was trying to set those times right.
