Page 51 of From Duke Till Dawn
Oh, God.
She turned to see a familiar handsome blond man approach. He wore perfectly tailored bespoke clothing, from his hat to his gleaming boots. He looked at her with a mixture of surprise and suspicion.
“Lord Keene,” she said with a wan smile. She tried to move on, but he maneuvered his body so that going forward was impossible.
Alex stopped. He swiveled to look between her and the newcomer, his expression hardening. “You know him?”
“This is Lord Keene,” she explained, wishing one of the horses would get free and trample her to death.
“Tunbridge Wells, wasn’t it?” Lord Keene asked. His look darkened. “Where did you go? I searched for you, but you’d vanished. Nary a trace of you.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she observed Alex. From the narrowing of his eyes, she saw the moment he realized who and what Lord Keene was to her. A former dupe, on whom she’d run a very similar swindle to the one she had with Alex. The widow cheated out of her portion by a cruel relative. Lord Keene had given her a hundred pounds after she’d toyed with him for several days at an elegant hotel in Tunbridge Wells.
“I had no choice.” She fell back on one of her usual tales. “Creditors were dunning me, and if I didn’t flee, they would have thrown me into the Fleet. I was heartbroken to leave you without a word.”
Lord Keene didn’t seem to hear her. Instead, he glared at Alex. “She’s yours, then?” He looked meaningfully at their joined hands.
Though she tried to pull away, Alex held her fast.
“Not your damned business,” he growled to Lord Keene.
Again, the young buck tried to make up in swagger what he lacked in true courage. “Well done, Your Grace,” he attempted to sneer. “Locked up tighter than a Spanish prison, that one. Wouldn’t yield, no matter how I begged her.”
Alex looked briefly stunned, before his expression turned harsh, his nostrils flared while his brow lowered.
“Pistols? Swords?” Alex asked lowly.
“I beg your pardon?” Lord Keene looked ashen.
“Keep nattering on,” Alex explained, “and you’ll have to pick either pistols or swords for our duel. I’m bloody good at both.” Absolute confidence firmed his words.
Lord Keene gulped. “As silent as a library, that’s me.” In an instant, he vanished into the crowd.
A tiny bloom of relief flowered when Lord Keene finally disappeared. But Alex stared at her for so long that she shifted nervously from foot to foot. He didn’t seem to notice the crowds massing and swirling around them.
“You had me believe”—it was an accusation—“that you took all your victims to bed.”
“I don’t care for people touching me,” she replied. “Especially if I don’t like them.”
“You letme.”
She said nothing. Then, “You were different from them.” In Cheltenham, he’d looked at her as though she was worth respect, as though she meant something more than a pretty damsel in distress. Her other dupes had seen in her an opportunity to play the hero, but they never cared abouther. Alex had.
“Why?” he demanded angrily. “Why not tell me the truth?”
“My words mean nothing to you,” she answered. “You said as much.”
He couldn’t answer. Yet emotion gleamed deep in his eyes. A man jostled him, and Alex glared back. The man shrank away, but the mob grew thicker and thicker as the beginning of the race continued. People shouted their bets or the odds, and vendors worked the crowds, selling pamphlets describing the horses, as well as ices and pies and sweets. Everything was noise and disorder. Including her heart.
“We’ll speak of this again,” Alex vowed.
Secrets had been her life’s companions. Now they were all coming out in the hot light of day, to shrivel in the sun.
The crowd was a mix of high and low, not unlike Cassandra and Alex.
She scanned the masses of people, looking for Martin. Craggy, working faces mingled with smooth, pale leisured faces, and the quality of clothing varied from threadbare castoffs to custom gowns and coats from Bond Street. The air smelled of perfume, dust, and horse manure. It would be so easy to slip her hand into an unguarded reticule, or a gentleman’s pocket. A few coins here, a timepiece there.
But that wasn’t her life anymore. That wasn’t her.
