Page 15 of Her Runaway Duke
The right side of his face twisted to match the left.
“Not so interested in staying now, are you?”
His voice was taunting, angry, but there was more beneath it – pain. Worry, likely that she would do the very thing he was asking her to do and run away.
Instead, she took a few small steps toward him so that she could better see him.
“That looks painful,” she said softly.
“You have no idea,” he bit out.
“No, I do not,” she agreed. “And yet, I can understand your reluctance to allow people close to you.”
His forehead furrowed. “Does it not disgust you?”
“No, why would it?” she said, lifting her shoulders. “I am sorry for whatever happened to you, that is for certain, but I must say that I am much more put off by the way that you speak to me than your scars.”
He snorted then in what she could describe as near to a laugh. “You must be joking.”
“I am not.” She paused as pieces of the puzzle began to click into place in her head. “You are the Duke of Dunmore.”
“Took you long enough to figure it out.”
The bite remained in his words, but Siena was well aware why. He must know of what the scandal sheets said of him, the rumors that circled about him. She wasn’t one to pay them much attention, but everyone within thetonknew about the scandal that was the Duke of Dunmore.
“I am sorry for the loss of your brother,” she said quietly. “That must have been quite difficult.”
“You do not know the half of it,” he practically sneered. “But suffice it to say that if Reginald was here instead of me, you would be much better off – you and everyone else.”
“How long has it been?”
“Just over a year.”
“So, you are still in mourning, then.”
He turned his head, studying her. “Are you not frightened?”
“Why would I be?”
“Some say I murdered my brother. You are fine with being alone in a room – in an estate – with a murderer?”
The pain was so evident that it was heartbreaking, and she shook her head.
“From what I can tell, you would give anything to have your brother back and not be sitting here in this current predicament. Besides, if you were the kind of man who would hurt me, you would not have helped me escape from those ruffians and then invited me into your home and left me untouched.”
“Perhaps that is why I want you to leave. So that you do not tempt me.”
She laughed wryly. “I doubt that is the case.”
He said nothing to that but studied her with the one blue eye that she could see.
“Well,” she said, not knowing where else to take this conversation. She had questions, of course, as this man had been the subject of much speculation and here he was now in front of her, the duke who had disappeared. But he was clearly not inclined to share, and to push would likely have him letting her out into the rain. “Do you have a library?”
He seemed startled by her change in discussion, but he nodded. “Of course.”
“I shall go peruse it, then. If you wish to spend any time together, I am more than happy to do so. Good day, Your Grace.”
She strode toward the door and had just opened it when he made a grunt behind her, and she looked back over her shoulder.
