Page 100 of A Devil in Silk
“No, Daniel!” She tugged her husband’s arm, urging him to reconsider. “If anything happens to Bentley, Clara will never forgive you. You’ll lose her love forever.”
“Gentlemen have rules,” Dalton insisted, though an edge of reluctance crept into his tone. “Rutland was raised on a diet of etiquette and expectation. He knows what’s required.”
Bentley pushed to his feet and squared his shoulders. “I’ll answer for my actions, as any man should.”
Dalton gave a curt nod, the decision made. “I’ll fetch pistols. We’ll settle this in the yard.”
Elsa gasped, but neither man looked her way.
The air between them thrummed with inevitability, as if fate had already dealt the hand. Bentley’s thoughts turned to the curse and the shadow that had haunted his family for decades. Perhaps it was folly to believe he could ever escape it. Indeed, when the door closed behind Dalton, the echo lingered like a death knell.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Clara woke to someone shaking her arm and repeating her name in urgent tones. Startled, she blinked to clear her vision.
Elsa’s white-blonde hair shone like a beacon in the darkness, though her strained expression spoke of alarm. “Clara,” she whispered. “Thank heavens you’re awake. You were sleeping so soundly, I was beginning to?—”
“Elsa?” Clara pushed up on her elbows, the cool air brushing her bare skin. With a gasp, she clutched the sheet to her breasts. “What are you doing here? Is everything all right? Has something happened to Daniel?”
Elsa’s hand came to rest on Clara’s cheek, the touch a silent apology. “No. He’s downstairs. Mr Daventry told us why you were visiting Cheltenham, so we drove here directly. We know what happened at the seance, that you’re searching for a murderer.” She paused, a tense beat before the storm. “We know everything.”
Everything? The word cut through her, sharp as a blade to the ribs. Not from fear of a callous killer, but of what her own brother might do.
Clara’s gaze darted to the space beside her in bed, cold certainty settling into her bones.
“Where is Bentley?” His clothes were gone. Elsa had come straight to his chamber, which could mean only one thing. “If Daniel harms him, there’ll be the devil to pay.”
Elsa’s manner shifted from loving sister-in-law to protective wife. “Daniel would never do anything to hurt you or Bentley.”
“Then why does this feel like an ambush?”
“You cannot blame him for being concerned,” Elsa replied bluntly. “We hear you’re a suspect in two murders, and we arrive to find you in Bentley’s bed. Men have complicated ways of dealing with dishonour, and you must allow?—”
“Dishonour?” With no thought for her nakedness, she flung back the sheets and snatched her nightgown from the floor. “There’s nothing sordid or shameful about my relationship with Bentley.”
Making love to him had been the most exhilarating experience of her life. Love lived in every fevered caress. Respect dwelt in every passionate kiss. He’d become her light in the darkness, and she’d sooner be damned than let Daniel harm him.
“Where are they?” she demanded.
“Are you in love with him?”
Anger flared as she threw on her nightclothes. “Of course I’m in love with him. I’m not here to complete a task on my list. There isn’t an adventure on earth that compares to those I share with Bentley.”
Elsa stood, her smile stretching. “Good. Then I suggest you tell him so before Daniel shoots him.”
The news hit like a stray bullet. “What?”
“You wished to witness a duel. If you’re quick, you may arrive in time to save him.”
Panic surged through her. She stumbled to the window, wrenched back the curtain, and wiped mist off the pane. In the yard below, shadowy figures stood in a tense line, moonlight glinting on pistols laid out in an open wooden box.
For an instant her heart ceased to beat.
A second later, she was out of the room and running down the corridor. She burst into the stable yard barefoot, mud squelching beneath her toes, though that was the least of her worries.
A young groom pointed towards the gate in the brick wall, excitement in his step, lit lantern in hand. “Best hurry if you want to see the duel, miss. They’ve gone to the walled garden. Mr Wilson warned ’em pistol fire would scare the horses.”
She lifted the hem of her nightgown and charged after the boy, Elsa at her heels.
