Page 34 of A Lady's Lesson in Scandal
‘Well, she isn’t, and I am.’ Drake let his gaze fall upon her bare back. He was torn between arousal and intense anger. Millicent’s skin was as pale as porcelain. Freckles covered her like cinnamon constellations, matching his imaginings at dinner with alarming accuracy. But marring the perfection of cream and cinnamon were savage, crimson slashes. The worst were covered in bloodied bandages. He carefully started peeling the linen from her skin, knowing from experience it would pull painfully and newly formed scabs would be ripped away.
Millicent hissed in a breath.
‘Fucking bitch!’ Drake snarled. Patricia would pay for what she’d done. He wasn’t sure how yet, but it would be slow and painful.
‘Wh-what did you say?’
‘Nothing. I’m just sorry for hurting you.’ The words tore from him like the bandages ripped from her back. But it was a necessary evil. He must remove the wrappings to apply the balm. Some of the cuts were angry and red, a sure sign of infection starting. Just the thought of Millicent consumed with fever, wasting away from the damage inflicted by her stepmother, filled Drake with renewed rage.
‘You don’t need to apologise. You didn’t do this. I mean, yes, it hurts, but you’re trying to help. Thank you.’ Millicent’s husky voice wrapped around him like an embrace, giving him the strength he needed to continue. ‘I hate to ask another favour, but perhaps you could distract me with a story.’
Drake snorted. ‘I don’t know any stories.’
‘Well, tell me something about you, then. Why are you so opposed to marriage?’
Drake gently pulled another bandage free and when she hissed in another breath, he started speaking just to drown out the sound of her suffering.
‘I wasn’t always. There was a time when all I wanted was to marry.’
Drake wasn’t sure he could continue. He didn’t speak about Nora. When he returned from the war, his brother’s marriage had been a juicy scandal. Everyone in the beau monde knew about Drake’s rejection which only added bitter insult to Drake’s grievous injury. But it also granted him an unexpected gift. He didn’t have to explain to anyone what he was experiencing because every peer in the realm knew about the debacle.
‘You don’t have to continue if it’s too painful.’ Millicent’s words were soft and sweet in the silence, and the irony of her offering him comfort when he was tending to her wounds wasn’t lost on Drake.
‘I just don’t want to bore you with a story I’m sure you already know.’ Drake began work on a new bandage. His soft touch contrasting his harsh tone.
Why? Why did she pick at his most tender wound? Even more confounding, why did Drake want to tell her about his hurt? To find some comfort in her empathy? He didn’t need the approval of some woman to make him feel better about his past.
‘I know what I’ve been told, but that isn’t the truth. Only three people really know the truth of what happened. You, your brother, and Nora. And yours is the only version I’m interested in hearing.’
Drake snorted. ‘My version is biased by my own feelings.’
‘Ah, but the beau monde is convinced you have no feelings.’
Drake smiled. He was grateful her back was turned. He didn’t need her knowing how easily she teased a vast array of emotions from him. ‘Perhaps they are right. Maybe I am just a feelingless monster.’ He heaved out a heavy sigh, causing the wisps of Millicent’s hair to dance in firelight. For a moment, he watched, fascinated by how many shades of red existed in just a few strands.
‘We already established that you are no monster.’
‘Men can be the worst monsters of all.’ Drake clenched his teeth and pulled free another bandage.
‘Some men. Yes. But not you.’ Millicent’s husky voice broke something in him, and the words began to pour forth without permission or thought.
‘I loved Nora. With all my heart.’ Once he started, he couldn’t stop. ‘She wasn’t the first woman I fancied myself in love with, but she was the first woman I loved as a man. We dreamed of creating a life together. When I left for that godforsaken war, I carried her with me.’ As he spoke, he continued to remove Millicent’s bandages. It helped to keep his hands busy. ‘I thought she loved me. But when news of my capture reached England,she wasted no time in transferring her affections to my brother. And then, when I returned looking like this…’
Millicent twisted her waist to face him, hissing at the pain it must have caused. ‘You are the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.’ Immediately, her face turned crimson, and she spun back around.
Drake couldn’t stop the harsh exhalation of air from his lungs. Not a laugh, but close. ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but even a blind woman would know I’m not beautiful.’
Millicent stiffened her shoulders. ‘I just mean to say, I’ve not met your brother, but I can’t imagine him ever being as interesting as you.’
The joy bubbled up in him, cracking open his shields. ‘So, I went from beautiful to interesting? That’s probably a more accurate description, though still not honest. At any rate, when Nora made it clear she didn’t want me, even if I still held the title instead of my brother, it shattered me. I was no longer good enough for her. Or for anyone. After that, I wasn’t interested in anything, marriage least of all.’
Until I met you.
Thank God he kept that thought to himself. He renewed his efforts with her bandages, doing his best to be gentle.
‘Thank you.’ Millicent’s words were so soft, he almost missed them.
‘For what?’
