Page 26 of A Christmas Temptation for the Duke
“I cannot imagine that they will not,” he said. “Likely, this time tomorrow you will be on your way with them, and all this will be a… well, not a funny tale, so much. But one that might arouse some interest when told over Christmas dinner.”
“Thank you.” A grateful smile tugged at Alison’s lips as she looked at the Earl, and she felt that same warmth from earlier creep through her body. His eyes were kind, his expression gentle. Not at all the man she thought him to be. “I do appreciate it.”
He nodded once and exhaled, stepping away from the fire. No longer shaking, his robe still hung open to expose his chest. And how Alison tried not to glance… “Until then, you will sleep here. I will have a room made for you and –”
“Wait!” Alison’s eyes widened because it was only just then that the very reason that she was here at all came to her. “What happened? The voices – the men! Did you find them? What did they want?”
“Oh yes, the voices…” The concern fled his face, replaced by sympathy. “I am not certain what you think that you heard, Lady Alison, only that I found no evidence whatsoever of men outside your home. And certainly, none to suggest that they were inside it.”
“But there were,” she insisted. “I heard two voices –”
“I am sure that you think you did,” he spoke over her. “With the storm raging as it was, a big empty home. It is not unusual to imagine –”
“I did not imagine anything.”
“And that you were left on your own,” he continued, his voice hardening over her interruption. “Feeling a little chastised and lonely, no doubt. Whatever it is that you think you heard, I assure you, was not the case.”
“You are not listening to me,” she said. “This had nothing to do with being alone or… or feeling upset. I heard two men arguing outside the window. As clear as I can hear you right now.”
“I am sure you think that you did. But as I am telling you, there was nobody there.”
“Then they left.”
“And why would they have done that?”
“Because… because…” She could see the mockery return to his eyes. Oh, he was trying to hide it. He was doing his best to give her a way out of what he clearly thought to be her burgeoning imagination. But he did not believe a word of what she told him, and as past experience suggested, he wasn’t about to change his mind. “Because they saw light inside the house. And they heard me -- and Pickle barking. He must have scared them off.”
“Pickle? Scared them off?” He raised an eyebrow as he found Pickle the terrier snoring away by the fire. Perhaps the least threatening dog of all time. “Forgive me, but that sounds a little… unlikely.”
The feelings of abject terror left her completely. As did those of the need to find safety and comfort discovered in the home of the Earl. Lord Grayhill might not have been mocking her outright, but he was certainly questioning her sanity, and Alison could hardly contain her frustration and anger.
“You don’t believe me.”
“It does not matter what I believe,” he said. “What matters is the reality, and as things are, it suggests that nobody was there.”
“Why would I lie?”
“I do not suspect that you are doing so on purpose,” he continued. “But the mind tends to play tricks when it is feeling vulnerable and afraid.”
“I am not afraid!”
“No?” He cocked a questioning eyebrow at her. “And the woman who turned up on my doorstep thirty minutes ago, begging to be let in lest she be attacked, was what exactly?”
There it was, back to how things had once been between them. Oh sure, he offered her help when he did not need to. Just as hehad been kind when he thought she was broken. But now that the moment was passed, she could see once again the same man who had argued with her at the marketplace.
“Fine, don’t believe me,” she snapped. “I do not care.”
“It is not about believing you, Lady Alison. Did I not offer you safe haven? Did I not brave the winter in nothing more than a robe just to put your mind at ease? Truly, I think you are being rather ungrateful.”
“And you are being condescending and rude!” She scowled at him, her body trembling, but not from the cold. She held his stare, wanting him to see how annoyed she was, wanting him to know that this was not some flight of fancy or need to be heard. “Only, why I am surprised at all, I cannot imagine.”
He groaned and rubbed his eyes. “And here we are, right back where we started.”
She scoffed. “Let us see an end to it then, shall we, before either one of us says something we will regret.”
“Too late for that, I am afraid.”
“Thank you for your help, Lord Grayhill, but seeing as there is nothing for me to worry about, and no reason for me to be here, I think I might leave.” With that, she turned and stormed toward the door.
