Page 42 of Fit for a Duke
He stepped onto the lawn and headed towards the stables, trusting his instincts. As the sound of the music and laughter faded and his senses became more attuned, he thought he caught a snippet of conversation. It was a lady’s voice but not Clio’s. It took Ezra a moment to realise that he had been listening to that same voice—light and flirtatious, tinged with an edge of desperation when he didn’t respond in the way she expected of him—for the past two hours.
‘Lady Walder,’ he breathed. ‘But where the devil is Clio?’
Keeping to the shadows, even though there was little chance of his being seen since it was full dark, he reached the edge of the orchard immediately behind the stables. There was a lantern in the stable yard that cast a corridor of light across a narrow section of the orchard. Ezra caught sight of a patch of pink and groaned inwardly. Clio was wearing pink, had obviously followed Lady Walder and was listening to her conversation. The irresponsible miss was determined to get into mischief, it seemed, and had taken it upon herself to eavesdrop on Lady Walder’s assignation.
Sighing, Ezra crept up behind her on silent feet and, for the second time recently, placed a hand over her mouth.
‘This is getting to be a habit,’ he muttered.
Her body had tensed but relaxed again, presumably because she recognised his voice. She sagged against him.
‘Just in time,’ she whispered. ‘You will find this interesting.’
‘You shouldn’t be here,’ he told her in a stern undertone at the same time. ‘What if they had caught you? This is nothing to do with you.’
‘It is everything to do with me,’ she hissed furiously. ‘The man who claims to adore me is currently…’ Ezra’s anger abated because he was absolutely sure from her embarrassed tone that she had to be blushing. ‘Well, he is currently making up to Lady Walder, who wants to entice you into matrimony and is confident that she will succeed.’
Ezra grunted.
‘And Captain Salford is equally confident of winning my heart,’ she added, sniffing disdainfully. ‘Such arrogance!’
Ezra slid an arm around her slim waist, watching as Salford kissed Isobel Walder and ran his hands over her body. He was unsure if it was a suitable spectacle for Clio to observe but knew that short of throwing her over his shoulder and forcibly removing her, she would insist upon staying. Arguing the point would likely alert Salford to their presence. Ezra could but hope that Salford would call a halt before matters progressed beyond recall.
He did so eventually and sent Lady Walder back to the house, waiting for a moment or two before he followed in that direction.
‘Phew!’ Clio glanced up at Ezra. ‘At least now we know why he is so keen to marry me, if there was ever any doubt. The odious man needs my fortune in order to keep his mistress in style.’
Another possibility had occurred to Ezra but he chose not to point out that once Salford had his hands on her fortune, Clio would be surplus to requirements. He hadn’t needed to see any more to accept that Salford was violently in love with Lady Walder. He could hear passion in his tone that was not entirely the produce of lust. That ought not to have surprised him. Salford and Lady Walder were both unscrupulous in their pursuit of hedonistic pleasure—ideal bedfellows in all respects. But pleasure came at a high cost. Salford liked to be in control and it would be impossible for him to control Lady Walder if they were not man and wife—and perhaps not even then. Besides, he would not want to share her favours, even if he considered it his right to continue bestowing his own wherever the fancy took him.
Ezra despised men of his ilk.
There could be no doubt; Salford needed Clio’s wealth, and he needed it as a matter of urgency.
‘He cannot have you or your fortune, and there’s an end to it,’ Ezra said with authority. ‘We are now aware of his purpose and can remain one step ahead of him.’
‘Thank you for concerning yourself with my affairs, but shouldn’t you be putting your own wellbeing first?’ Ezra shook his head, thinking that she was saying what he had come out here to tell her. Instead, she had distracted him as she so easily could, without even appearing to try. ‘They didn’t mention anything about killing you, in case you are wondering. I want it to be them, but I don’t think either of them is involved.’
Ezra wasn’t ready to dismiss the possibility without definite proof. ‘That’s reassuring,’ he contented himself with saying.
‘It must be your fastidious cousin,’ she said.
‘I have sent Godfrey to the tavern. Perhaps he will learn something to our advantage in the taproom. I am still curious to know why Lady Walder’s name was mentioned there earlier today. She had no reason to stop there and I dislike unexplained coincidences.’
‘It is all so very disagreeable,’ Clio said, folding her arms across her waist and shaking her head. ‘This unseemly ruse to get his grubby hands on my fortune, I mean. I realise that everyone must have something to live on but even so, is this what I have to look forward to next season? If so I might forego presentation in favour of a life of seclusion in the country breeding…ferrets.’
‘Ferrets?’ Ezra quirked a brow, endlessly amused by her lively imagination.
‘Certainly. They are extremely useful creatures and much maligned. I kept one in my bedroom when I was a child and he hardly smelled at all.’
‘I am sorry you have been exposed to Salford’s tawdry machinations,’ Ezra said, pulling her into the protective circle of his arms. She made no objection to the impulsive gesture and rested the side of her face against his shoulder. ‘Don’t allow it to overset you. I will not permit Salford to trouble you, and I assure you that not all gentlemen are as unscrupulous as him. Don’t allow that possibility to spoil your season. You are intelligent enough to recognise the fortune hunters.’
Her head shot up again. ‘Thank you, but I can take care of myself. If you take up the cudgels on my behalf then it will create more problems than it will solve.’
‘Let me look out for your interests,’ he said in a soft, persuasive drawl that he addressed to the top of her flower-adorned head. ‘If only because I respected your father enormously. He would not like to think of you being troubled by a rogue like Salford. Besides, you really must take more care. Wandering out here alone with Salford at large…’
‘There is nothing he can do to me,’ she said confidently.
‘On the contrary, if he compromises you—and I wouldn’t put it past him based on the way he conducted himself in Spain—then you will be ruined and will have to marry him.’
