Page 50 of Fit for a Duke
‘Thank you, but there is absolutely no need for you to feel that way and this is…well, inappropriate.’
‘I promise to behave myself.’
The suggestion of a smile touched her lips. ‘How reassuring,’ she said.
‘I have news that you should hear,’ he said, worried that she would send him away; fairly sure that she would not. If she was like the majority of the other females in attendance, out to trap him, then he wouldn’t even have considered taking the risk of visiting her room. His intentions really were noble.
Probably.
‘Tell me,’ she said softly, looking away from him and fiddling with the sash that held her robe closed.
Chapter Thirteen
Clio had been feeling despondent, unsure what to make of the ambiguous contents of the letter that the captain had given her to read. The sight of her father’s familiar handwriting, mentioning her in such dispassionate terms, had given her a jolt, despite the fact that he had never treated her as anything other than a commodity. And now here was Ezra, accosting her in her own chamber. She had been thinking about him in such a concentrated manner, so confident he would be able to explain the peculiarities that it was almost as if the power of those thoughts had brought him to her door.
He took her hand, just as she had taken his so brazenly an hour or two earlier, and led her back to the window seat. She was acutely aware of her state of semi-undress and wondered if she ought to do something about it. But what could she do that wouldn’t make her seem immature? Sending him away was out of the question, even though she knew that she ought to. Every nerve ending in her body sang with anticipation, despite the fact that she didn’t feel in any danger of being compromised.
He was still fully clothed, albeit casually, which made her feel even more disadvantaged. He filled the room with his starkly masculine presence, fuelling the atmosphere with an air of expectancy that created yearnings she didn’t properly understand. This simply wouldn’t do! Clio frantically sought her mind for something mature to say. Whatdidone say when a duke accosted one in a bedchamber as though it was the most natural thing in the world, she wondered? Was there a prescribed reaction? Her imagination failed her and she looked up at Ezra in a state of mute indecision.
‘What did Salford do to make you leave the party?’ he asked.
His voice cut through her confused reverie and restored her ability to think in a vaguely coherent fashion. ‘I was under the impression that you came here in such an unorthodox fashion in order to tell me something vital, not cross-question me,’ she replied curtly. ‘You realise, of course, that if we are caught then all hell will break loose.’
He grinned at her. ‘I’ll risk it if you will.’
‘Oh, for goodness sake!’ She flapped a hand at him, fighting a smile. ‘Don’t you ever take anything seriously?’
‘Not if I can help it, but just so that we are clear, I take your safety very seriously and make no apology for worrying about you.’
Clio swallowed, aware from the ardent nature of his expression that he spoke the truth. ‘I am not your responsibility.’
‘I have decided to make you so.’
‘Just like that?’ Clio wondered why she felt such a pressing need to argue the point. She had been looking out for herself for as long as she could recall, and the thought of an authoritative man of the duke’s ilk offering her his protection was wonderfully reassuring. Then it occurred to her that ladies living beneath a gentleman’s protection were ordinarily members of thedemi-monde. ‘If you imagine that I am so desperate for affection, or feel so honoured to be noticed by you that I will agree to become your mistress, then you quite mistake my character,’ she snapped.
‘Good heavens!’ His eyebrows disappeared beneath his hairline. ‘Whatever gave you such an idea? What on earth do you take me for?’
Clio could see that she had insulted him, and felt downright foolish. She blushed furiously. He clearly didn’t think of her as a desirable woman and really had decided to protect her because she was the daughter, thechild, of a man whom he had served with and respected. Far from feeling reassured, Clio was imbued with a very different emotion. Duke or not, she would make him notice her!
‘What else am I supposed to think when you wander into my bedchamber in the dead of night, certain that your presence will be welcomed?’
‘I am not welcome?’ He looked so totally shocked that Clio laughed in spite of herself.
‘You are impossible,’ she said.
Ezra shook his head and sighed. ‘What am I to do with you?’ he muttered.
‘That’s a question perhaps left for a more respectable time and place.’
He briefly ran his fingers down the hand that lay in the space between them; an intimate gesture that reinforced the manner in which he could so easily stir her passions. It was most unfair. He was experienced and he knew precisely what he was doing to her, even if Clio had yet to decide what had made him do it. She, on the other hand, was totally out of her depth as she struggled to navigate uncharted waters.
‘You don’t need to worry about my marrying a man who might well have been commissioned to murder you,’ Clio said, turning the conversation back to his original question. ‘I don’t like Captain Salford, but you are already well aware of that. He told me just now that my father wanted him to marry and care for me after he was gone, as though my father’s supposed plans for me would ensure my instant obedience.’ She waved the letter that the captain had given her for emphasis. ‘He even claims that my father wrote his wishes down.’
Ezra threw back his head and laughed. ‘Is that all? He must truly be desperate.’
‘Desperate to settle for me?’ Clio gathered her hands together in her lap and rippled her shoulders indignantly. ‘Thank you very much!’
‘Don’t be such a goose. That is not what I meant, and well you know it.’
