Page 78 of The Duke and the Lady in Red
He’d never been one to care about domestic tranquillity or quiet nights or remembering peaceful moments. He’d always favored the ribald, the loud, the coarse. He never wanted to examine the aspects of his life that he’d abandoned.
Strange how, looking at her now, he experienced a flash of contentment, surrounded by this unusual assortment of people.
“Imay have seen Tinsdale lurking about the streets.”
Standing on the bedchamber’s balcony, with the fragrance of the earlier rain wafting on the slight breeze, her fingers gripping the iron railing, Rose replayed Merrick’s parting words whispered to her as he and the others were taking their leave, letting the unwelcome refrain tumble through her mind, surprised that after more than a dozen repetitions, it still had the power to cause cold fear to knot her gut.
The former bobby who now sold his investigative skills to those willing to pay for them had been on her trail for several years now, ever since she’d duped a solicitor in Manchester in much the same way that she had fooled Beckwith. It didn’t help that in the north two warrants had been issued for her arrest. Not to mention the promise of a small bounty offered by a widowed landowner who had taken exception to her leaving after he’d provided her with a residence for three months. When she’d first begun her trade, she’d been too young and naive to realize that her efforts were best served by selecting men who had too much pride to let on that they’d been deceived.
Over the years, eluding Tinsdale had become as challenging as swindling.
He wouldn’t search for her within the nobility. He wouldn’t think her bold enough for that tactic. He would scour for her among the untitled wealthy, merchants, railway investors. Briefly she wondered if she should make arrangements for the others to be moved elsewhere. No, they were guilty of nothing. Tinsdale wouldn’t intentionally risk alerting them to his presence by approaching them. Joseph wouldn’t have traveled here without ensuring they weren’t followed.
Still, if not for Harry, she’d begin making plans for her departure. If not for her bargain with Avendale—
She squeezed her eyes shut. If not for Avendale himself. The bargain had little to do with her desire to stay. It was the man who awoke something deep and profound within her, the man who without even being aware of it was revealing to her the incredible cost of the life she’d led. Always looking behind her, waiting for the ax to fall, to be found out, she could never be more than his whore, relegated to the shadows.
“I wasn’t expecting to find you here,” Avendale said quietly.
Glancing over her shoulder, she gave him a soft smile. He’d invited her to join him for a cognac after saying good night to Harry, but needing a few moments to shake off Merrick’s troubling news, she’d feigned a headache and the need to retire. Suspicion had glittered in Avendale’s dark eyes. Why was she so inept at lying to him?
“I thought you’d avoid my bedchamber with your brother in residence,” he continued. “I was prepared to seek you out.”
Escaping him when the time came would involve an inordinate amount of planning and deception. She’d broken a thousand promises in her lifetime, but not keeping the one she’d made with him would cause her the deepest regret. But if Tinsdale were about, she’d have no choice.
“Your residence is large enough that with Harry in the other wing, we won’t be heard,” she said now.
Stepping forward, he closed his arms around her waist and settled his warm mouth against her nape, creating a circle of dew that branded her as thoroughly as scorched metal might. “Are you issuing a challenge, that I should have you screaming rather than crying out?”
The heat of embarrassment warmed her face. “Absolutely not. If you brought me any more pleasure, I might expire on the spot.”
“What of your headache?”
“It’s gone. Preparing for bed seemed to have eased it.” While he was helping her care for Harry, she would give to Avendale all that she could—even if it wasn’t everything.
“This nightdress is ghastly unflattering,” he said.
“But it’s familiar and comforting, like an old friend.”
He moved so he was beside her, his gaze landing on her profile with such intensity that she well imagined she heard a thud. “Speaking of old friends, what did Merrick say when he drew you aside just before he left?”
He would notice that quick exchange, wouldn’t he? He noticed everything. It was one of the things she loved about him: that he didn’t go through life ignoring the little details. “What he always says. He doesn’t like you.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
“What else could he have said?” she asked as innocently as possible.
“I don’t know, but he looked too worried and you had a moment of looking too frightened.”
She twisted around to face him squarely.Always meet your opponent’s gaze head-on when you’re lying. Or so Elise, a fortune-teller, had claimed. “I’m not one to be scared.”
Again the doubt in his expression, then he shuttered away the emotions. “After all I’m doing for you, for you and Harry, don’t I deserve the truth?”
She almost told him that honesty between them wasn’t part of the bargain. “I told you that I would never speak of my past, yet tonight you caught glimpses of it. Be content with that.”
“And if I can’t be?”
Everything within her went still, quiet, and she felt as though the balcony had disintegrated beneath her feet and she was falling. She almost reached for him, grabbed him, but she had learned long ago that she was responsible for saving herself. “I never should have agreed to bring Harry here. We’ll leave tomorrow.”
