Author: Wendy Soliman
Category: Historical
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‘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 the demi-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, the child, 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.’
‘Do I?’ Unsure why she felt the need to fight with him, Clio forced herself to relax and felt the tension recede from her rigid shoulders. ‘Why do you describe him as desperate? Well, obviously I know the answer to that. He requires my fortune in order to keep Lady Walder in the style she has come to expect.’
‘Very likely, but producing a letter from your father shows a degree of planning—which in turn implies that he’d considered the possibility of rejection and prepared for it.’
‘You don’t think that my father wrote the letter?’ She turned to face him, giving him her full attention for the first time since he had entered her room uninvited. ‘It is his handwriting, there’s no question of that.’
‘And yet he didn’t see fit to mention his plans to you?’
‘I don’t suppose he expected to die before he had an opportunity to do so.’
‘And yet he died at home. You nursed him, I am told, and he knew the end was close.’
Clio shrugged one shoulder. ‘True, but I don’t suppose he took my feelings into account. He would simply have assumed…’
Ezra cupped her chin in the palm of one capable hand, stroking it between his fingers as he smiled provocatively into her eyes. ‘He didn’t understand your character at all, did he?’ he asked softly.
Clio swallowed, understanding better now why she had instinctively tried to fight with him when he’d first invaded her privacy. She could keep her wits about her when they were at odds with one another, after a fashion, but whenever he looked at her with such glowing concern, her thoughts turned in all sorts of inappropriate directions.
‘I was not a boy, so why would he bother getting to know me?’ she asked, snatching her chin from his grasp and looking away again.
‘May I see the letter?’
Without saying a word, Clio handed it to him and Ezra walked over to the still-lit candle so that he could scan the contents. ‘It doesn’t mention you by name,’ he said, casting it aside with a dismissive flip of his wrist. ‘Your father could have been referring to the disposition of his estate as easily as he could be referring to your future. He doesn’t even address Salford by name. The letter starts off “Dear Sir”. It could have been to his steward.’
‘It might surprise you to learn that I had reached that conclusion for myself,’ she said archly. ‘It is beyond insulting that the captain would assume I don’t have the wits to see through such an obvious ruse, or that I would comply with my father’s so-called wishes even if it was genuine.’ She grunted indignantly. ‘He really is desperate. We both know what drives that desperation and it is most certainly not a desire to fulfil my father’s fictitious wishes. Nor is it a passionate affection for me.’
‘He was attempting to impress upon you the duty that you owed to your father.’ Ezra tapped the letter against his fingers.
‘Then he will be disappointed in that respect. I had lost respect for my father long before he died.’ She sent him a defiant smile. ‘There! I have said it. Make of it what you will.’
‘I respected the man as an intelligent strategist and leader of men on the battlefield,’ Ezra replied. ‘I did not know him well personally, and I cannot approve of his neglect of you. He may have regretted the fact that you were not the son he desired.’ Ezra paused, fixing her with a deep, probing look so intense that it caused her to blush and turn away. ‘I on the other hand am so very glad that you are not.’
‘You said you had news.’ Clio continued to look away from him and cleared her throat. She could stand up to Ezra when they were at odds, but she had absolutely no idea how to respond to a compliment that seemed genuine. God’s beard, the man was an enigma and she couldn’t make him out at all.
‘Ah, so I did.’
Clio listened as he explained about his mother’s destination that evening.
‘Brennan must be the mastermind!’ she said, leaning towards him in her anxiety for his wellbeing and only realising that the sudden movement had caused her robe to gape open when his gaze fastened on her bosom. She sat back again and tightened her belt. ‘There can be no other explanation, and your mother is playing into his hands. She must be warned.’
‘Out of the question! She may not be the most maternal woman in England, but she still has feelings. She has already lost two sons as well as a husband and will never believe our wild theories, especially
if I accuse her lover of orchestrating her family’s demise.’
‘No, I suppose when you put it like that…’ She nibbled the end of her index finger as she thought the matter through and then turned to face him again, in command of herself, after a fashion. ‘Then what shall we do about it?’
‘We shall do nothing. I shall handle it.’
Clio tossed her head, too irritated to worry about the growing attraction that she found it harder by the minute to fight when in such close and secluded company with her fiercely attractive yet unattainable duke. She found his magnetic allure harder to resist with every meeting.
Especially this one.
‘That is precisely the annoyingly protective response I anticipated. Really, your grace, if you do not require my help and suggestions, what are you really doing here in my bedchamber?’
Ezra was in trouble, the like of which he had never been in before, not even in the heat of battle. And this latest conflict truly terrified him. It had nothing to do with the threat to his life and everything to do with the charms of the siren seated beside him in her night attire, her eyes flashing with irritation. He was now fighting a war of a very different kind—against his own emotions, his instincts, his desires.
She was right to ask why he had made excuses to come to her room. He must be a candidate for Bedlam, he decided. He had convinced himself that he would be able to harness his passions. Ha! It just went to show that a body was capable of convincing itself of anything when the desire was strong enough. And his desire for this wild, impractical, unconventional and so very young female was in danger of running out of control. He hadn’t allowed himself to consider that she might well be in a state of undress when he accosted her, but of course he had known on a visceral level that she might well be. Or he would have, had he allowed his mind to dwell upon the possibility.
He was paying a heavy price for his lunacy, finding the temptation to be a living hell. Ezra had to be overly fond of punishing himself, he thought. It was the only explanation that made sense of the torture he’d sought out through choice. When she leaned forward and her robe had fallen open, his physical reaction had been difficult to conceal. How he had resisted taking matters further he still could not have said.
‘I admire your courage. You are your father’s daughter in that respect, no question,’ he told her, focusing his attention upon the picture on the wall facing him. There wasn’t much chance of a harmless landscape sending his mind on a sensual detour. ‘However, I must ask you to consider. If I am right then my father, and then his successor, my older brother, have both been ruthlessly murdered, and no one other than me suspects that there was anything suspicious about their deaths.’
Clio nodded. ‘But no one has any reason to murder me. If Captain Salford is involved, then the opposite applies. If he has been engaged to murder you, I very much doubt that he will be paid a tenth of the amount he hopes to steal from me through marriage. He has every reason in the world to keep me alive.’ She grinned up at him. ‘But not you. We already know that he bears you a grudge, and if he now thinks my disinterest is because you…’ She paused and her cheeks again flushed bright red. ‘Well, because you are paying me attention then he will have a double incentive to do away with you.’ She shook a finger at him. ‘You should not have waltzed with me. It sent entirely the wrong message to everyone who observed us.’
‘And yet I do not regret it.’
She shook her head. ‘Sometimes I think you want to die.’
‘Oh good heavens no!’ He sent her an intimate smile. ‘I now have a most compelling reason to stay alive. Anyway, we cannot be sure that Salford is involved. He might want you alive, but I am certain that Brennan would sweep you out of the way without a second thought if he even suspected that you were aware of his plans.’
Clio’s brow creased with concern. ‘You seem awfully sure that it’s him.’
‘He is in the area,’ Ezra replied. ‘My man followed my mother’s carriage to a rented house not five miles from here.’
‘Even so, perhaps his motive is nothing more sinister than opportunism. Your mother is careful to maintain appearances, and since you will not permit Brennan over your threshold she is obliged to be more inventive when it comes to arranging assignations with him.’
‘What do you know of those sorts of assignations?’ he asked, fixing her with a provocative smile.
‘You see! You are laughing and not taking the situation at all seriously.’
‘I can look after myself.’
‘I dare say your brother thought the same thing.’
‘And look what happened to him.’ He sighed as his fingers traced the curve of her face with a delicate touch. ‘He, a grown man twice your size could not defend himself, yet you seem to think that you can resolve an issue that has already cost two men their lives. What must I do to make you realise that you will never succeed?’
‘Don’t presume to know what I think, your grace,’ she replied indignantly, standing and placing fisted hands on slender hips.
Ezra was astonished by her aggressive response. Even so, he was obliged to suppress a smile. She was delightful when roused to a state of youthful outrage. She was a child-woman on the cusp of adulthood with a point to prove to the world, and more particularly to herself. That was how he must try to think of her, as an adolescent rather than a grown woman with set views and opinions of her own. One glance at the curves beneath her thin night attire, enhanced by the candlelight immediately behind her, and he accepted that such a ruse wouldn’t serve.
‘Indeed, my lady, I would not dare!’
‘Wretch!’ She laughed and shook her head, her anger abating as quickly as it had sprung up. She was probably unaware that the gesture loosened the ribbon holding her braid in place and that long strands of hair escaped to tumble down her back. Damn it all, she wasn’t making things easy for him! ‘I am sure that there is nothing you wouldn’t dare to do,’ she said, resuming her seat. ‘We could do worse than set a trap for Brennan,’ she added. ‘If indeed he is anything more sinister than a man pursuing his heart’s desire.’
‘He is by far the most likely candidate.’
‘You have forgotten about your cousin,’ she replied, clearly unimpressed by his tunnel vision.
‘Not for a moment.’ Ezra folded his hands together to prevent one of them from picking up a strand of her hair and running it through his fingers in a sensual gesture of familiarity. Ye gods, this was torture!
‘But you do not look upon him as a serious alternative to Brennan, which of course is precisely what he wants.’
‘He danced with you.’
‘Yes.’ She instinctively reached for the toes of her left foot and gave them a squeeze. ‘I shall have the bruises for days. I didn’t see him approach so I didn’t have time to think of an excuse not to stand up with him.’ She gave a wry smile. ‘My toes will forgive me eventually, I dare say.’
‘What did he have to say to you?’
‘He seemed interested in my connection to you. Not that there is one, of course, but one can understand why he might have been left harbouring that misconception. After all, you didn’t dance with anyone else, which was most unreasonable of you. I know why you manhandled me into that waltz…’
‘Manhandled?’ Ezra flexed a challenging brow, endlessly amused by her manner of expression. ‘Dukes do not manhandle young ladies.’
‘Manhandled,’ she repeated emphatically. ‘It wasn’t as though you requested the pleasure. As usual, you just assumed and gave me no choice.’
‘If you had not wanted to dance with me, little one, you would have made your feelings apparent to the entire room.’
Clio grinned. ‘Yes, I suppose I would have. It is most disconcerting that you understand my contrary nature so well when we are barely acquainted.’
‘I would argue that we are well acquainted,’ he countered, enjoying himself enormously. Enjoying himself far too much. ‘I am, after all, in your bedchamber and you haven
’t yet raised the alarm.’
‘I still very well might, but for the fact that I know you came with no ulterior motives in mind.’ Oh, Clio! ‘Besides, tongues are already wagging, one assumes.’
‘They must gossip about someone,’ Ezra replied, feigning boredom. ‘One grows accustomed to having one’s every word and gesture endlessly speculated about.’
‘You might.’
‘And I have made things difficult for you. I dare say you will be questioned and won’t know what to say to your inquisitors. I am sorry about that. Whatever you tell them, you can be sure that I shall not deny it. I am entirely to blame.’
‘No question.’ She smiled at him. ‘Anyway, as to your cousin, he has certainly got entirely the wrong impression and I think he is secretly worried. You fear for your life and I will not hamper that life by forcing you to make the ultimate sacrifice.’ She shook her head emphatically. ‘That would not be fair.’
‘Life is not fair, darling.’ Ezra took a deep breath and adjured himself to behave. ‘What made you suppose that Silas’s suspicions were aroused?’
‘Well,’ she replied with a mischievous twinkle, ‘if I had to endure the embarrassment of dancing with a man who doesn’t know his left foot from his right, I decided I might as well exploit the opportunity. In the spirit of helping our enquiry, naturally, I might inadvertently have suggested that his own comfortable existence would come to an end once you marry.’
Ezra shook his head, laughing in spite of himself. ‘If you seriously suspect him then goading him into taking action is not the best way to keep me alive.’
‘Nonsense! Are we going to sit about waiting for the killer to strike or should we lure him into indiscretion? Thus far, his actions appear to have been carefully orchestrated but if we can somehow tempt him away from his plans for you, he might well make a mistake.’