.
“I gather that you do not like the Duke of Avon,” Alex said as they spun around the room. She’d not messed up once in the first minute of the dance, and he’d been ready for her questions to follow quickly. It was why he’d chosen to dance. This way, they’d be uninterrupted for at least ten minutes.
“No one likes the Duke of Avon,” Justin said.
Alex wrinkled her nose. “Lord Crandrey seemed very familiar with him.”
“They went to school together, and though they knew one another as children, that does not make them friends.” He glanced around the room and looked for the name in question but couldn’t see him amongst the crowd. But then perhaps Avon wasn’t in the ballroom at all, for like Justin he, too, tended to keep to the shadows. However, while Justin simply liked to keep to himself, Avon was like a spider, pulling victims into his web of domination and sucking them dry of the very life that ran through their veins. Or perhaps what was even more accurate was to say that Avon was darkness and shadows itself.
“Why don’t you like him?” Alex asked.
“He’s evil,” Justin said plainly and simply. “Stay away from him.”
She stiffened under the hand he held on her back, but her feet kept moving. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t you tell him we were engaged? He’d bound to find out by the end of the night anyway.”
That was true, Justin realized. “I didn’t know he’d be here.” Justin caught Gerard standing by the buffet but could not gain his friend’s attention. He was currently entertaining at least a dozen ladies. Gerard, unlike many of the lords, was not afraid to flirt with women and charm their mothers. He enjoyed dancing and entertaining, all in the hopes of finding the right woman to wed.
And Gerard would not settle for anything short of love, even though it would be more advantageous for him to make a proper match above all else.
Justin had never held the same hopes as his friend. He’d been of the mind that he’d keep to his duties and do what he must if only for his father. It was only right, Justin thought, to bear the guilt of allowing his body anywhere near some innocent woman’s person to produce a child. He'd only prayed he’d have to commit the sin once.
But then Alex had changed everything. With her, he didn’t get the feeling he was committing a sin at all. Indeed, her purity held the power to ward off his darkness. Even after days of knowing one another, touching and kissing, she remained a gem of worth more than simple money could afford. She’d felt tenderness for Avon, and that, to Justin, said it all, for one only had to look at the duke to see that he rubbed shoulders with the devil.
“Why can’t he know about our engagement?” Alex asked.
Justin decided to tell her the truth. “Because he doesn’t wish us to marry. In fact, he advised I simply have my way with you and then pass you on to another lord.”
Alex’s steps faltered that time. Her cheeks turned an embarrassing red, which made Justin regret his words. “Did he truly mean it?” she asked.
Justin was more hesitant as he went on. “Every word. The man is not nice, Alex.”
“Justin, I don’t know if you realize this, but not many peers are nice,” she said mockingly, and he realized that she didn’t understand and perhaps thought he was overreacting.
But he was not.
The moment he caught her eyes again, he said, “When one catches Avon’s attention, the best course of action is to pray for God’s mercy upon their soul, because surely only God can save them. He is the child of fear and terror. He has ruined more than his fair share of men and women, and with his every dying breath he plots and plans for his next victims. He has no morals and lacks basic inclinations for either guilt or shame. Rich and poor have suffered under his tyranny. He’s created widows and orphanages through his violent acts that have driven husbands, mothers, and fathers into hiding, split apart families, and given new meaning to fear. He respects no one but himself and loves nothing more than to see hurt reflected in someone’s soul. If he approaches you, run as though the shadows of death are chasing you, for once you are caught, you may find yourself paying for the very death he promises. Stay. Away. From. Him.” He held her eyes so that she understood he was not simply making a suggestion. This was a command, and probably the only one he'd pray she listened to.
She was so pale he thought she might faint. Then she looked away. Her skin remained ashen for so long he thought he’d have to take her somewhere to lie down, but then her expression changed and her color gradually returned before she smiled. “Your sisters seem to be having fun with Reuben.”
Justin followed where her eyes had gone and saw the truth for himself. The man, like Gerard, was now surrounded by a group of ladies all his own, but unlike Gerard, Reuben wore not even a hint of a smile. Indeed, he was glaring. Lucy Ann seemed to be speaking, probably on his behalf, and Justin was sure that before the night was over, everyone would know that the king planned to letter patent, the way in which a normal man became a peer and how many a peer had been started from the beginning. This time, it would be raising a man from Best Homes to the ranks of the Beau Monde.
And to a viscount of all things, rising above every knight and baron in the room.
“What do you think he did to gain a title?” Alex asked.
Justin could only think of one thing. “The man must have saved the Realm. Did you see the way Lady Crandrey looked at him? Who knows what story her husband told her.”
“Why didn’t Reuben tell me the story?” Alex asked with narrowed eyes.
Justin looked over and saw that Reuben had caught her look, but it seemed he was far too drained to gesture anything in reply. His attention was then taken by Lucy Ann once more.
“Your brothers don’t seem like the sort to share,” Justin said and regretted the words the moment they left his lips.
Alex made a sound of disapproval. “It seems I’m surrounded by like-minded men.”
He found that she was no longer smiling.
Neither was he.
But instead of asking the question he knew was always at the front of her mind, she looked away, though not quite fast enough. He saw the pain that slashed across her face before she could form it into something more pleasant.
That pain shook him, and Justin discovered that he was doing exactly what he was trying not to do—disappoint her. He didn’t wish her to be upset, which was why he’d not shared his final piece of truth with her. Looking down at her now, though, he saw that keeping his secrets wasn’t helping at all.
“Will you stay away from Avon?” Justin pressed.
She nodded. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll not send him tea if I see that horrid series of coughs again.”
Justin shook his head and stared at her. She’d probably take care of Hades himself.
And that was when he knew he had to tell her the truth about his mother’s death and his own involvement.
Tonight. Before the engagement was announced.
When the song came to an end, Justin began to escort her toward the doors in search of a room where they could be alone.
“Where are we going?” Alex asked. “You’ve yet to introduce me to anyone.”
That would have to wait, because if she decided she could not abide the idea of being his wife, he would have to introduce her as his ward and nothing more.