Chapter Twenty-One
“THIS IS WHY YOU sent me off on that errand!” Gabriel accused when he returned to Dominic’s room and found him standing at one of the back windows. “So you could sneak out of your bed again?”
“I don’t sneak.” Dominic didn’t glance back, though he lifted the cane in his hand to show how he’d gotten to the window. “I hobbled with this.”
“Still—”
“There’s nothing wrong with the rest of me, Gabe. The fever broke a few days ago, and I’m damned if I can see any redness around the wound.”
“That’s good news.” Gabriel joined Dominic at the window. “I’ll let Miss Wichway know her—”
“No, you won’t.”
“But it will give me an excuse to seek her out.”
Dominic glanced to the side. “Why would you want . . . ?” He didn’t finish. Gabriel’s expression was quite explanatory. Dominic rolled his eyes. “You haven’t noticed she’s too old for you?”
“She’s nothing of the sort.”
Dominic snorted. Those two women were wrecking his household, charming his cook, charming his best friend. Even his reticent valet had smiled more in the last five days than Dominic had ever seen him smile before. And Wolf didn’t even bark at either of the women when he should have. The dog didn’t like strangers. If Dominic didn’t know better, he’d think both women were witches.
But the younger of the two sat on a bench beneath a white willow reading, shielded from the sun that flooded the park, her long black hair no longer tied back but flowing loosely around her narrow shoulders. Like a young girl, she didn’t appear to care about her appearance when she thought no one was around—or watching her.
Her lips were plump. He imagined she was biting the lower one as she read, as he’d seen her do three times since she’d arrived here, his eyes drawn to her mouth each time. Bloody hell, he was counting? Her eyes were fascinating, so pale a green, like dew-glistened grass. Lightly tanned skin, which indicated how much she enjoyed the outdoors. How unladylike was that?
She should be fashionably pale, but she wasn’t. Other ladies rode and walked outdoors, but only with hats, veils, or parasols to shield their delicate skin from the sun. She should be demure but was bold instead. She should have been mortified to enter his bedroom the day she’d arrived, but he hadn’t noticed pink cheeks. She had pretended to be cowed, but how quickly she’d dropped that pretense.
She was a wisp of a girl, only slightly taller than most, narrow of frame, and yet the plumpness of those breasts she’d flaunted at him in that yellow gown her first night here . . . Good God, how was he surviving this?
It had been a gut-wrenching blow that she looked as she did. Unexpected, unwanted. And why hadn’t she run crying from the room when he’d kissed her . . . ?
He wasn’t going to think about that backfiring failure again, but her reaction to it suggested she wasn’t a virgin. Was she as immoral as her brother?
She’d been hiding in her room the last few days, according to the staff. He thought her ears might be paining her, yet she’d showed no evidence of discomfort when she’d rushed in and out of his room to apply the salve with barely a word the last couple of days. She seemed more distracted than anything else. He’d had to repeat himself too many times, loudly, to want to continue baiting her. Yesterday they’d barely said two words to each other. He didn’t like the silence.
“Is she appealing to you yet?” Gabriel asked, following Dominic’s gaze if not his thoughts.
Dominic looked toward the pastures before he said, “Like fungus.”
Gabriel tsked but didn’t comment.
Good. Dominic did not need to hear her praises sung again. “My guess is George didn’t know what he was sending me or he would have added her to his own tally. Our prince has led a life of dissipation, wild extravagance, escapades, and has had too many mistresses to count, yet he can raise a brow over a few duels? Someone put this scheme in his ear. I would like to know who to thank for it.”
“You mean who you can challenge to a duel next?”
Dominic didn’t answer. He felt an urge to look down at the park again, so this time he focused his attention on the pasture. “Royal needs exercise.”
“Don’t look at me! You know my uncle is afraid of him, too.”
“Do I need to hire a rider? Find someone willing.”
“He gets exercise. Anytime anyone enters that pasture, he gallops around in a threatening manner.”
Dominic chuckled. “Does he?”
“And he’s been prancing a lot, showing off for the new mare.”
“What new mare?”
“Lady Whitworth’s.”
She actually brought a horse with her? She did plan to stay. She’d come here with no idea what she would find, yet she came prepared to stay and marry no matter what—or long enough to kill him.
He’d thought that, at least the first day when she’d offered to help him. It was illogical for her to do that when he’d tried to kill her brother. Illogical for her to accept marriage graciously to her brother’s mortal enemy no matter that they had no choice. She should be as furious as he was at the Regent’s interference, not offering smiles and ridiculous truces. Yet she’d been playing the angel of mercy when she didn’t have to. For some other reason?
On the surface she didn’t appear to be as vicious as her brother, but Dominic wouldn’t put it past Robert to force his sister to play a more subtle game. The Whitworths’ guilt would be too obvious if she killed him right away. Perhaps Robert had counseled his sister to cultivate the appearance of a caring fiancée so that no one would suspect her of poisoning him once they were married.
He didn’t doubt that the only honest thing she’d told him so far was that she was more accustomed to hiding her feelings than revealing them. So she might well be a liar, too. In either case, he’d be a fool to trust a single thing she said or did until he could figure out what she was really up to on her brother’s behalf.
Robert Whitworth was a decadent scoundrel without conscience or morals, and his sister had been raised with him. That ridiculous tale she’d spun about why she didn’t like her own brother, they’d probably concocted it together and devised a lethal plan to get her out of this forced marriage and back to their plans for her. And those plans would have aspired high. She would have been introduced to society this year. Her family would have had much higher expectations for her than a viscount from Yorkshire.
His eyes drifted back to her in time to see her put the book down and enter the maze not far from the willow tree. He glanced back at the pendulum clock on the wall of his sitting room to time how long it would take her to give up going too far in, or to get hopelessly stuck as had happened to Ella the first time she tried to find her way through the maze. A wooden bench was at the center. Ella had later carved I win! on the seat and challenged him to a race to the center of the maze so she could show him.
He and his sister had spent a pleasant hour just talking that day and sharing a few secrets. He’d told her he was worried about his friend Benton, who had gotten too fond of gambling after they left school the year before. She’d confessed she’d decided several years prior that she would marry Benton one day, but now she wouldn’t! They’d laughed.
He was surprised he could remember that without getting furious. Had enough time passed for fond memories of Ella not to end with thoughts of the man who’d ruined her life? Thoughts of the man’s sister came instead this time, and he glanced back at the clock again. Fifteen minutes had passed. He was about to tell Gabe to go rescue the Whitworth chit when she walked out of the maze, returned to the bench, and began reading again.
He was annoyed and realized it was because she’d gotten in and out of the maze much faster than he had his first time in. He snorted at himself. As he gazed down at her, he doubted she was even reading, was more likely plotting. He couldn’t deny he’d thought that potion she’d offered him her first night here had been poison.
Poison was a woman’s weapon and so hard to detect if administered correctly, but he had to concede now that his suspicion had been wrong. Nonetheless, as he looked out on her reading in the park, appearing so beautiful and innocent, he would have to remind himself frequently that appearances could be deceiving. And he should have made her drink that potion just to see if she would.
Disgruntled by hindsight, Dominic forgot to favor his wound when he walked back toward his bed. When he realized it barely hurt, even that annoyed him, because she’d obviously succeeded in hurrying the healing along, and he’d be damned if he would thank her for it.
He yelled in the direction of the dressing room, “Are you not done yet, Andrew!”
The valet quickly appeared around the corner of the room with a shirt, a cravat, and stockings draped over his arm as he held up a pair of Dominic’s butchered trousers for his inspection. “The hem still needs hemming, sir.” Indeed, one leg of the trousers had been cut off.
“Never mind the hem. I’m not going to town in them, just get me dressed.”
Gabriel raised a brow. “And why are you suddenly making yourself presentable . . . well, partially presentable? You aren’t thinking of hobbling downstairs, are you? Opening your stitches again will only delay—”
“You’re going to make a good mother one day, Gabe, but do stop practicing on me. I am expecting a visit from Priscilla Highley today. Show her to me when she gets here.”
“What the deuce is she coming here for? And how do you know she’s coming? I brought no missives up from—”
“I had Carl send for her.”
“Why?!”
Dominic waved Andrew away with the rest of the clothes; a shirt and pants were enough. He got back in bed and only draped the sheet over his bandaged leg this time. Presentable and covered enough for Priscilla. He didn’t want her thinking she’d been invited for prurient reasons.
But Gabriel was still waiting for an answer, so Dominic said, “Why not? Lady Whitworth needs to know what she can expect from a marriage to me.”
“That you won’t be faithful? Or that you’ll flaunt your mistresses in front of her?”
“Ex-mistress, though Lady Whitworth doesn’t need to know that.”
Dominic and the widow Highley had ended their affair last year when she’d made it clear she wanted to marry again. He didn’t, at least not to her. She’d merely been convenient, living in York, not so far away. However, she’d been unfaithful to him twice during their brief dalliance, not that he’d demanded faithfulness from her when she cost him nothing, being independently wealthy herself, but marriage wouldn’t change her roving eye.
“You’ll just be spiting yourself if you open this can of worms,” Gabriel warned. “Jealous women are not pleasant to be around.”
“A jealous woman might walk away from a marriage, too—before it happens.”
Gabriel sighed. “Why don’t you just admit it’s not going to be all that onerous having this lady as your wife?”
“Because I will never be able to trust her,” Dominic said simply.
“Because of her brother?”
“Exactly because of him.”
The widow had arrived after all and didn’t bother to knock as she was quite familiar with Dominic’s room. “What am I doing here, Dominic? You and I parted amicably, but you were clear you were done with me.”
He ignored the pouting tone. Lady Priscilla looked exceptionally pretty today in a dark violet pelisse and gown, amethysts glittering at her neck and ears. The colors went so well with her blond hair and violet eyes, but then she knew that. Her beauty had never been in question, and she’d been widowed young. She was a few years younger than he was. And rich. It’s too bad he’d only been attracted and not quite smitten by her.
He offered Priscilla a smile and patted the side of his bed to beckon her forward. “You’re looking splendid as usual, Cilla.”
She grinned slightly. “Yes, and just for you, though I don’t know why I would bother.”
“I could use your company for a week or two, if you have no pressing plans.”
“Well, that’s a shame. I do have plans, the first grand ball of the Season, which is next week, and I’m not about to miss it. I intended to leave for London tomorrow. But I suppose I could stay one night if you’ve missed me. And you’re already in bed.” She grinned. “I can take a hint.”
She came over to the bed, sat on the edge of it, and leaned forward to kiss him. He put an arm around her waist to keep her there, but ended the kiss before it encouraged her even more.
“You didn’t hear of my last duel with Robert Whitworth?”
“London gossip takes a while to reach York.” Priscilla leaned back. “You refer to the second duel?”
“There was a third.”
“Goodness, what did he do to warrant so many? He thinks you’re unhinged, you know, at least that’s what he’s telling anyone who asks. He says that you imagine he committed some slight. No one really believes that.”
“What do they believe?”
“That it’s some woman, of course, that you two are fighting over. Who is she?”
“Let’s not discuss that, but rather the results of the duel.”
“Fine,” she pouted. “That’s such a bad habit you have of never giving me anything juicy to pass along. What results?”
“I was wounded. It was serious, but I am already on the mend. However, because of it I’ve been ordered to marry into that despicable family by the Crown Prince, to end the animosity, as it were. And the only way to make it not happen is if Whitworth’s sister refuses me and leaves.”
“Leaves? She’s here?”
“Right here,” Brooke said from the open doorway.