Why had he bothered?
Haughty. Disagreeable. Good to know some things hadn’t changed in the two years he’d been gone. “I only want to make sure you aren’t seriously hurt.”
“As if you would care.” The color came back into her cheeks. “Even if I should be injured, what makes you assume I would request aid from a prancing dandy such as yourself?” A graceful wave of her hand gestured toward him.
“Harpy.” Ellis took a step back, fighting down the bolt of arousal triggered from the exchange of insults. The sensation was wholly unwelcome.
He’d hoped to never see her again. That this strange, unnatural longing for her would abate.
Instead, Ellis found himself imagining the duchess naked, on her hands and knees while he took her roughly from behind. Tearing and biting at the pristine, creamy skin of her shoulder while she screamed his name.
An animal. She made him want to be abloodyanimal.
The duchess walked over to her horse, oblivious of his lustful thoughts. Patting the animal’s nose gently, she murmured in a soft tone, “There now, Cicero. I forgive you for being startled by that flock of birds. It was very sudden, I admit. And frightening.”
Cicero?
Castlemare must have named the horse. He doubted the woman before him knew any Roman poet, let alone Cicero. If she read at all, it was probably limited to the gossip columns and fashion magazines.
“Shouldn’t you be on your way?” She didn’t look at Ellis. “Do carry on. Perhaps find some farmgirl to seduce. Or a dairymaid.” The duchess fussed with the plait of hair covering her right ear and most of her cheek.
If nothing else, the Duchess of Castlemare was incredibly predictable.
“Had I known it was you, Your Grace,” Ellis replied, “I would have kept riding.”
“And if I’d known my rescue was to be at your hands,” the duchess replied in a chilly tone, glaring at him from beneath the brim of her hat, “I would have jumped off my animal, willingly seeking a broken neck to avoid you.”
Ellis had to stifle the growl bubbling up his throat. His arousal had become that fierce. He’d forgotten the twin sensations of wanting to strangle and tup her at the same time.
The last time he’d seen Her Grace had been at a house party, one at which she had been expecting a proposal from the Duke of Granby but had not. Granby had tossed this jewel of thetonover for Andromeda Barrington. It was the only amusing thing that had happened at that bloody house party. Ellis had laughed when he’d heard. He’d seen her only twice after Granby’s but had kept his distance. She had wed Castlemare, and Ellis had left for the Continent.
“Why are you still here?” Her snide tone met his ears.
Why, indeed.
“Good day, Your Grace.” Ellis made a short, mocking bow, wondering briefly if Castlemare had an estate outside of Chiddon. It was the only explanation for the duchess’s appearance in this formerly lovely meadow. He was surprised the wildflowers weren’t curling up at her presence or the birds falling out of the sky.
I don’t bloody care.
The duchess took the reins of her horse, walking away without another word, her back as stiff as a pike. The woman’s bearing was as regal as any queen.
Ellis wondered how she’d get back on her horse without his help but found he didn’t bloody care about that either.
He watched as the morning mist swirled around the duchess, swallowing her before she disappeared into the thick line of trees.
“Beatrice Howard,” he said to Dante, “isstilla bitch.”
2
The Duchess of Castlemare, formerly Lady Beatrice Howard, led Cicero along the edge of the woods, the trembling of her fingers slowing the farther she got from the Earl of Blythe. Her thoughts and heart raced at the sudden, near violent collision of her past and present. Hands unsteady on the reins, she tugged Cicero between two ancient yew trees at the edge of the forest.
An unexpected meeting with anyone who had once known Lady Beatrice Howard would be distressing enough, but it was doubly so because it was Blythe.
He still found her wanting. Distasteful. That much was clear.
A bubble of bitter laughter clawed up her throat.
Well, you did set your sights on his best friend and then destroy a woman’s reputation when you felt slighted.
