“Dinnae fash, lass,” he crooned, gathering her into his soothing embrace. “I will keep ye safe until we can get ye out of here. Rutledge will no’ lay a finger on ye. I swear it.”
The duke’s sudden appearance had triggered an earthquake inside of her, upsetting everything that wasn’t nailed down. Each mention of his name set off another aftershock, leaving her all the more shaken.
“I should have known he’d find me. He’s relentless,” she whispered. “He is an evil man. You’ve no idea what he’s capable of. He earned every bit of his reputation.”
“I think I’ve enough experience wi’ underhanded fighting tactics no’ to be taken unawares.”
Leaning back, she peered up at him. “Do not think I jest, Connor. He will make you think he sees things your way before he turns on you. Just as he did with me.”
His forehead furrowed, drawing his eyebrows downward. “What do ye mean? What did he do?”
Another tremor shook her, stirring a lump of bile in her throat. Turning out of his arms, she went to one of the chairs by the fireplace and sat, staring down at the dwindling flames behind the wrought iron screen. They’d once been lively, as had she, only to die a slow death.
“Lass?” Connor knelt at her feet and took her icy hands between his warm ones. “Mo chridhe?”
She didn’t know what the words meant, however he spoke them with a tenderness that brought a poignant ache to her heart. A tear slipped down her cheek, leaving a hot trail behind.
“When I refused to marry Dormer, I thought the duke took it well enough. He had said something about admiring my spirit and such.” The tear fell and splashed on his hands. Another followed in its path and she wiped it away. “At first, he tried to cajole me into changing my mind. Then intimidate me into surrendering. Mother did the same. She locked me in my room. To think about my choices, she said. I didn’t care. Servants would let me out. Mother would sack them and they came here.
“I was so full of myself. I refused to be afraid of him. I didn’t understand at the time that he saw my confidence as a challenge. One day, he tried a different tactic. He cornered me in the drawing room and tried to kiss me,” she went on. “I berated him, somehow…I don’t know how I managed it. I said something about how kissing his son’s wife would be incestuous. He laughed. I can still recall the foul sound of it.”
Piper stared into the flames, seeing nothing but the past. That day had replayed in her mind and nightmares a hundred times, each as vivid as the last.
“He told me, if it made any difference, he never intended to let his son bed me and spawn tainted blood,” she whispered, the words almost silent. “His mouth was right next to my ear, as if to make sure I heard what he said. I’ve never forgotten it. He told me it had always been his intention to plow me himself. Those words.Plow me.”
“The bastard.”
Connor’s curse barely registered. She was too lost to the memory, the revulsion she’d felt. The moment her courage began to wilt.
“He intended to impregnate me, then arrange a suitable accidental death for Dormer. The process would be tidier if he were to whelp another supposedly legitimate heir than to remarry himself, wait to conceive a child, then spend years in court to displace his imbecile son. He said, it would be far easier and far more pleasurable”—her voice cracked—“for us boththan killing Dormer straightaway. The way he trailed his finger down my neck and into my bodice… It gave me the willies, but I think the thought of committing murder aroused him.”
She blinked away the dismal fog and focused on him. “He said that way he could have all he desired with none of the scandal. He’d had enough of that already.”
Face taut and pale, lips flattened with disgust, Connor managed a nod. “Because of Dormer’s assault upon the Earl of Edgington’s daughter. Yer mother kent what the viscount had done? What Rutledge threatened?”
She lifted a shoulder. “How could she have not known about Dormer? Everyone knew. As for the duke, she didn’t believe me.”
“She should never have left ye alone wi’ him,” he grumbled. “Or even let him in the door.”
A dry laugh grated in her throat. “I told you, my Mother would do anything to gain herself a title. The duke assured me that she’d already proven the extent of her devotion, as it were.”
“So, ye ran from him.”
Piper shook her head, amusement fading. “No, not then.”
She should have run while she had the chance. At that point, she’d retained some confidence that her brother would arrive to save her.
“My continued refusals both intrigued and infuriated him. He decided to marry me himself. As if that would change my mind on the matter.” Her gaze slid to the side and she sucked her bottom lip between her teeth. “He never intended to follow through with his bargain and marry my mother. To lose his independence. But he thought bedding me would be worth the sacrifice. My inheritance and virginity payment enough.”
Dark ferocity suffused his expression. He was such a good man. Would that he’d come into her life earlier. A muscle jumped in his cheek and she reached up to soothe it away. “How protective you are.”
“If I’d been about, I would have killed him.”
“Mother was tempted to do the same. Not for my sake but her own. She was furious that he offered me the title that should have been hers,” she explained. “Of course, I said no. Deep down, I knew he wouldn’t hesitate to kill me, too, when I was no longer of use to him. Though that was hardly my sole reason. I stood firm in my refusal, knowing within a few days I was going to be eighteen. My guardian’s approval would no longer be needed. Only my own consent.”
He took her hand and nuzzled her palm. “I cannae imagine why yer brother dinnae come to yer aid. He is a good man.”
“Is he, though?” She didn’t know anymore. “I begged and prayed yet he never came for me. As I said, whatever reasons he had for not coming didn’t matter after…”
