“Of course.” She had nothing of real value. Her father had raided it before Fran could pack it up. Otherwise, she’d have told Pemberth to sell them in order to purchase the stocks he needed. “They’re all fakes.”
He opened the box and lifted a necklace and then a pendant. She found it oddly sweet that he thought her personal items interesting. Almost as though he might be coming to care—
“Lila? What is this?” She peered around him. He was holding the vial her mother had given her just before their wedding. So much had changed since then that she’d forgotten all about the strange gesture.
“A sleeping draught. My mother gave it to me.” Although they had grown closer over the past few weeks, she dared not reveal to him that the potion had been given with him in mind.
His gaze flickered to her bed. “Do you find yourself missing your sleep? Have I kept you awake too often?”
“No!” That was the last thing in the world that she wanted. “I mean, no, you have not kept me up too often. I like sleeping with you. That is, I am not missing my sleep.” By this time, she realized she must be blushing to the roots of her hair.
He turned to face her, feet shoulders’ distance apart. “Good.” Intensity flared from those silver-blue eyes of his. “We can use this bed, or we can use the one through the doorway. We will not require both.”
Lila felt a grin tugging at her lips. “On the same night,” she added.
“Just so we understand one another.” That intensity of his had turned to wicked intent.
“Only we haven’t time now, if we’re to arrive at the assembly in time. How long did you say it would take us to get to the village? I’m so excited! I told you when I last mingled with society of any sort, have I not?” And then she found herself babbling. She was nervous.
Pemberth tugged her up against him and bent so that his lips nearly touched hers. “Everyone is going to love you. Even if you weren’t so easy to love, they would have to.” And then his lips dropped the softest of kisses upon hers. “Remember, Lila. You are a duchess.”
She tilted her head back to gaze up at him. “And you are a duke.” And then, feeling warmth spread through her limbs, she added, “My duke.”
* * *
Vincent had not attendeda village assembly since before he’d reached his majority, and he’d been pleasantly surprised to discover that he’d enjoyed himself. Not because of the lukewarm watered-down lemonade, nor the rock-like biscuits, nor the slightly out of tune music.
But because of the woman on his arm.
She’d been a vision and he hadn’t been the only one to think thusly. Gentlemen and ladies alike, upon being presented to her, approached her warily—but only for an instant. She’d enquired sweetly about their families, their homes, and had them eating out of her hand in no time at all.
Much later that night, Lila burrowed deeper into his body as he cradled her from behind. They’d chosen to utilize his chamber, after all. But despite a rigorous bout of lovemaking, her muscles tensed beside him.
“You enjoyed yourself this evening?” he whispered in her ear.
She nodded. “I did, but I cannot help but feel guilty that I have spent a most delightful evening, making friends, enjoying new challenges, and my sister is yet trapped at my father’s home.”
She’d mentioned her concerns a few times before. “Surely, your father will find her a husband as well? And then she can be free of him?”
Instead of soothing her, his words did the opposite. She twisted around and he could see her frowning in the moonlight from the window. She was none too happy with his response.
“As he did for me? Did my father vet you at all? He’d have just as well that I marry your brother! He knew nothing of you, only that you were a duke and that marrying you would make his daughter into a duchess.”
“Are you not happy with the result?” Vincent didn’t like the sting he felt at her words.
“That has nothing to do with it! I got lucky! There is no guarantee my father won’t marry my sister off to some depraved lord, or worse!”
“What can be worse than a depraved lord?” He chuckled. She really was becoming overly dramatic about all of this.
Scowling even deeper now, she pushed herself to a sitting position. “You do not know my father as I do! You haven’t had to live with the rumors of what he’s done. He’s tried to kill people. I’m not certain he’s never succeeded.”
“Lila.” He pushed himself up on one elbow. This discussion was getting out of hand all too quickly. “Lie down. I doubt your father has killed anyone.”
She resisted him when he tried to drag her down beside him, instead drawing back even farther. “You met him. Tell me you are convinced he would not hurt my sister.”
Vincent rubbed his chin, remembering the way the man had torn the shawl from her shoulders and ruthlessly removed the pins from her hair. Vincent had been more concerned with his own problems at the time and only wanted to be on the road back home. But now that he remembered, the esteemed Earl of Quimbly had had something of a depraved look in his eyes.
“I will see what I can do.”
