“You’re very rude, you know.”
“Don’t expect anything different.”
Amelia’s mouth dropped open. He wasn’t apologetic at all—the uncouth, beastly, unfairly handsome villain!
He chuckled at her lack of a retort, but when she ought to feel insulted, instead, the husky sound of his laugh struck her differently.
He wasn’t pretentious, that was for sure. And he might be unsophisticated… Could she use this to her advantage somehow?
But then he changed the subject.
“Your Season doesn’t kick off for nearly a month,” he mentioned casually.Too casually? He wasn’t a member of the aristocracy or even a gentleman. “Odd, isn’t it, that you’d travel to the city so early.”
She paused before answering.
She didn’t trust him, but maybe if she cooperated, he might tell her something, provide her with some explanation for why all this was happening.
Or even let her go!
“My father had urgent business,” she answered.
“With Crossings?”
Again, she paused, deciding how much she should say… “They have a partnership of sorts. Are you working for him?”
Rather than answer, he asked, “You know about their arrangement, then?”
Amelia rolled her lips together. “The duke has come to Cherrywood Park a few times.” She shrugged. “My father was right, then? You are working for him?”
“Possibly.”
“Did he hire you to stop us?”
His gaze homed in on her. “You ask too many questions.”
“Of course I do!” The backs of her eyes burned. She wanted to insult him somehow, but insults didn’t come naturally to her.Ladies don’t hurl insults.
Besides, what good would it do?
It might make you feel a little better, a little voice whispered from within. Of course, she ignored it.
Because she needed to keep her wits about her.
In the ensuing silence, Amelia thought back to the few times she’d met the Duke of Crossings. He’d seemed rigid and uncompromising, but he was the only duke she’d ever met. Weren’t they all that way?
She hadn’t thought much of it at the time.
But then Dashiell’s image jumped into her mind. Her father’s only son and heir, and Amelia’s brother, Viscount Warbane.
He’d been home that same week the duke had visited. When she’d asked Dash to tell her about his endeavors—about their father’s plantation—he’d brushed her off.
Following Dashiell’s and the duke’s departures, however, Amelia had overheard her mother complaining about some payments…
It was a puzzle, one for which she’d only been given a few of the pieces.
But she knew her father all too well and, unfortunately, when it came to his position in society, her father believed the ends justified the means.
Not that he wasn’t a decent man—or the best father he could be—but as she’d grown older, she’d come to see him for who hewas: a man who valued appearances almost more than life itself. And in order to keep up appearances, he needed deep coffers.
