Impatient with his driver’s lack of urgency, Argyll reached out fast.
“Never say it is my dear son and his happy bride rushing off so quick, before I have a chance to greet my darling daughter-in-law.”
A fit of curses flew through his head. “My darling stepson told me he would be settling upon a duchess.” The look and emphasis she placed made her meaning clear.
At his side, he felt Daria’s body draw tight. Reflexively, he took her gloved fingers in his own. He gave them a light squeeze.
She didn’t have a place in this darkness.But darkness surrounds every part of you and your life. It would always touch her.
The dowager duchess passed a look over their joined fingers. Her countenance grew pinched, highlighting early wrinkles along the sides of the not old woman’s mouth, bespeaking the misery and ugliness of her existence.
“We are done here,” he said, flatly. He wouldn’t play the game she’d come here to play.
What if you hadn’t been here?What if Daria had been all alone, and it hadn’t been Rothesby she’d been with, but rather this viper?
“The little girl needs protection. What an unlikely role for you, Argyll.”
She knew she had gotten a rise. Knowing there was but one way to burst her, he flashed a cool, hard smile.
“Indeed. Alas, my wife has reformed me.”
From the corner of his eye, he saw the steady way Daria took in his entire exchange with the dowager duchess. Her head moved slightly but distinctly.
“You? Reformed?” The duchess released one of her signature, practiced sultry laughs. “Not reformed enough to perform proper introductions.”
Seeing her window, his ruthless stepmother, a match for him, but in no way worthy of breathing the same air as Daria, swept over, with a hand outstretched. “My dear girl. I am—”
“Thedowagerduchess,” Daria murmured. “Yes. I’ve gathered.”
Both women curtsied.
Argyll made to end this show.
He kept a hand at his wife’s waist.
“You are not my dear Argyll’s type, my dear.” For her pleasant tones, the jaded, older duchess may as well have tendered a compliment.
His nerve endings popped.
“Nor do I take yours as a love match, given just before your rushed weddingceremony, he had me in his office pleasuring myself for his pleasure.” His gut roiled. “That day, my dear boy mentioned his plans to find a wife, he said nothing about havingfoundone.”
“That is enough, madam,” he seethed, trying to edge himself back between them so he had full and complete access to his wife.
The dowager duchess smirked. “We always have had a very special relationship, haven’t we, Argyll?”
She directed that hideous question at Daria? Rage tore through him. What had compelled him to carry on with her as he had?
“Relax, Argyll.” She lightly patted the lapel of his cloak. “I will leave you, the happily married couple, to yourselves now.” Her hand lingered there, and she glided her fingers suggestively.
He shoved them away.
The widow’s lips formed a pout. “Now do stop, Argyll. We are still family. And families do as families do with one another.” She paused. “They bring one another great pleasure.” She paused and looked meaningfully at Daria. “Especially when oneis trapped in an unhappy marriage.” She locked a telling gaze on Daria’s swollen eyes. “As I was in mine.”
“By God, woman shut your mouth!” he assailed.
Through it all, Daria remained remarkable in her poise, the queen she was.
The dowager duchess slid sultry eyes over Argyll. “My dear stepson was always so good as to look after me, and it seemed only right. I should return the favor as he did for stepmother.”
