Stubbornness settled over Aaron’s features in a mulish mask. The duke was far more difficult for Clio to read.
“Clio,” her brother said sternly. “This is not the time?—”
“This is not the time?” she echoed incredulously. “When would be the time, then? When you’ve dragged me down the aisle to a man who doesn’t want me? You’ve already dragged me back to England—wasn’t that enough? Must you force me into a situation that will trap me here forever?”
She could tell that she was going a bit far by the way that Aaron’s expression went suddenly stricken, but she couldn't seem to stop herself. The words, the frustration, had been bottled up for too long.
“And you,” she whirled on the duke. “Thank you ever so much for insulting me in no uncertain terms. You do realize that you could have said no without acting as though I was a millstone being lashed around your neck before being thrown into the sea? But then that would have denied you the chance to put the princess in her place, right?” She huffed a humorless laugh. “Well, fret not. I am leaving. I won’t annoy you with my pending ruin any longer. Enjoy hiding in the north.”
And with that—which felt like a rather good parting line, if she did say so herself—she turned on her heel and stalked from the room.
The worst part of it all was that she couldn’t actually leave the grounds. She had to wait, arms crossed and expression forbidding, in the carriage.
Stupid brothers. She would have abandoned him, but Aaron paid the carriage driver, and the man would probably balk at leaving his employer stranded.
Eventually, Aaron emerged, conflict brewing in his expression.
“Clio—”
“No,” she said flatly. If he wasn’t going to hear her, she wasn’t going to hear him.
“But—”
“No,” she said again. She turned her face out the window as the carriage began rumbling away from the street. She didn’t know what she was going to do next, didn’t know how she was supposed to weather the storm of the scandal that would no doubt arrive on her doorstep any moment.
But it seemed that she was going to have to figure it out herself. But that was better, surely. At least she would be in command of her destiny … even if that meant going it alone.
CHAPTER 7
Hector absolutelyhatedbloody London, but he supposed that this library was not too bad, all things considered.
Oh, it was completely ridiculous for one man to have so many books, especially when that man was Matthew, who did not seem precisely the literary type. Additionally, most of the books had the most dreadfully boring titles, likeAgricultural Advancements of the Ottoman EmpireandA Compendium of English Insects. Was a nice adventure novel too much to ask for?
But the chair in the library was comfortable, and there was enough room for Hector to extend his bad leg, which provided no small measure of relief. And it looked out a window, which gave him something to gaze upon while he mused over the problem of Lady Clio Warson.
This was, of course, stupid. Lady Clio might beaproblem–most clearly to her brother, who had seemed to be at his wits’ end,but likely also to London Society at large, not that it was any less than they deserved–but she was nothisproblem.
So why couldn't he stop thinking about her?
It wasn’t her irritated brother.
“Are you entirely lacking in honor?” Redcliff had demanded, with a kind of somber outrage that said hewasangry but also presented his anger in a very calculated way designed to get Hector to do what he wanted.
Sadly for Redcliff, at least, Hector was the kind of stubborn bastard who wanted to resist that manipulation just for the sake of resistance.
He’d crossed his arms and leaned casually against the doorjamb.
“Maybe I just have the kind of honor that says it is stupid to trap two people for the rest of their lives just because someone was cheap when it came to buying carriage wheels,” he ventured.
Redcliff had looked as though he was chewing on glass.
He had given a few further variations of the same argument, which Hector had rebuffed in kind. Redcliff had left unsatisfied.
And that should have been that. So why was Hector still thinking about it?
Unfortunately, he knew. It was Lady Clio.
But then that would have denied you the chance to put the princess in her place, right?
