Shit.
He was trapped.
Chapter Ten
Olivia cringed asher brother advanced on her.
“Montague, I—”
“Silence!” he roared. “Haven’t you done enough?”
“I’ve done nothing!”
Seemingly oblivious to the other man’s obviously superior strength, Montague again jabbed a finger at his chest. “You think you can debauch my sister? Is that what you both came out here for?”
The man tensed his shoulders but said nothing. Wasn’t he going to defend himself, even if he didn’t consider Olivia worth defending?
“Brother, we weren’t doing anything wrong.”
“You were out here a long time,” he replied. “For what purpose other than to offer yourself to—”
“I didn’toffer myself!” she cried. “We—we”—she glanced at the tall, silent figure about whom the air seemed to shimmer with menace—“were engaging in conversation, that’s all.”
“Oh,really? What, pray, were you discussing in your…conversation?”
Olivia glanced about the terrace. “W-we were discussing the plants.”
“I didn’t know you took such a keen interest in horticulture,” her brother said. “What were you discussing? Did he tell you the names of all the plants?”
Olivia glanced at the silent man, who continued to stare at her.
Help me, sir.
“Y-yes,” she whispered.
Her brother strode toward a plant set in a pot on a pedestal. “And what, pray, is this?”
She stared at the plant—its dark green leaves in the shape of sharp, pointed tongues, clustered thickly together.
“A fern.”
Montague let out a sharp sigh. “I think you’ll find it’s an aspidistra. How about this?” He gestured to another plant dotted with flowers.
“A rose. He told me so.” Olivia met the silent man’s gaze, begging with her eyes. But he remained impassive, a slight sneer on his lips.
“Then I take it you know the gentleman’s name, given that you’ve been deep in conversation.”
“Doyouknow it, brother?” she said.
“Of course. But I’m not the one under scrutiny.”
“What do you imagine I’ve been getting up to, brother,” Olivia cried, “when no man will have anything to do with me?”
“What is all this?”
Olivia’s heart almost cried out in shame as her sister-in-law stepped onto the terrace.
“Eleanor, this is none of your—”
