“No. We will never do that. Your sister…” Her words fell away. “There is much turmoil in my life at the moment. This would only add to that.”
He’d felt her response, knew that she wanted him as he did her.
“What turmoil? What are you not telling me, Dimity?”
“My father passed away and I was thrown from my home; of course I’m in turmoil. I am also standing in a public setting, in your arms, soaking wet. Should the duchess see me, you will be responsible for the loss of yet another position I have just recently found.”
She pushed out of his arms and waded from the water. Gabe followed.
“Go away, my lord.”
He stomped his foot back into the boot he’d managed to pull off and then had to run to catch up with her. Gabe couldn’t remember ever running after a woman.
Taking off his jacket, he reached her and lowered it around her shoulders.
“Let me help you, Dimity. Let me take care of you.”
“I need no help.” Her words were solemn. “Thank you, Lord Raine, f-for everything, but I think it best I don’t see you anymore.”
“Dimity—”
She stopped, then looked at him.
“I know in what form your help would come, and the problem is, I want you too, so it would be easy to take what you offer, but I have my pride, Lord Raine. So it is best we don’t see each other again.”
Leaving him standing there reeling, she squelched away.
Chapter Seventeen
Five days later, Gabe had woken aroused and annoyed again. Dimity Brown was playing hell with his moods. The woman seemed to have planted herself firmly inside his head, and he couldn’t dislodge her.
I want you too.
She’d said those words to him, and in doing so had thrust herself deeper inside his head.Damn her.
He dreamed about her lovely legs wrapped round his waist while he drove into her. Was she happy with the duchess? She’d said she was, but had he believed her? Now, with distance, it seemed unlikely.
Looking out the carriage window, he wondered what she was doing, then cursed himself for that.
“So, what are we to say to this brother who threw his sister, our very own Miss Brown, out of the house?” Zach asked from the seat across from him.
“Nothing. Let me do the talking.”
Gabe had gone back to the house Dimity had shared with her father and brother and left his card with the boy he’d spoken to that first night. He’d asked him to send word if the brother returned. This morning, he’d received a note stating he had.
His brothers were with him. He didn’t need their support, Gabe could have handled this himself, but he also knew they would have followed had he denied them. The Deville brothers were worried, Gabe included. Ombrage was indeed a shadow, as no one seemed to have knowledge of his location or movements. They’d sent word they would pay for any information about him, but so far nothing had surfaced.
“And what will you say to him?” Zach asked.
“I will ask him to explain his behavior and see if we can find some answers to the questions I have.”
“What questions?”
“Something is off with her, and I think it’s about that note she found.”
“Why are you so interested in Dimity, Gabe?”
“I’ve told you that she has no one else to look out for her, Michael.”
