Her heart hammered as she heard him push the door toward the jamb, but he did not appear to be leaving through it.
“Oh, lass, if I were in bed with ye, ye’d definitely scream,” he said in a voice that made her stomach tighten, and her breath catch. “Me name, for one thing. Over and over… and over.”
She clutched the coverlets, the images already flooding her mind, summoned by his sly words, like a new spell cast over her.
“Don’t dream of me too much,” he taunted. “Or ye’ll wake up less rested than when ye went to sleep.”
As she sat up with a jolt, ready to bark out a protest or curse him for planting such ideas in her head, he swept out of the room and closed the door behind him. Leaving her alone in her chambers with thoughts of screaming his name and the memory of his lips so close to hers, burning a hole in her sanity.
CHAPTER 6
Ishouldn’t have teased her like that.
The thought circled in Jeremy’s groggy head like divine justice, forhewas the one who had barely slept the night before. He had not been as embarrassed as he perhaps should have been to find himself in the wrong room, the wrong bed, but hewasuneasy about his conduct afterward.
There was just something about the Duchess—about Anna, as he had learned her name to be—that was difficult to resist, especially when she was in a temper. It stirred his desire to tame her, while also unleashing some of the beast inside him.
Right now, he needed to clear his head of her, which was how he came to be riding his horse through the unfamiliar landscape of his new home. Pretty wildflower meadows were slowly budding into their imminent summer bloom, golden fields swayed in the late-spring breeze, and hills undulated toward a sunny horizon. Beautiful, no doubt—yet no comparison to the wild, rugged, dramatic beauty of the home he had lost.
“Ahoy there!”
Jeremy’s head snapped toward the sound, annoyed by the intrusion of it. Emerging from beneath the low-slung boughs of a row of oaks that bordered the nearest meadow was another man on horseback, a cheery smile upon his face.
“Good day to ye,” Jeremy replied, with as much cordiality as he could muster on such a morning.
The man rode up to him, drawing alongside on a fine chestnut gelding. “And to you.” He smiled that irritatingly bright smile. “You must be the new Duke of Stonebridge, if I am not mistaken?”
“Aye, that’d be me.”
The man stuck out his hand in greeting. “I thought as much. You are the talk of thetonalready. I am surprised you have not been called upon by half of the county yet. I, myself, thought I would take a morning ride to see if I could be of any assistance.”
“That’s not necessary.” Jeremy took the man’s hand and shook it. “Jeremy Bolt. Duke of Stonebridge.”
The man seemed delighted. “Colin Fitzgerald. Marquess of Belford.” He pointed toward a smudge, barely visible between two distant hills that reminded Jeremy rather abstractly of the shape of Anna’s breasts in that flimsy nightdress. “That is myresidence over there. Belford House. My door is always open, should you care to come by for tea or something stronger.”
“Splendid,” Jeremy mocked, in his best English accent.
But Colin was unfazed, exploding with rich laughter. “I suppose we Englishmen must seem rather strange to you, but I assure you, we are well-meaning.” He paused. “I heard you were a Scotsman, from somewhere near Aberdeen?”
“How did ye hear that?” Jeremy asked tightly, though he supposed he should have known that his presence in society would ignite curiosity.
“I cannot recall. Some gossip or other,” Colin replied. “A fine part of the world. I have enjoyed some excellent hunting up there. You simply cannot find stags of the same caliber in England.”
Despite himself, Jeremy softened a little. “I will not argue with ye there.”
He and Douglas had often spent hours, days even, stalking stags through the mountains and forests near McIver Castle. Even if they didn’t manage to bring any venison back, it never felt like time wasted; the brothers were never bored with each other, even after so many years of living together.
God, I miss him…
Douglas would have known how to deal with the duchess’s situation.Heshould have been the one gaining so much luck at once, instead of suffering such a tragic misfortune. And Jeremy couldn’t help but feel the cruel twist of that particular fate.
“If I may,” Colin began again, shifting in his saddle. “What will become of the dowager now? It is a large, fine house, that cannot be denied, but I imagine it might begin to feel rather crowded once you have a wife of your own. If you had been closer to the family, I expect it would be different, but you are more or less strangers.”
After last night, I’d say we’re a little more than that,Jeremy mused, though he held his tongue. He did not need Colin spreading gossip that, in turn, would blaze through thetonlike wildfire. It was bad enough that English society already seemed to know so much about him.
“We’re in the midst of finding a solution,” Jeremy said instead. “The townhouse in London might suit her better.”
He thought of what that maid had mentioned last night, about the other properties being in a state of disrepair. How long would it take to see at least one restored again? Would that be enough to satisfy her?
