She knew nothing of the sort. She remained cautious of this man, duke though he may be. And she was afraid because even without any assault she could find herself as vulnerable as a woman can be.
As for the other fears . . . he was too curious. That was the problem with being a mystery. People wanted to solve it. She decided to be somewhat forthcoming so he would have a story that would make him less interested.
“There are expectations of me. Demands. They do not include parties and assignations with dukes or anyone else.”
“Your family’s expectations?”
“My parents abandoned me at a young age. My father left, then my mother put me in a school. I have found a place now. If it were discovered I was here, I would be turned out.”
He thought about that, while he drank yet more. “You are a dependent, then. I hope that in this place you have found you are not ill treated, even if your behavior is watched.”
“Not ill-treated as such, no.”
“And yet it is a lonely place, I expect.”
His words shot through her, naming as they did an essential part of her life that she tried to ignore. She pretended he had not met his mark so squarely. “Why would you expect that? It is not as if a duke would have any experience in such things.”
“There are all kinds of abandonment. Oh, I do not claim what I knew matched your tale. I lived in luxury and my parents were present. However, they were utterly indifferent. I was the heir. I filled a purpose and duty, little more.” He drank a good swallow of his champagne. “It was worse for my brother. I tried to help him with that. Tried to give him a brother at least.”
He was quite drunk. He had to be if he was telling her this.
“One day I returned unexpectedly from university,” he said. “I walked in on his lessons. His tutor—” His jaw hardened. “I am sure you know that there are people who will take advantage of any power if they can, even that over a child. Harry was eight, and this tutor was caning him. I don’t even remember why.”
“What did you do?”
“I thrashed the man, then told my father to get rid of him. I sat there when the new men were reviewed for the position, and helped choose the next one. Then I got that fellow alone and told him that if he ever touched my brother, if he ever ill treated him because he saw my parents never noticed, I would kill him.” He emptied the last of his wine. “He turned out to be a superior tutor.”
“You saved your brother from years of misery. Now you save him from women who pursue him at balls.”
He laughed at that, but it brought his attention on her again. “Did you never think to marry, to escape your current place?”
“Ah, yes, the solution for every woman, and a sure road to support. You describe indentured servitude, only there is no end to it.”
“I am the last person to disagree with a cynical view of marriage, so I will give you the point.”
“I was not speaking of all marriages, only the one you described for a woman in need.”
“Then you did consider it.”
How had this conversation arrived at that question?
He raised his eyebrows in curiosity.
She could tell him about this. She would never see him again, after all. “There was a man, soon after I left the school. I was young and trusting.” She took a sip of the champagne in order to obliterate the sudden bitter taste in her mouth. “It is an old story and a common one.”
“Another abandonment?”
There had been sympathy in his tone and she now saw it in his eyes. In their connected gaze passed a frank acknowledgment that he knew too well what had happened, and his judgment fell on the man, not her.
A bit more passed too. She knew he would have never lured her here if she had been innocent, and that he had determined in the garden she was not. He might condemn Steven for that seduction, but it left her vulnerable to other men, like this duke.
She could not deny his appeal. Talking like this near the low fire created the illusion of domesticity and friendship, no matter what else stirred the air. She had never thought he meant it when he claimed to want only conversation. He wanted much more, but he seemed to require the conversation first.
She wished little bonds did not form with each revelation. Tethers wove between them invisibly. She wanted him to remain a stranger. She needed him to fall asleep and forget about her once he woke.
He stifled a yawn. That gave her heart.
“So you are not a wife,” he said. “I had wondered, you see.”
