My stomach crumbled, then folded. I gulped my last morsel of free single air.
Someone saw.
I’d ruined a lady.
The duke moved along his wall of books and stopped at a sideboard full of bottles. He mixed something from two or three vials, and then added a yellowish distilled liqueur.
Georgina bolted to him. “You’re in pain. Have you eaten anything?”
“I’m fine, my dear, but do stand away, lest your sister again accuse me of making you fall in love with me.”
What? Had there been a first time?
Who was this girl . . . the one I was to make Lady Sebastian?
I rubbed my temples. I was losing my mind, succumbing to the Russian-English madness. “End my . . . our misery, Torrance. Tell us what the butler said.”
The goddess frowned. It was too late to rephrase my complaint. . . our fate.
With his last steps, the duke looked more discomfited. Was it sickness or an injury he suffered?
Lady Hampton came near and he straightened. She poked him in his chest. “You caused this. You need to fix it.”
He grabbed her hand and kissed it, making a big sensual show, even sniffing her wrist.
Lady Hampton pulled away, wiping wet lip prints from her hand. “No more joking.”
“Then no poking.” Torrance sat on his desk, moved the marble chessboard and ivory carved soldiers out of his way, and turned toward her. “And how is this my fault?”
“Your house. Your friend.”
“But your sister and your antics that made her run and act tempestuously. It seems, even with the high walls of my maze, privacy was breached. Mr. Steele said a few intended to cut through the garden to get to the mews—reporters included. Chatter about the kiss stirred.”
Georgina stood up again. “I knew there was a way out somewhere in the garden. Where’s the mews? To the left of the maze? I still want to leave.”
“No, sister. No one can go until the duke fixes this. He’ll conjure something up from his dark heart. It will be a trick or joke or lousy wager, but it will work. Jahleel gets what he wants.”
She’d used his given name. And it sounded more than a casual reference. It was heated and torrid, sounding toxic like poison.
The way his thick brows fluttered as his gaze and half smile settled upon her seemed to indicate the duke caught the slight or endearment too.
Torrance drummed the smooth desk surface, causing a few of my papers to flutter. “Lady Hampton, you almost impress me. Surely, it was your idea for your sister to compromise the son of a marquess. Anything to gain a title. That’s so disappointing.”
“I did no such thing, Your Grace.”
He eased into the leather chair. “But,dorogaya, my lady, choosing an impoverished noble is very much your handiwork.”
Lady Hampton’s eyes softened at whatever the Russian word Torrance said, but the rest of the sentence about me being poor made her gasp. She rose and pointed her finger in his face. “Your year of redemption isn’t enough. Your entitled attitude—”
“Ah, pointing again,dorogaya.” This time he nipped her index finger with his teeth.
She drew away. Panting, looking wild-eyed and crazed. “Are you trying to compromise me too?”
“If you’re not going to play by the rules, I feel no need to have restraint.”
After taking several large breaths, I decided to try to say . . . something. “This arguing . . . solves nothing.”
Everyone looked at me as if these were the only words I’d ever spoken. My face heated, but I had to continue. “You’re not well, Torrance, and you’re not acting like yourself. You wouldn’t deliberately vex Lady Hampton when I am in the wrong. I am.”
