Christian Seaton_ Duke of Danger(33)

‘The landlord here believes you to be my ward—’

‘—be assured, I do not intend— Why would you claim such a thing, now that we are back in England?’ Lisette frowned across at him.

Irritation creased Christian Seaton’s brow. ‘I felt compelled, as you did aboard the sloop,’ he added pointedly, ‘to give some explanation for our travelling together without benefit of a valet or maid.’ He grimaced. ‘I felt it best for all concerned, now that we have arrived in England, to continue with that pretence.’

‘I do not believe you felt anything or gave the matter a moment’s consideration, where I am concerned, Monsieur le Duc.’ Lisette glared her anger at him. ‘You had no thought other than your own need to avert a scandal.’ She turned on her heel and marched to the door of the bedchamber. ‘I only agreed to accompany you to England because of concern for your injury, but now that you are arrived safely I have no intention of remaining here with you a moment longer—’

‘I cannot allow you to leave, Lisette.’

‘You cannot allow?’ She spun back to face him, her cheeks warm with temper and the need to hold back the tears now stinging her eyes; she would not cry in front of this man.

Since the Duprées had died so suddenly, Lisette had been plunged into a life such as she had never imagined possible. That she now found herself in England, an outcast from her own people and country, and completely at the mercy of the false-faced Christian Seaton’s whims and fancies, was beyond enduring.

‘I shall go when and where I please, monsieur,’ she informed him stiffly. ‘And neither you nor anyone else shall stop me.’

‘You are a woman alone, without funds, and as such you are vulnerable—’

‘I am more aware of what that means than you are, I assure you,’ Lisette said scornfully. ‘But I would rather sell my soul to the devil than be beholden to you for a moment longer!’

A nerve pulsed beside Christian’s thinned lips, his jaw clenched as he attempted to maintain a hold on his own temper. ‘Believe me, alone in a foreign land and without money, it is not your soul you would have to sell in order to survive.’

Her face paled, even those pouting lips having become a pale rose colour, her eyes dark and haunted. ‘I despise you utterly.’

If she had said those words with venom, with any trace of emotion at all, Christian might have known what to say in return. As it was, he could only feel the cut of that emotionless statement from the top of his head to the toe of his boots.

‘I do not feel the same way about you, Lisette,’ he told her huskily. ‘Far from it, in fact,’ he added drily for the evidence she had seen just that morning regarding his body’s reaction to her.

She eyed him scathingly. ‘Then that is your misfortune, monsieur, because I most assuredly now despise you.’

Christian could see that emotion burning fiercely in her eyes. And she was only going to hate him more once she met Maystone and knew of Christian’s real motivation in bringing her to England with him. ‘But you will stay anyway.’ It was a statement, not a question.

Lisette drew in a ragged breath. ‘And what happens when your “ward” suddenly disappears? When I have returned to France? What lies will you tell about me then?’

The truth was Christian had no idea what the future held for Lisette.

He only knew his own need to protect her as much as he could. And publicly claiming her as his ward now he was back in England was the only way he knew to do that.

‘As you are now acknowledged as being my ward, I will be perfectly within my rights to hunt you down and bring you back if you should attempt to run away from me,’ he stated evenly.

‘You—’

‘Just as, as your guardian, I would also be perfectly within my rights to hunt down anyone who attempted to hurt you,’ he added softly, understanding now why his close friend Griffin Stone, the Duke of Rotherham, had once felt pressed to claim his now wife as his ward. As he had also discovered, for a single gentleman it was the only way in which to protect an unprotected female who had no one else to care what happened to her.

And Christian did care what happened to Lisette. Very much so.

‘—are an arrogant—’ Lisette stared at him suspiciously. ‘Why should anyone attempt to hurt me? I do not know anyone in England. Or they me.’ She looked puzzled.

The time for truth, Christian acknowledged with an inner wince. ‘Unfortunately, that is not true of your mother—’

‘Helene?’ Lisette looked even more mystified. ‘As far as I am aware, she does not know anyone here either—’ She broke off to look at him searchingly. ‘This has something to do with the fact that you were in Paris spying upon her, doesn’t it?’