“You’re awfully quiet, Miss Gilit,” said Risciter. His voice was calm and composed, and it still had the silky lilt that Ariana used to find so irresistible. But after finding Risciter in the state she’d found him, she was horrified. He didn’t evoke the same kind of response in her anymore.
“Is there something I should say?”
“Perhaps you’re in shock,” said Risciter. “You’ve been through quite an ordeal with this hoodlum here, I warrant.” He gestured to the tied-up Keirth. “Would you like to tell me about it?”
“What I’d like,” said Ariana, “is for this nightmare to be over. I suppose you’ve contacted someone from the sector to arrest him? I suppose they can give me passage back home? Of course, our courtship is quite over. I can hardly bear the sight of you.” Maybe that was rude, but she was having a hard time being polite to Risciter. When she looked at him, she couldn’t help but think of him shirtless and brazen with his hussies.
Risciter stopped pacing and fixed her with his gaze. “You haven’t really thought this through, have you, Miss Gilit?”
“Thought what through?” What was he talking about?
“I haven’t contacted any authorities. I don’t suppose it would be very prudent to do so.”
Not contacted... But that made no sense at all. “What do you mean?”
Risciter began pacing again. “I can easily pay the local militia to dispose of him.” He waved a dismissive hand at Keirth. “And I think it would be best if we never mentioned him at all.”
“You’re going to have him killed?” Ariana wasn’t sure why, but she wasn’t keen on that idea. “He should be brought to trial. Punished by the state. It’s not your place to mete out his punishment.”
“That’s the last thing you should want,” said Risciter. “Think about it. Imagine what it will be like when you arrive back in the sector. You were kidnapped by a man, taken against your will. No doubt he sullied your honor. The two of you were alone on a ship for hours. He must have done dreadful things to you.”
Ariana drew herself up. “He most certainly did not.”
“It won’t matter, though, will it?” asked Risciter. “Once the nets get hold of the story, they’ll have it so that he raped you repeatedly, don’t you think?”
Ariana gulped. He might be right. This sort of scandal was bigger than anything she’d ever heard of. Why hadn’t she thought about this before? Well, she supposed she’d been focused on saving Risciter’s life. And she and Risciter were as good as engaged back then, though now she hated the sight of him, so she hadn’t worried about the repercussions. Risciter would be grateful for her actions, she’d thought.
“You’ll be tainted goods,” said Risciter, turning to face her. “It’s unfair, I know. It wasn’t your fault. But there’s not a man of the nobility who will want to marry a woman whose virginity has been called into question, even if it wasn’t her own fault.”
He was right. She was ruined.
“You say our courtship is over,” said Risciter, “and I’m sorry for it. I’ll also be sorry to see what your prospects are once the scandal from this incident dies down.”
Ariana bowed her head. She wouldn’t cry, not in front of a man who committed abominations with three whores at a time. He didn’t deserve to see her vulnerability. She wished now she’d never tried to save Risciter. If she’d hid in the docking bay, he’d be dead now—
Well. She didn’t really wish him dead. He wasn’t a good man, like she’d thought, but he wasn’t a bad man either. Not exactly.
“However,” said Risciter, “maybe you’d want to reconsider ending our relationship.”
She looked up at him.
“I hardly want you spreading a story all over the sector about my...” He took a deep breath. “Indiscretions. It wouldn’t go quite as badly for me as it did for you, but it would be damaging to my reputation. I think it would be better for both of us if we never mentioned a kidnapper. Instead, we’ve eloped.”
“Eloped?” She couldn’t keep the horror out of her voice.
Risciter rested an arm on the mantel of the fireplace. “Still scandalous, I know, but much less scandalous than your virginity lost and my tastes for multiple women. I’m a duke. You’re the daughter of a duke. We know your father wouldn’t object to our union . It would be the talk of the sector for a few months, certainly, but it would blow over, leaving us both in a better standing.”