Sins of a Duke(48)

“Why do you say that?” Sebastian all but snarled.

Anthony’s soft chuckle held no humor. “Connie would never have allowed Mondvale any liberties if she did not fancy herself in love with him, Sebastian. Did you see her face each time she spoke of him? She tried to appear indifferent, but she failed. He mattered enough for her to risk visiting his club to demand answers. That is revealing and very much like Connie. I do not think it wise to insist she marry Lord Litchfield.”

They went silent as if contemplating.

“It savages me to see her in pain,” Sebastian finally replied. “But she must marry.”

She thought she had been so successful in hiding her true feelings.

A sigh heaved from Anthony, and his shadow pushed off from the bookcase and went to sit on the far end of the sofa beside Sebastian, but much closer to her.

“Connie is not a reckless fool, Sebastian. For some reason, she decided she wanted the Duke of Mondvale. Not Litchfield who has offered for her three time now. Though we know the size of her inheritance has something to do with his persistence. Connie tends to know what she wants in life and pursues it single-mindedly. Do you remember when she was young how determined she had been for the old duke to love her? It had been a painful thing to watch but she had not given up in the face of his coldness. She pushed even when I faltered. She showed that same tenacity when she learned to ride, fence, play the violin, and speak languages. We should have expected it to be the same in the pursuit of her prince charming—as she called her future husband from the age of twelve.”

Tears slipped down Constance’s face as she listened to her brothers. It was even more imperative they know she was listening before they said something that had the power to shatter her. She never realized how much they saw into her, cared for her. She could hear the depth of love in Anthony’s voice as he spoke. Words begged to tumble from her lips, but she remained frozen.

“Do you really believe she is untouched?” Sebastian growled. “We know full well how passion can burn out of control. And it is damned difficult to think of Connie as a woman with desires.”

Embarrassment burned inside of her, and she waited for Anthony’s reply in an agony of humiliation.

“Any woman would know if she had made love, Sebastian, but from her mortification I can say he did more than chaste kissing.”

She could not make out Sebastian’s response but she certainly heard his soft snarl.

They were silent for the longest time, then Sebastian spoke. “Mondvale must believe I had something to do with Marissa’s death. I cannot bear the idea of seeing Connie’s pain, nor can I accept forcing her to wed where her heart does not lie. It will only hurt her further. But I cannot ignore her being in his club, without a doubt compromised, and not wed. I failed her. I should have traveled up with her from Sherring Cross. I knew she did not wish to return to town, and I allowed her to face society’s censure alone.”

It felt as if a fist closed over her heart at Sebastian’s assertion.

“Do not be foolish,” Anthony snapped. “No one expected you to leave Jocelyn when she was feeling so ill. I was the one who should have been here. But we had been suffocating her, and it was a hard thing to give her space. In fact, I prefer to lay the blame at the feet of the man who allowed her entrance into his club. If he cared anything for her, he would have made an offer the minute her presence in his club became known to society.”

And therein lies the heart of the problem, the torment that had made Constance so uneasy. Lucan cared not how damaged her reputation had truly gotten. Nothing would force him to wed the sister of his enemy.

Sebastian sighed. “I think that is because of Marissa. What did you learn from your investigation?”

Constance’s heart lurched. Sebastian had Anthony investigate Lucan? When? The scandal only broke two days ago. Her brothers must have been in motion the instant they received their mother’s letter saying she had been ruined by the Duke of Mondvale. She knew as the Duke of Calydon, Sebastian was powerful, and he had the resources to find out all he wanted on Lucan. Even things Lucan would want buried.

“He started in London’s underbelly and rose to be a shipping magnate in ten years. He also has significant investments in steamships and lands. He is wealthy and powerful, and that was before he inherited the dukedom,” Anthony said. “He inherited the title last year. Before then he spent most of his time in the Orient and the Americas. His mother, Lady Natalee, is the previous Duke of Mondvale’s daughter who had ran off with her tutor. She was disinherited. And the duke died without any more issues. It took the crown almost four years to find Mondvale.”