The Dissolute Duke(22)

‘And you do that well, but I do not wish to live with you for ever. I need to find my own life, too.’

‘I will gift you Amberley Manor in Kent, then. That estate is more than ample for your needs. You can stay there with a stipend if you cannot stay here.’

‘But I will still be beholden to your generosity, don’t you see, and with no recourse to marriage again it will always be that way. For ever. Until I am old and childless and alone.’

‘So you would agree instead to give the benefit of doubt to a Duke who displays neither morality nor virtue? A man you hate?’

‘Eleanor seems to think he is more virtuous than any of us might realise, Asher.’ Emerald came around the table to stand by Lucinda, her turquoise eyes deep pools of worry. ‘She says that the servants at his London town house have a great deal of regard for him.’

‘You imagine that is enough?’

‘Cristo said Alderworth dealt with Halsey when he was spreading rumours of Lucinda’s … dalliance. He seems to believe Halsey waylaid him to pay him back. If that is the case, we ought to be thanking him, not maligning him.’ She stopped for a moment before carrying on. ‘It is also rumoured that Alderworth still supports the wife and children of his mining partner, killed in an accident in America. Only an honourable person would do that.’

Unexpectedly her brother began to laugh. ‘Lord, Emmie, if we want to find out about anyone it would be wise to ask you first.’

‘All I am saying is that he may be a good man whom you have not given a chance to.’

‘A good man who locked my sister in a room against her will and had her way with her. That sort of a good man?’

‘Well, if Lucy finds that she cannot bear him, then she can take you up on your offer of Amberley. It is not medieval England after all. Alderworth cannot keep her anywhere against her will.’

The thought that he might do just that showed on Asher’s face as a dark uncertainty, but the heart of his argument had been taken to pieces and Lucinda knew that Asher would allow her the freedom she asked for. However, when she exchanged a smile of gratitude with her sister-in-law, she saw in the turquoise eyes a quick burst of puzzlement and pity before she turned for the door.





Chapter Ten


As Lucinda brushed away a curl that had escaped her bonnet in the wind, a movement to one side of the park caught her eye.

Taylen Ellesmere watched her from a distance and she waited as he threaded his way towards her on a large dark stallion.

‘You ride well,’ he said as he reached her. Today his bruising looked less and he moved with more ease, though his right eye was still brutally red.

‘You have been watching me?’

‘I had heard you had a good seat.’ His left hand shifted on the reins and the rings on his fingers caught in the sun, underlining the differences between them. Such adornment seemed an over-embellishment and foreign, though she was pleased to see that the ring she had given him as a wedding vow still lay amongst the others. He hailed from a world that was so far removed from her own that Lucinda wondered if she might ever truly know him.

When he saw where she looked he stilled, the vigilance that seldom left his eyes easily seen.

‘I ride here most days when I am in town, your Grace. It is a freeing thing.’

‘I have also heard it said that you tool a barouche like a champion.’

She laughed. ‘Taris taught me.’

‘You are fortunate, then, in the care your family gives you.’

She wished her brothers had heard the compliment he gave them, for perhaps then they might not have been quite so averse to any communication. The breeze caught at a line of oaks to one side of the path, sending a scattering of green leaves into the air.

‘I think the early morning shows Hyde Park at its best,’ she chanced when he did not deign to speak.

‘Indeed. My grandfather loved it here, too. It was the closest he ever got to a peaceful and solitary life given my grandmother’s disposition, for he spent all of his hours wandering the parks and gardens when he was in town.’

‘He sounds kind.’

‘He was.’

‘How old were you when he died?’

‘Six and a half.’ So precisely known, Lucinda thought.

‘I met Lady Shields a few times. She seemed difficult.’

‘And now she lies beside my grandfather in consecrated ground for all of eternity.’

‘Matrimony being the most onerous of bonds to break away from?’ The sting in her voice did not become her, but his last words made her wonder if that was what he might think of their union  , too.

He was quiet for a moment. ‘There are things about marriage that one could find … addictive.’

She thought he meant sex and stiffened, but when he kept on talking she knew that that was not what he was alluding to at all.

‘A person to watch your back and be on your side no matter what happens is one of them. I do not think I thanked you enough for doing just that the other night at the Chesterfields’ Ball. No one ever has before.’

Again she saw behind the mask, a quick glimpse of a man she could love. A lot.

‘I was glad to help.’ So precise and stilted. She wished he would dismount and reach out to thank her with his body, but he did not, his attention caught by others riding behind them.

Shifting in his seat, his horse shied to one side and he gentled him. A few other souls had now ventured out on the same pathways, tipping their hats as they passed and looking back with more than interest on their faces. Tay knew the gossip mills had been grinding ever since his return to England and that the betting in the clubs were riding fifty to one he would have his estranged wife beneath him before the week’s end.

He might have enjoyed the irony of it all, but such a gamble cut too close to the quick and fifty to one still seemed like damn long odds. He hoped that the Wellingham brothers had no knowledge of the punters’ flutterings.

The stakes were rising and he could not get Lucinda to himself until at least after the promised two weeks.

Breathing deeply, he bid his horse on and was glad when his wife followed his lead, the path wider now and more conducive to a canter. There was nothing like a ride to free a soul of tension and the heavy muscles beneath him were soothing and easeful.

Lucinda rode like the youngest sister of three brothers who had all left the mark of their tutorship upon her, fluid and daring, and he allowed her by him so that he might watch. She did not flaunt her gift, but every movement and command had the sort of controlled gentleness that even great horsemen struggled to achieve as she galloped in front of him. Her laughter rang in the air as she pulled in her mount, waiting as he drew up beside her.

‘I don’t know of another female who can ride with the expertise of a jockey.’

‘You disapprove?’

‘Far from it, my lady wife. I hail it. At Alderworth you will find fine tracks to ride along, though the stables have been largely depleted.’

‘But you will replace them with new stock?’

He shook his head. ‘To get the production from the land up and running again is my first priority.’

‘You do not sound as dissolute as they say, then.’

‘It is my experience that no one is ever as good or as bad as society might paint them.’

A slight flush crawled into her cheeks. ‘Expectations are certainly bonds that tie you down. The Wellingham name held me captive for years in that I could never truly be myself.’

‘And now?’

‘When everybody disapproves so firmly of my actions, it gives a freedom to do just as I want.’

There it was again, that sadness. The accident, a hasty marriage and his three years away had all had their part in drawing a melancholy hue over her pale-blue eyes. Ever since they had met they had hurt each other, Tay thought, his demands for an heir adding to the burden. He was suddenly tired of it.

‘Lucinda. Luce.’ A sound from a distance had them both turning. A young woman hailed them from her mare, her groom left far behind.

‘My friend, Posy Tompkins. You will remember her from the wedding.’

‘She was the one who brought you to Alderworth in the first place?’

When she nodded Tay thought he had a lot to thank Miss Tompkins for. He watched as she came closer.

Lucinda wished that they had ridden further into the greenery where they might have been more alone to talk. Already she could see the intrigue on her friend’s face.

‘I have been following you,’ Posy said as she joined them, ‘and I still think you should not take such risks on a horse, Lucy. How many times have your brothers admonished you not to gallop so fast?’

‘Oh, I lost count months ago.’

‘The doctor told you another bump on the head could be dangerous …’

‘He did?’ Taylen Ellesmere sounded nothing like he had a few moments prior. Nay, now he sounded exactly the same as Cristo, Asher and Taris.

Posy nodded. ‘He said that she was to lead a careful and circumspect life and that he had seen many a patient becoming gravely ill if they did not heed his advice.’

The green in her husband’s eyes displayed no humour now whatsoever.

‘Something about blood vessels bursting, I think he said. The walls of the brain are thinner where they have been damaged. Because of that it is easier for them to erupt again.’ Listing the medical information using her fingers, she bent down each one after every fact stated.