Page 80 of The Duke
Markham had stood. There was a zealous light in her eye. “Aletter? I was astonished to come across the name Bastien du Ponte in Paris, in relation to yourself. He was a childhood friend of Kate Howard’s. She did it, didn’t she? She framed her aunt for treason, and this letter you found among du Ponte’s things proves it.”
Celine tried not to let Markham see how the accuracy of this guess startled her. It seemed Lord Wroth knew far more about the duke’s past than the duke realised. Enough to suspect the shape of events. And the moment Celine handed Markham the letter, Lord Wroth would know for sure.
This malice was what the duke had always feared from Celine—a fear that had given Celine everything she asked for.
Suddenly, though she knew better, she asked, “What if I refuse?”Idiot.There was no escape that way.
Without batting an eyelid, Markham said, “Lord Vespasian Wroth will take your friend from the library, straight to tea with the Prince of Wales.”
The casual admission that she had been watched and followed, that Markham knew where Louise was, made her blood run cold. It was a reminder that while she faced this crisis alone, Markham had all the power and resources of the Wroth family behind her.
Markham went on. “The Duke of Howard and Lord Seaton will both be socially ruined and shortly afterwards I will accuse you of spying, the duke of treason, and come Tuesday, my father’s bill will pass its second reading in the House of Lords. The result is the same.”
An awful silence descended. She could hear the blood beating in her ears. It was the plan they had thwarted when she won over Lord Seaton. With Louise as proof of Celine’s past, Lord Wroth now had the means to see it through.
Markham’s voice dropped to a growl. “There is no saving the duke from what is coming for her, Miss Genet. It is a reckoning that has been owed for a long time. The only person you can save is yourself.”
Celine didn’t need to be told that. She had spent a lifetime saving herself.
“I can’t give you the letter,” Celine said, “until I have what I want from the duke.”
The words tasted like ash in her mouth.
“Miss Genet, you are in no position to make demands!”
“I disagree. You have the very real power to expose and ruin me socially, but if I give you what you are asking for, you will use it to destroy the duke. In which case I am also left with nothing.” She said acerbically, “Perhaps I would rather annoy you, if I’m to be ruined either way.”
Markham sat back down and waved impatiently, her goal in sight. “You shall have the thirty thousand pounds I once promised you, you have my word.”
Celine scoffed. “It is marriage I want, not money. I thought you would have realised that by now.”
“Then I will—” Markham began, but Celine raised her hand.
She looked Markham up and down, then said with the merest hint of a sneer, “Marry a bastard? No, I don’t think so.”
A dark blush suffused those high cheeks, and Markham ground her jaw. Through her teeth she said, “That was not the offer I was going to make.”
“You’ve heard rumours of my forthcoming engagement,” Celine said, all at once dropping the petty game of baiting Markham. That was the impulse of a broken heart. “Let me have my debut. Let me have the Demi Lux. Lord Burnley is to offer for me at the ball, and once I am engaged to him, my future is assured. Then, whatever you do to the duke cannot touch me.”
Her mind was still furiously working, trying to find some other solution, some other way of getting them all out of the trap unharmed. But she had already thought through every possibility and understood, clear-eyed, that this was the only path forward for her if she didn’t want to lose everything. If she wanted to keep Louise. If she wanted a life that sustained her.
Markham had outplayed her, and there was no possible future without harm.
Markham sat back, studying her from that single hooded eye.It was a look Celine had received many times in her life: Markham had expected this to be easier.
“As I have said, my father’s bill is being read in Parliament on Tuesday, the morning after Lord Seaton’s ball,” Markham said. “I need the letter before the lords convene. It doesn’t leave much of a window.”
With the shocking revelation of the letter, Lord Wroth’s Inheritance Bill would pass its second reading, and quickly afterwards its third, becoming law. The duke would lose everything.
“Let’s be romantic about it,” Celine said, “and say I’ll bring it to you at first light.”
She could see Markham wanted to threaten her again, to force the issue. But she’d made herself clear: If her only choices were ruin, she would choose to keep the letter.
Markham’s powerful jaw worked. At last, she spoke. “Go to the Demi Lux,” she said, “and receive your proposal. Then bring me that goddamn letter.”
Part FourDIVISION
CHAPTER FORTY
