Page 16 of Love, the Duke
Her gaze stayed intensely on his as a not-so-innocent and highly attractive blush spread across her petal-soft cheeks.
Was she too stubborn to admit the truth or was she trying to think of an answer he might accept? He didn’t like the idea of either one. “You are, aren’t you?”
“What?”
“Up to mischief,” he responded. “I distinctly told you not to carry out such a far-fetched plan as to search houses.”
“I am under no vows or orders to obey you.”
“Do you really think a member of the ton would be so brazen as to steal a religious artifact from a church?”
“I don’t know. You have no cause to question me about what I am doing in here. Since you are so full of queries and wanting answers, why don’t you tell me why you came to this room?” she managed to ask with a good bit of glowering confidence. “Perhaps I should think you are up to mischief.”
He squared his shoulders. “I was following you.”
“Me?” That seemed to take her aback for a moment or two. She raked a hand up her long white glove and innocently asked, “Why?”
“To see where you were going,” he admitted so casually she had to know he had no guilt for doing so.
“Do you often do such questionable things, sir? Follow ladies?”
She took a cautious step back. For show, he was sure.There was no fear of him in her expression. She was undoubtably clever and far too brave for her own good. Not to mention more incredibly daring than he’d previously thought her to be.
“No, Miss Stowe. I’m certain I never have until tonight, but I’m glad I did.”
“That makes it sound as if you are the one who is up to no good, Your Grace. Following a lady down a dark corridor and cornering her in a room is unseemly.”
He gave her a knowing smile, impressed she could hold her own so well under his questioning. In truth, he would have never expected it of a vicar’s daughter. They were supposed to be sweet, humble, and shy. And while her fortitude captivated him, it also irritated the devil out of him.
“I think prying in a private area of Wyatt’s house, and in a room where ladies seldom enter if not invited, wins the battle of who is the bad person here, Miss Stowe.”
“I beg your pardon, sir.” Her tone dripped with indignation. “I am not prying. I am merely looking around at all the lovely pieces he has on display—I assume for one’s enjoyment. That is not bad.”
“You had to be rifling through his things. You were holding one of his cups.” He regarded her with another intense gaze. Her gumption was boundless. He pointed to the table where she placed the silver piece she’d been holding.
“Rifling? Prying? What nerve you have. You are not choosing your words carefully, Your Grace. I am merely looking at this fine collection of porcelains, silver, and what looks to be marbles from the Parthenon. Perhaps the Duke of Wyatthaven went on an expedition to Greece with Lord Elgin and picked up a few of the ancient marbles for himself.” She nodded toward the area thatdisplayed the precious tablets and then glanced quickly around the shelves again.
“Say what you will about Lord Elgin, he probably deserves your ill thoughts, but watch what you say when you are talking about Wyatthaven.” Hurst had kept his voice low but quietly steamed inside at her nerve.
“I am only talking about what is easily exhibited to be seen. There are three fortunes in books in this room alone. Perhaps the Duke of Wyatthaven collects other things as well. Paintings or perhaps religious vessels.”
“You think Wyatt stole the chalice you are searching for?” Hurst was astonished that she would say such a thing out loud about a duke. And to another duke. She had gone too far.
“Obviously, I don’t know who stole it, so I have to consider everyone,” she responded in an annoyed tone.
“Well, I know who didn’t.” He fixed her with a cold stare as he walked closer to her but stopped a respectable distance away, still between her and the door. “Wyatt has been my good friend close to twenty years. He doesn’t have what you are looking for.”
“Not that I can see,” she admitted evenly. “Your book room wasn’t filled with priceless treasures such as these.”
“That’s because the previous Dukes of Hurstbourne never bought any.”
The more she said, the more heated he became. “You are a vicar’s daughter,” he reminded her. “I knew your father, brother, and mother. You must have been raised better than to plunder someone’s home for something that may or may not be lost. I can’t believe you would stoop to doing this.”
Obviously knowing what he was implying, her chin lifted, her body stiffened, and she glared at his implication. “I am also a vicar’s sister,” she answered just ascontrolled as he’d spoken. “Who, by the way, needs help because someone stole a precious item under his watch. I will find it and return it for him even if I must spend the rest of my life in prison after I do.”
“Chances are you’ll be there before you find it if you continue this madcap path you are on. They won’t take kindly to that, Miss Stowe, and neither do I. Furthermore, how will you help your brother from deep within a prison?”
“I don’t expect to go,” she answered as quickly as he’d spoken, looking anxious and adamant. “At least I am doing something, and right now it is the only thing I know to do in the short amount of time I have.”
