Page 44 of Love, the Duke
“And what are you are seeking?” he asked her in return. “Revenge against me?” He softened his frown into a smile as he looked into her eyes and brushed the strand of hair that had been bothering her all afternoon behind her ear again. His fingertips trickled across her cheek as his gaze sailed down her face. “Because I am the beast you didn’t expect and not the angel of rescue you wanted.”
The tenderness in her eyes and expression let him know he was right, but it gave him no pleasure.
“Redemption and revenge are powerful motivators, and hard to settle in reality and in one’s mind.”
“Forget about both and say you will marry me, Ophelia. You will get the help you need to find the chalice and I’ll get an heir with your strong attributes.”
She clasped her hands together at her waistline and held them tightly together. A wrinkle appeared at the beautiful space between her eyes as she studied hard on what he said. “And will you allow me to continue in my pursuit my way?”
“Everything you are doing—except searching homes, of course.”
“But that is where the vessel is.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I feel it in here.” She placed her hand on her chest.
“All right. Once you are my wife, I will look at your list and ask the gentlemen written there if we could possibly come and look at their book room because you want to renovate mine. That way you won’t need to slip away and search on your own. You could help by asking the friends and the hosts of parties to give us tours of their homes or just the book rooms. But it will take time toget around to the peers you haven’t already cleared from your list. While we wait, you must give me your word you will stop doing it on your own. You will be a duchess, Ophelia. I can’t have you traipsing around other people’s homes unescorted on a wild goose chase.”
That stiffened her spine instantly and set her lips in a straight line. “Youcan’thave me? You are not my guardian. You are not responsible for me.”
“I will be after we marry,” he insisted ardently. “I may not have agreed to what your brother asked of me, but he chose me to ask for your hand, not someone else. Did you see where he had written letters to any other gentlemen asking if they would agree to marry you?”
“No. Only you,” she answered heatedly.
“Right,” he confirmed, feeling his temper rising at the frustration of not getting the simple yes he desired from her. “Because he wanted me to take care of you and take responsibility for you. He must have had some inkling you’d be doing something to get yourself in trouble. Now, say you’ll marry me.”
“If I marry you, I will be obligated to abide by my vows to obey your wishes, will I not?”
He shrugged as the cool breeze rustled the budding tree limbs overhead. “That is the way of it. All wedding vows are to be honored.”
“I’ve always believed that too. The wife listens to the husband, and he to her, but in the end, he is the one who has final decision over disagreements.”
His gaze focused fully on hers, and in a more relaxed tone, he said, “I agree with that.”
“And that’s why I can’t marry you.”
Hurst stared at her with growing irritation. What the devil was this all about? Was she just being stubborn? Hurst let his gaze slowly peruse her lovely face. Shewasn’t just making idle talk, she was serious, and that was concerning. “I’m not asking anything of you that is impossible for you to do.”
“As your wife, I would feel duty bound to honor my vows to you and follow your wishes and not deliberately disobey something you had forbidden me to do, so I will not make wedding vows I can’t say I intend to keep.”
“Of course you wouldn’t.” Frustration knotted in his stomach and the back of his neck. He shook his head again. “That’s what wives do. Why would you have a problem keeping your vows to me? I’m giving you what you’ve wanted, Ophelia. My help. I’ll hire a runner from Bow Street to start looking into the theft immediately. I’ll hire men to look through every shop in London and elsewhere if necessary to see if it’s been sold.”
Interest flared in her eyes. “Will you hire one to sneak into the houses in the middle of the night through a window? Is that how he would get inside to look in the book rooms?”
“Of course not.” He didn’t like that possibility any better than what Ophelia had been doing. And damnation, he didn’t like having to work so hard to get her to say yes. He was doing the best thing for her and for him. “I’ve told you it’s wrong to invade the privacy of another person’s home and start looking through their things and taking what you want.”
“Did that happen to you?”
“What?” Hurst relaxed his stiffened body. Once again, he’d said too much to her. He couldn’t let her drag him into a past he had no intention of talking about. “I don’t know what is to be done until I talk to a runner. I’m sure there are many things he would do, including going to Wickenhamden to question some of the—”
“Wickenhamden?” she interrupted quickly.
Hurst forced himself to talk normally, though it was hard when she sounded outraged, but he was outraged too. He’d always known she was unreasonable when it came to what she was trying to accomplish.
Exasperated, he offered, “The usual place to start an investigation is at the scene of the crime.”
“But he can’t do that. Maman and I have gone to great lengths to keep this matter quiet. If someone travels there to ask questions about the chalice, it will raise suspicions and the vicar or someone else might go looking for it. That is the last thing I’d want a runner to do. I’ve told you no one knows it’s missing, and we must keep it that way. Besides, I believe it’s here in London. This is where we need to be looking.”
