Page 11 of The Devil's Accidental Duchess
What if this was just a ruse, and the Duke was merely waiting until her father had backed off before picking up the pistol again? What if this was a soldierly tactic? What if he was mad—indeed, mad enough to actually shoot them where they stood?After all, he was clearly not quite sane, since he proposed to her, a stranger, on the spot.
Instead, Ashbrook smiled. A simple smile with the edge of a finely honed knife.
Her heart leapt in her chest. This was it. He was going to kill them all. She was sure of it.
“The late Duke was not a well-liked fellow, was he?” he remarked placidly, as if he were merely commenting on the weather and not his recently deceased father.
Her father snorted. “There are many of us who would exhume him just for the chance to kill him again.”
Ashbrook did not deign to reply to that. Instead, he gestured toward the door. “Perhaps we should take all this inside? I have been away from society for quite some time, but I do believe that etiquette dictates that marriage should be discussed indoors.”
In our case, marriage should not have been discussed. At all.
“No need,” her father said gruffly, looking as if he would rather chew broken glass than take one step inside. “I shall have the Duchess come later to bring my daughter’s clothes and whatnot.”
“My clothes and whatnot?” Selina echoed. She turned to her father in shock. “You are leaving me here?”
Perhapshewas the mad one.
“Staying with Ashbrook until the wedding is a good opportunity for you to get to know each other,” he replied.
“But—But you hate him!” she spluttered, finally able to saysomethingshe wanted to. “You would leave me with someone you hate? Someone whose family you have hated as long as I have been alive?”
Was shethe one going mad?
“You should have thought of that before you dallied with my enemy and forced my hand. Staying with him can be your punishment for causing all of this, for I can barely stand to look at you.” He waved her off. “Besides, it will provide a convenient enough explanation for the ton as to how your courtship started.”
Except there was no explanation in all the world that could so tidily rationalize a hastily arranged marriage, especially when the banns ofanothermarriage had been read once.
Speaking of her now-former betrothed…
“We will have to inform the Marquess of this, er, development,” her father added to Reuben with a pained look.
Her brother looked as though he would relish the task as much as having his leg sawn off. “He is not going to be pleased about this.”
Of course, the Marquess was not going to be pleased about this. Not unless he was as eager as Selina herself to call off the wedding, which was about as likely as a white crow.
And Ashbrook, curse his brilliant,perfectsmile, took that opportunity to move closer, gently take her hand in his and press a delicate kiss to the back of her fingers. Her unglovedfingers.
Right in front of her father and brother.
The man had not a shred of propriety in his entire massive frame. And she was doubly foolish for thrilling—thrilling—at the gesture.
Selina had never been thrilled before. Not by any gentleman she had met, or danced with, or evenflirtedwith. Only by the one before her.
Ashbrook must be the very devil himself. That would explain how her father could be so easily swayed as to give him her hand in marriage when he had all but waxed poetic just last week about how he had found her the perfect husband in the Marquess of Ramsbury. Not to mention giving up the feud with so little friction.
“Thus, a new friendship is born,” Ashbrook murmured, his warm breath tickling her skin.
Goodness, how I wish you had just shot me. It would have been far less painful than this.
He was every bit as wicked as Lizzy had complained he was. And now, he had found a new target for his wickedness.
Selina tried to wriggle her fingers out of his grasp, but he held on fast.
“Friends, Your Grace? It is surely too soon for that endearment. Indeed, I daresay it shall be quite some time—eternity, perhaps—until we make the transition from enemies to friends.” She wiggled her fingers a bit more and frowned. “If youdowish to be friendly, however, I am certain you will allow me the time to return home and pack my belongings by myself.”
She had never thought she would be desperate to return to the Mayfair townhouse before, but theseweredesperate times.
