Page 89 of The Devil's Accidental Duchess
CHAPTER 30
“Promise me you won’t do anything stupid,” Zachary called over the wind, his horse struggling to keep up with the pace of Philip’s stallion.
They had struck out from Ashbrook with something of an entourage. Philip had tried to insist on going alone, but Zachary had rejected the notion. Once he had, Reuben and John had decided to join the hunting party.
Fortunately, the latter two were far slower and had fallen behind some time ago. But Philip still would have preferred to shake Zachary so that there would be no one and nothing to stop him from exacting due and brutal punishment on Lord Ramsbury.
“He took her, Zachary,” Philip shot back. “I plan to do whatever is necessary.”
“What if he didn’t take her? What if she chose to go with him?” Zachary suggested.
Philip narrowed his eyes at the seemingly endless road ahead as hedgerows and trees flashed past in the lightening dark. It could not be much longer now.
Could that be true? Could I have hurt her so much that she would choose that feeble substitute?
He didn’t want to believe it, but there was a possibility of it being true. Mary had insisted that the Marquess had just wanted to speak to Selina alone. Might he have persuaded her that he was the better choice?
The Marquess certainly didn’t seem like the sort of gentleman who had much experience with women. Perhaps Selina had sensed that too, unaware that for Philip, there could never be any woman but her ever again.
He had indulged in the comforts of women because he was in pain, or he thought he might die tomorrow, or he needed distraction from the horrors of war and the hopelessness of it all. He had never felt anything for them, and they had not felt anything for him. It had been a mutual service.
That was not the case with Selina.
She was someone special, someone who had awakened feelings in him, someone he would never stray from, as loyal to her as he had once been to his battalion.
But you didn’t bloody well tell her that, did you?
He cursed under his breath as he rode on, praying that when he arrived at the Marquess’s residence, hewould be able to persuade her to come back.
To come home, where she belonged.
“Your father told me about the letter you received from the Duke,” Lord Ramsbury said as he sipped tea in the chair opposite. “If it is passion you want, my darling, I can give you that. I can write whatever you desire.”
Selina glared at him, her wrists and ankles sore from the chafing rope. “I doubt there is a passionate bone in your body.”
“You would be surprised.” He chuckled. “Listen, my dear, I don’t want us to begin our life together with such unpleasantness. I shall be a good husband to you, as long as you behave.”
“I refuse,” she retorted. “Indeed, I will try to run every chance I get.”
He shrugged. “You can go back to your family once we are wed, if that would make you happy, just as long as I receive your dowry.”
“Thatis why you are doing this? For money?” She stared at him in disgust.
He laughed coldly. “Well, it is not because of your exceptional beauty or your famous character. You are pretty enough, but you talk too much. It is very unattractive.” He smirked. “Of course, it is for money. Money that I was promised. Money that shall fix everything.”
“You are that desperate to be able to employ a few more servants?” She turned her nose up at him.
The servants that hedidhave were notably absent. She had to wonder how he had earned their devotion, for she could not think of many servants who would watch their master kidnap and tie up a woman without even the slightest protest.
“It is not about servants,” he snapped. “It is about legacy. It is about longevity. It is for the benefit of my poor mother.”
Selina frowned. “You think your mother would be proud of you for doing this?”
“I think she will be delighted when she returns from her visit to a friend in a week’s time and discovers that I am married and that this manor can be restored to its former glory,” he replied with a shrug. “That is worth everything.”
“It does not look so bad to me.” Selina glanced around the dining room.
Yes, there were a few damp patches on the ceiling, and the drapes were rather motheaten, the linens yellowed, one of the windows cracked, but it was not in the worst of conditions.
