Page 4 of Misadventures with a Duke

“Oh, I have forgotten nothing.” He grunts before nodding at Louis’s decree. “Including the fact that you made the assertion before becoming a duke.”

“Which changes nothing.”

“Which changes everything.”

“Fuck you.” I turn and grab my breeches from the floor. “Louis needs a strong hand to guide those lands back to prosperity. I am a fair leader, who has proven—”

“Proven?” Marquette’s bitter bark is another harsh surprise. He bests it with an ugly chortle while watching me stab my legs into my pants. “Ahhh, Lonzo, you were also right about the connard being touched in the head by now. He truly thinks climbing to a dukedom on his friends’ blood-soaked backs is leadership.”

“Stop it!” Magique’s outburst comes from the center of the mattress, where she stands with another sheet wrapped around her like a statue from the Versailles gardens. “Yes, Marquette Percival Dabriel De Lys, I mean you,” she accuses. “How dare you, after everything Bastien has done for you? The favors he has extended for you. All the support he has lent, in word and in coin!”

“With plenty of return on his investment, I would say.”

Alonzo verbalizes what Marquette states with one sweep of his eyes, up and down his sister’s body with bald appraisal. I do not pause to consider which reaction enrages me more. I whirl to plow my shoulder into the chest of whoever has moved closest to me. Regrettably, it is Lonzo. He is taller and mightier than Marquette. The prick easily absorbs my impact before returning a brutal shove of his own.

Still, I grind my head into his collarbone with the intention of snapping it. The angle allows me to twist my face and fire a glare into Marquette De Lys.

“What the name of God has gotten into you? I am ready to make you my brother!”

The man huffs as if I have shit in his mouth instead. “Over my dead and rotted body.”

Is he truly wishing for that? I almost spew the question aloud. Marquette must know that even a newly ennobled duke is shielded by all the protections of his title and that if word gets out that he and Lonzo have attacked me like this…

Unless…

All the whispers are true.

All the fears and predictions are coming to pass.

Reform. Revolt. Retribution.

Revolution.

But even if that is the case…

“You do not mean that.” I give them a sign I can be trusted by displaying my own faith in them. Yet as soon as I slacken my hold on Lonzo, he flips the pressure and twists one of my elbows behind my back. “Damn it, Marq. Listen to your sister. Listen to your soul. You know that if I rise, you do as well. You know that I support strengthening the Third Estate. That I will be there when the Estates General is reconvened, to support—”

The two of them burst into laughs. My blood runs cold. Looking over to Magique is my strength but my curse. As always, her proud stance and lush face are what saves the center of my soul—until I take in the harsh quiver of her chin.

My lovely lily. Please do not cry. Your tears should be happy ones right now…

“Hmm. Perhaps you will be here indeed,” Marquette murmurs. “Just not in the way you anticipate, sir.”

My veins become sluices of ice. But that is not what I hate most about this moment. That comes when Magique jumps to the floor in front of her brother. Her eyes are vehement, her posture is shaking, and I already know what is about to happen next.

And dread it.

Smack.

Her palm connects with her brother’s cheek in a louder blow than my imagination has ever created.

“Branleur,” she spits. “You ungrateful idiot! Whatever they have fed your mind about this folly—”

“No.” Lonzo declares it with frightening zeal, intensified by the extra torque he delivers to my arm. “Not ‘folly’ any longer, my dear. We are a movement now. We have intent, we have motivation, and we have numbers.” A new twist from him, and I can no longer subdue a pained grunt. “And now, it seems we have an appropriate symbol.”

The color drains from Magique’s face. “Wh-What do you mean?”

“What do you think?” My captor leans around, using his free hand to squeeze my chin. “Everyone will enjoy watching this head take a roll in the street, oui?”