Page 22 of The Haunted Duke

The innkeeper slid his gaze slowly down Evander’s dripping physique.

“You sure? Got a private fireplace up there. You could dry off. Even a big man such as yourself can still catch their death of cold in this sort of weather.”

The Duke’s eyes narrowed.

“I am not sure what would be worse,” he gritted out, holding out his hand. He deposited a small fortune onto the counter, then flexed his fingers. “Give me the key. I will escort the ladies to their rooms. I will wait down here until the storm passes.”

“Might be a while,” the innkeeper noted, but as the Duke glared at him, the man ducked his head in a quick bow and quickly handed over the key, mumbling that the suite was on the top floor, first door on the left.

Chapter 7

“Ido not like this, Aggie.”

Evander’s heart spasmed as he heard the worry in Helena’s voice. The four of them were standing outside the servants’ quarters door, which was situated in the basement of the inn.

“I will be fine, Miss,” Aggie assured her, giving her a kind smile. “Harley will look out for me in there, won’t you, Harley?”

She asked, looking toward the driver.

The older man with kind brown eyes smiled and nodded.

“Of course I will. Worry not, Miss Robinson. Aggie and I will be just fine.”

Even though they both tried to assure Helena that the arrangement was all right, Helena still looked worried for her maid. That was the type of woman Helena was. Kind, caring. Even to those of lower rank.

“You could take the room with Miss Robinson, Aggie,” Evander offered, nodding toward Helena. “And I could stay down here with Harley.”

Aggie and Harley both laughed at that, only serving to sour his mood. When Helena had fallen into his arms in the carriage, he had nearly gone mad. He had not been able to resist wrapping his arms around her, needing to feel what it was like to hold her, if only once. But just that little hint of physical touch had only served to worsen his torture, and now he was in more agony than he had been before.

“A duke in the servants’ quarters? The innkeeper would have an apoplexy!” Aggie laughed. “I shall be perfectly safe down here, I promise.”

Evander’s gaze shifted to Helena, and he immediately regretted it. Her worried expression only intensified the desire to wrap his arms around her and comfort her.

“She will be safe and sound,” Harley added. “Now, please, you two go upstairs and get warmed up. There is a chill in the air, and with all due respect, Your Grace, you need to get dried off right quick before you catch your death.”

With the flames of desire coursing through his veins, Evander severely doubted it. Even now, despite being drenched to the bone, he felt no chill in the air, even as Helena, Harley, and Aggie stood there shivering.

“Come along, Miss Robinson,” Evander gruffly ordered once Aggie and Harley disappeared into the full and bustling servants’ quarters. “You are trembling. Let us get you upstairs.”

“You were not serious about staying on the receiving floor, were you?” Helena asked him as they made their way up the stairs.

“Well, I do not jest much, but even I know that would not make for a laugh, given the circumstances,” Evander muttered, rubbing the metal key over and over in his hand; he was using it to ground himself, or at least try to.

“You should not do that,” Helena said as they climbed the stairs. “You are soaked to the bone! You need to disrobe and dry off at the very least!”

Evander let out a bark of a laugh as they finally reached the top floor.

“Yes, I am sure Jeremy would love to know that I shared a room with his betrothed and that I was undressed in front of her,” he retorted sarcastically. “The scandal would be of wild proportions.”

Helena tsked her tongue and scowled as he found the door he was looking for and opened it with the key. A blast of warm, dry air hit him solidly in his face, and despite his mind screaming at him to get away from Helena, he stood there relishing the feeling. Someone had already lit the fireplace and the oil lamps, giving the clean room a comforting glow. There was a large bed directly in front of them, but the room was big enough to hold a small dining table and a chaise lounge by the fireplace as well.

His gaze snagged on the flames, and for one awful second, he was not in the room at all. He was back in the dark, the smell of burning rope thick in his nose, his own screaming ringing in his ears. His jaw clenched hard enough to ache, and he forced his eyes elsewhere, forced air back into his lungs until the room settled around him once more.

“Look at that,” Helena said, moving past him and into the room, oblivious to what had just passed through him. “There is a folding changing wall. You can set it up between the chaise lounge and the bed. You could have your privacy while your clothes dry. This does not have to be as unseemly as you make it sound.”

“No,” Evander adamantly stated, stepping further into the room to put the key on the bedside table. “I told you, I will be fine downstairs. There is a fireplace down there as well.”

Evander barely heard her. He forced himself into the chair nearest the fire anyway, refusing to let it push him out of the room, and from there, he watched her argue while letting the rest of it wash over him. He told himself he would leave after she finished what she had to say, but all he could think about was crossing the room in three steps. He could take her face in his hands and finally find out what that mouth tasted like. She stood close enough that he could see the pulse beating in her neck, and he wanted her so badly that his hands shook as they rested on his knees.