“Wouldn’t you rather know what I’m going to ask first?” His eyebrows rose.
Shock made her eyes widen for a moment but then she recovered. “I know I don’t have anything to worry about from the likes of you.”
This woman needed to marry a man. Not him, of course. She had no sense whatsoever because if she had, she surely wouldn’t say such ridiculous things. She didn’t know him at all and there was no light of intelligence to suggest she had truly puzzled out the type of man he was. Tabbie would have eyed him with suspicion before she carefully questioned him to discover his true intentions.
He stood and whispered the plan, and her part, into her ear. To her credit, she looked rather skeptical till he mentioned the price. “I’ll pay you a hundred gold pieces for the trouble.”
Her eyes lit and her grin spread from ear to ear. “I’ll do it.” She nodded. “I can’t believe you’ll pay me that much and you don’t even really want to have me, just pretend.”
He kept the smile plastered on his face. He couldn’t believe he’d ever found women like this attractive.
Tabbie paced in the library, her slippers muffling the sound of her footsteps tapping back and forth. He was late. Again.
The ball was in full swing downstairs, a welcome to his family. Everyone would be speculating about a match between the two of them. It was best to have this entire business done quickly.
The knob rattled and she stopped her pacing and stared at the door, her hands clutched together.
The door swung open. Luke, larger than life, filled the entrance. Her breath caught in her throat and her heart beat wildly. She clutched her hands tighter to keep from crossing the room and throwing her arms about him. “You’re late.”
“My apologies, my lady. Getting our mark here in a carriage proved a lengthy journey.”
“Luke didn’t tell me it would be so far.” A woman’s voice huffed behind him.
Tabbie’s stomach dropped to her knees. The other woman had called him Luke. There was a piece of her that had wanted to believe that he had been a rake in the past but the present and future could be different. Now that she knew him, she could see a good man. A man that made her feel alive, attractive, and understood.
But his name on another woman’s lips shattered any hope she may have been harboring. It spoke of intimacy and a relationship. The present was not just about the two of them like she wanted to believe. Her time with him would always be shared with other women. How many times would his name be uttered by some other female’s lips? An emotion she barely recognized rose like bile, clogging her throat.
Her lips pressed together and she shoved a bundle of garments at him. “I’ll be back with my father in twenty minutes.” Then she made to walk out the door.
“How am I supposed to get Mary into these clothes?” he huffed, holding onto Tabbie’s arm to stop her from breezing past him.
“I am sure a man such as yourself can figure it out.” Her words held a resentment she barely recognized but she could see understanding dawning in his eyes.
“Tabbie.” His voice was soft and then he pulled her close, his lips pressing against her ear. “Don’t leave me alone with her. I’m begging you.”
The ache inside of her eased considerably and all at once; she recognized that she’d been jealous. It had never happened before. She’d never been jealous of her friends, never even experienced sibling rivalry. Not even with her little brother, Theodore, or Teddy, as the family called him. Heir to the dukedom, he had long been the favorite, but rather than be jealous, she doted on him as everyone else did.
“You’ve been alone with her. You’ll have to be alone with her in order to tu—”
“Don’t say it.” His jaw clenched.
Then he was pulling her over to the other side of the room, leaving Mary to stand in the doorway staring at them. He turned his back on Mary so that Tabbie was completely shielded from the other woman’s blatant stare. “Seven hours I spent in the carriage with her. In that time, she prattled endlessly and managed to say absolutely nothing.”
His face was scrunched as though he’d smelled something awful. But Tabbie closed her eyes. He was drawing her back in. Making her forget what she already knew about him. She needed to remind herself what type of man he really was. “Surely you could think of something else to do with her? You had seven hours and considering she climbed in a carriage with you, I am sure she is more than willing.”
He stilled, not even breathing. The only movement was the tightening of his hand around her upper arm. Finally he muttered, “Pardon?”
She didn’t open her eyes, couldn’t look at him. She would lose all resolve if she did. Instead, she barreled ahead. “You’re going to be intimate with her anyway. Why not?”
His body pressed against hers. “Spend five minutes with her and you will know why not. That woman doesn’t have a lick of sense or a grain of intelligence. Even I would not—”
“Wouldn’t you?” Jealousy was rising again. Her first meeting with Luke, at the Winthrop’s ball, he had looked right through her, focusing on Lady Ravenna instead. Coincidentally she was now Lady Winthrop but that marriage didn’t happen for a few years. That ball, the hussy had been entirely focused on the Earl of Sussex, Luke.
But the second introduction Tabbie had been given to Luke, only six months prior, he had been smitten with a truly lovely blonde who could barely keep a thought in her pretty head. “Lady Ashford does not strike me as a woman with either sense or intelligence.” Her breath hissed out.
“Open your eyes, Tabbie.” His voice commanded and once again she obeyed. His eyes were roving her face as though searching for answers. They finally locked on her and his gaze was appraising, searching, searing. “Why those two women? You brought up Ravenna last night and now Lady Ashford.” he finally asked.
“What does it matter?” She wrenched her arm from his grasp, breaking the gaze they had been locked in. She needed distance between them because her mind was too addled to think properly. Grasping her skirt, she swished away. “I will be back with my father in twenty minutes.”