A Gentleman's Curse (Avenging Lords 4)

Silence fell as sharp and as swiftly as the guillotine.

Claudia swung around to find him lounging in the bathtub, knees bent and head back, staring at the ceiling. He looked lost, lonely, a boy in need of a loving smile and a tender embrace.

Against her better judgement, she padded over and knelt beside him. Her body ached to bring him the peace he desired. Her heart ached for the broken man who hid beneath an arrogant facade.

“You must tell me what you remember about that night.” She spoke in soothing tones hoping to draw him out of his melancholy. “Fate has brought us together. Perhaps I am here to play more than one role, Hudson. Let me be your friend, let me help you solve this problem so you might put the past

behind you.”

His body remained rigid but his gaze flicked in her direction. “Your words suggest that being my friend is all part of the act. How can a man trust someone paid to be his wife, paid to be his companion?”

Claudia could not argue with his assessment. Were it not for Emily and her agreement with Mr Thorncroft she would tell Hudson Lockhart she didn’t want his money. She would stay because she liked him, cared for him a little and wanted to help.

“You’re right. You have no reason to trust me. But if you examine your heart, you know I’ll not fail you. Let me be your friend. Heavens, I need a friend more than you do.”

His chestnut-brown eyes scanned her face for so long she thought he might never speak. “Destiny has bound us together for a time. We would be foolish not to embrace the opportunity to further our acquaintance.”

A faint chuckle escaped her. “Now you sound like Dariell.”

“I have spent five years with the fellow.” His weak smile faded.

“Then something lasting and worthwhile came from your banishment.”

“Yes, it did.” After a lengthy pause, he said, “Are you sure you want to hear the details of that night?”

Claudia nodded. “Without them, I cannot help you find the person responsible.”

“Then I shall try to keep it brief.” He pushed a wet hand through his hair and sighed. Thirty seconds passed before he spoke. “I always assumed I’d marry Selina. We began an affair, met a few times at a coaching inn on one of the quieter roads some seven miles south of town.”

“By affair you mean you had … physical relations.”

He responded with a curt nod. “Someone followed us there that night. Selina was adamant we’d been followed before, had grown fretful at the prospect of her father discovering our affair when there’d been no announcement of a formal engagement.”

“Did it not occur to you to propose before you began these illicit interludes?”

Lord, she sounded like a hypocrite. Here she was, an unmarried woman, in a bedchamber with a naked man in a bathtub.

“Selina can be persuasive.” He shrugged one shoulder. “I was a virile young man. It’s a pathetic excuse, but what can I say?”

Did Selina still love him? She had appeared distraught upon hearing of his marriage. What would she do now that Hudson Lockhart had returned? That thought led to other important questions.

“Then I shall ask you again. Did you love Selina? Do you still love her?” An unexpected stab to her heart forced her to catch her breath.

He hesitated. “Will you despise me if I say no? Will you think ill of me if I say that I liked her enough to marry her, but that love never played a part?”

“Liked her? You don’t believe that marriage exists for those in love to make a lifelong commitment?”

“Why would I when I was taught that marriage exists only to enhance one’s wealth and status?”

Mr Thorncroft was of a similar mind, too. In agreeing to his contract, Claudia had joined the ranks of the cold-hearted cynics.

“Selina’s father has wealth and connections,” he continued. “It was good enough for my parents and was doubtless good enough for my brother.”

“How sad.”

“How sad, indeed.”

They were straying from the point. This conversation was not about peeling back the layers of his character and hoping she wouldn’t cry.