“Everyone calls me Lobo, sir, er, Captain . . . Baron, sir.”
Rafael merely shook his head, smiling that charming smile of his. He assisted Victoria from the carriage. She was a bit pale. “Don’t worry, it will be all right. You are a married woman now, not a helpless, unprotected girl. Will you trust me?”
She didn’t reply, and he felt a bit miffed at her. He heard Flash explaining to Lobo that he, Rafael, was not Baron Drago.
He repeated himself. “Victoria, you aren’t still afraid, are you?”
“Yes, a bit,” she admitted finally. He felt her slip her hand into his and it pleased him inordinately. He gave her his brilliant white smile and she returned it, albeit a bit hesitantly.
“Well, the prodigal, or should I say prodigals, have come home to roost.”
Victoria felt again the confusion and bewilderment upon seeing Damien and Rafael together. She looked from one to the other and back again. They were so remarkably alike that it was eerie, particularly now that Rafael’s tan had faded. From their inky black hair, worn a bit long, to their silver-gray eyes, to their high cheekbones and straight noses, to the strong chins. It was disconcerting, even a bit frightening that two people could so closely resemble each other. Why, she wondered blankly, did she feel such revulsion for Damien? And his brother, his identical twin, had but to smile down at her, lightly kiss her or caress her, and she was ready to take on Napoleon single-handed.
“Good day to you, twin,” Rafael said, still holding Victoria’s hand against his side. “The Hall still looks the same. Magnificent. You are a good manager. Oh, incidentally, this is my man, Flash. Flash, this is Baron Drago.”
Amazing, thought Flash. Scary it was. He nodded, saying not a word.
So, Victoria thought, amazed at the ways of gentlemen, her husband was simply going to ignore the fact that he’d seen his brother in London and, for that matter, wanted to skin him.
Damien inclined his head. “You said in your rather brief missive that you wished to stay here until you decided where to build or buy your own home. I suppose,” he continued, his voice pensive as his gaze traveled slowly over Victoria, “that Victoria is also enthralled about returning to Drago Hall?”
“Victoria—my wife—is of course delighted to accompany her husband anywhere. She naturally feels quite safe with me, as is proper.”
Two cocks facing off against each other in the hen yard, thought Victoria. She glanced over at Flash and saw that he was gazing from one to the other, a curious expression on his face. She liked him, she realized, probably had liked him from the moment Rafael had told her about him. He was thin, about her own age, with very intelligent brown eyes and curly brown hair. His smile was wicked and gave him an expression fit for a needy orphan.
“Of course Victoria is not the same girl she was when she so precipitately left such a short time ago, is she?”
“No,” Rafael said in a matter-of-fact voice, even though he wanted to slam his fist into his twin’s jaw for his sexual innuendo, “she is my wife.”
“Ah, my love,” Damien called to Elaine, “come meet my brother and his charming wife, who just happens to be your cousin whom you haven’t seen for many weeks now.”
Rafael studied Elaine Carstairs as she walked gracefully down the worn stone steps of Drago Hall toward them. She was tall, with dark hair—as dark as her husband’s—and really quite lovely. Her chin was a bit too pointed for Rafael’s taste, and as for her figure, it was impossible to tell, for she was well into her pregnancy. She seemed to be having a very difficult time smiling, he saw, feeling unholy amusement, particularly at Victoria.
And like Victoria, she stared openmouthed from him to his brother and back again. “It’s amazing,” she said at last. “Rafael, welcome back to Drago Hall.” She extended a very white hand to him and he dutifully kissed it.
“How is Damaris?” Victoria blurted out suddenly.
Elaine looked at her as if she’d just crawled out of the slimy swamp that was some two miles due east of Drago Hall—Penhale Swamp it was called. “Hello, Victoria. My husband tells me you have enjoyed yourself since leaving here.”
“I’m not certain if it was all enjoyment,” Rafael said, easing quickly into the breach. “I trust Victoria believes it was—at least since her marriage to me.”
“Oh, yes, certainly,” said Victoria. “Damaris, Elaine? She is all right?”
“I don’t know why you should care—you left her quickly enough, after all. But yes, the child is fine.”
“Shall we go into the Hall, Rafael, ladies?”
Rafael nodded. He turned to Flash. “See to the horses, then come to the Hall. The butler, Ligger, will tell you where my room is and where you’ll be housed.”
“Why did you run away, Victoria?”
Straight and to the point, Victoria thought, turning her head to look at her cousin. She waited until the two men had strolled all well ahead of them before answering. She had given this some thought, of course, and managed to say easily enough, “I discovered that I was an heiress, Elaine, something neither you nor Damien thought necessary to tell me. I was on my way to London to see the solicitor. That is all.”
“That’s what Damien said.”
She didn’t sound pleased with the duplication of reasons. Could Elaine know of her husband’s attempted rape?
“I don’t know why you simply didn’t ask Damien about it.”