To Tame a Dangerous Lord (Courtship Wars)

Actually, she was interested to know how difficult it would have been for Gerard to have stolen Baron Ackerby’s heirloom necklace from his safe, yet she couldn’t tell Rayne that.

“I was merely curious. You must have a place to keep your important documents.”

“Yes, I have a safe here.”

“How does it work? With a built-in lock? Or a padlock?”

He was regarding her again with his unsettlingly candid gaze. “The lock is an integral part of the safe. I keep the key in a secure location. Why all the interest, love? Do you have something you want to protect?”

“No, I just wondered.” Madeline decided she would be wise to change the subject. “Well, I will leave you to your business. Before I go, however … I thought we might dine together tonight.”

“I intended to dine with you,” Rayne replied in a rather cool tone.

“No, I mean … in my rooms.”

He leveled another piercing look at her. “What did you have in mind?”

Madeline felt her cheeks warming. It was uncomfortable to boldly proposition Rayne, especially since he wasn’t giving her any encouragement. Yet if he was set on ignoring her, she would have to persuade him differently somehow. “I would like to dine with you in my sitting room tonight. Will you please indulge me?”

His gaze dropped to her breasts for an instant, then returned to her face. “Very well,” he replied with no inflection in his voice at all.

His lack of enthusiasm did not bode well for her scheme, Madeline realized. She would just have to hope that what she had planned for this evening would please him.

By the time Madeline left his study, Rayne’s unease about his new wife had grown fivefold. Her concern over his grandmother’s fortune and the Haviland jewels had triggered a churning sensation deep in his gut. And her pointed interest in his safe had only compounded his disquiet.

His mind filling with chaotic, half-formed thoughts, Rayne strode over to his study window and stared broodingly out at the estate grounds. Perhaps he wasn’t overreacting after all by harboring suspicions about Madeline. He’d trusted her because of his close friendship with her late father, but he didn’t really know her. Unequivocally, his doubts about her were rising daily.

Mentally, Rayne went down the list of her suspect actions. The first strike against Madeline was the most damning: She seemed to be trying to seduce him in much the same way his former love had. Yet her motives eluded him.

Was financial trouble driving Madeline? Rayne wondered. She claimed that she didn’t covet the Haviland jewels for herself, but could he believe her? She certainly hadn’t objected to spending enormous sums on her new wardrobe—even if her purchases had been made at his own urging.

And then there was her guilty expression when he’d caught her out the other day. When he’d forced her to admit that she’d sneaked into his desk, she claimed to be searching for writing paper. But what had she really been looking for? The key to his safe? Why? Because she believed he kept valuables there?

Rayne locked his jaw, unable to quell the alarms that were sounding loudly in his head, and more painfully, in his chest. And as he stewed over the answer, a supposition struck him that felt right: Madeline’s brother Gerard could be the reason for her machinations.

By her own admission, she had sent the monetary reward for retrieving Freddie’s love letters to her brother, so Gerard evidently still needed funds.

Indeed, if Madeline wanted to save her brother from financial catastrophe, Rayne realized, her sudden acceptance of his marriage proposal made eminent sense.

Had she wed him solely for his wealth? If so, it was his own bloody fault. He had rushed her into marriage, not relenting until he had his way.

Rayne ran a hand raggedly through his hair. Perhaps Madeline had even played h

im for a fool from the beginning. She’d claimed to have no interest in his fortune, yet in reality she could be as grasping as Camille had ever been.

At the oppressive thought, Rayne stared unseeingly out the window, assaulted by dreaded feelings of déjà vu. Camille had desperately needed funds to help her family escape from France and so had pretended to welcome his love. The similarities between the two women were inescapable. In using him to fulfill her own objectives, Madeline could well put family loyalty over him, just as his former love had. She might possibly even betray him in order to help her brother.

Was she needy enough to be hatching some mercenary scheme against him? Could she even be in league with Baron Ackerby in some way? She’d clandestinely written to Ackerby and then claimed she was only imploring him to call off the duel. But was there more to her story?

Whatever her purpose, the evidence against Madeline was steadily mounting. What seemed to have innocent explanations at the time now seemed ominous.

It shouldn’t disturb him this much, Rayne told himself, yet the peculiar ache tugging at his chest wouldn’t go away.

At the admission, he muttered a savage oath under his breath. He’d vowed never to travel that path again, but apparently it was already too late. Madeline meant far more to him than she should.

So what ought his course be now? He needed to expose her motives first, of course. He could set a trap for her in order to test her loyalties. If she was after the contents of his safe, he could tell her where to find the key and then see if she took the bait. He could even lure her to expose her motivations by employing outright lies. There was no reason for him to feel guilt when Madeline herself was so evasive. He would have to think more on the best approach.

As for tonight, it was clear she planned to devote this evening to his seduction. He’d intended to abstain from claiming his husbandly rights, but the rush of primal lust he’d felt at her invitation had been so sharp and undeniable, he’d given in to his hunger for her and accepted her offer to dine in her chambers.