“You can go to the devil, sir,” she snapped.
He laughed derisively. “I intend to, my love. And you’ll pay for the trip.”
She felt as cold in this humid greenhouse as if she stood outside in the storm. “I won’t marry you.”
His smile had never wavered through his appalling confession. Now it widened and the choirboy turned intimidatingly wolfish. “Yes, you will. By the time I’ve finished, you’ll be begging for me to restore your reputation.”
Perhaps it was mad to defy him, but her spirit revolted at what he planned. She straightened and regarded him with all the loathing in her soul. “I’ll never marry a cur like you.”
He clicked his tongue in disapproval. He’d be less alarming if he betrayed some emotion beyond self-assurance. “No need to be rude. This is your last chance, Marianne. The maid who delivered my message to you has instructions to create a scene. Any moment now, she’ll bring your father, the Hillbrooks and Desborough, and anyone else expressing an interest, to this charming bower. We either greet them as a happy couple or your seduction becomes a public scandal.”
The unspeakable wretch. “You’re wasting your time, Lord Tranter,” she said icily. “I won’t marry you whatever you do.”
“Easy to say now. We’ll see what happens after your virtue is in tatters.” He loomed closer. She’d never considered Tranter a particularly impressive physical specimen. Now he dwarfed her.
On a surge of movement, she lurched forward, going for his eyes.
“You damned cat,” he gasped as her nails scored his cheeks.
Without stopping to see the damage she’d done, she twisted free, taking advantage of his shock. She dashed through the foliage, slippered feet skidding on the tiles.
She heard him behind her, blundering through the greenery. There was a loud crash as a pot smashed in his wake. Panting, she reached the glass doors and dived for the latch. Before she touched it, rough hands grabbed her shoulders and wrenched her around.
She cried out in terror and pain, then again when Tranter slapped her face. Fire exploded in her head. When alertness returned, Tranter clutched her to his chest and her hair fell around her face. She struggled, but he seemed to have a hundred hands. With a sharp rip, he tore her bodice.
“Let me go, you savage,” she gasped, biting and scratching until he took her by the scruff of the neck like a cat and forced her head still.
“I’ll happily hit you again if you don’t stop this foolishness,” he said breathlessly.
He no longer looked in control. Worse. His eyes blazed with excitement and blood trickled down his cheek. As he mashed her into his body, a hard weight poked her belly. Bile rushed into her throat.
She swallowed hard, opened her mouth and screamed her lungs out. The harsh sound bounced off the glass. So did the echo of Tranter’s next slap.
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” he grated, placing a hand over her mouth. “Agree and you’ll save yourself a deal of trouble.”
She remained taut, faint with pain, wanting to kill him. His other hand imprisoned her wrists. She shrank away when his eyes dipped to her breasts, bare under her tattered dress.
“You’ve always been a clever little bitch, Marianne.” He licked his lips in a way that terrified her. “Give up the fight and admit you’re beaten.”
She made herself nod and he smiled with an approval that made her gag.
“Good girl.” He shifted his hand from her mouth to squeeze her breast and she screamed again, kicking him. But her satin slippers did no damage and he easily subdued her by wrapping his arms around her.
“Bad show, my dear, bad show.”
He jammed her face into his chest so she couldn’t breathe. The sour stench of his sweat made her head swim. She battled his hold, but this man she’d always dismissed as a cream puff contained her wriggling without apparent difficulty. She told herself to keep fighting as blackness edged her vision.
Then she was free and staring into her father’s appalled eyes.
Chapter Twelve
* * *
“What the devil is going on?”
Marianne still gasped for air, giving Tranter the chance to answer her father’s outraged demand. “My lord, we got carried away.”