She’d managed to keep her virtue but her innocence…that was long gone. She knew things about the world now and there was no going back.
“If you’ll excuse me, Uncle. I see my escort.” And then she yanked her arm, with a quick jerk, out of his grasp. Because she needed to escape this conversation.
And much as Eliza hated to admit it, Menace could help.
So as the fake Aunt Mildred patted her sister Emily’s arm and pointed to a major she wished for Emily to meet, Eliza stepped backward and slipped out onto the terrace. Away from her scowling uncle and leering Mr. Taber. She’d die before she married that man.
Menace stood with his back to her, staring off into the darkness.
Even she had to admit that his shoulders were devilishly broad as he stood with his arms crossed.
His dark hair waved back from his face in a careless windswept look that highlighted his strong jaw and piercing green eyes. Not that she could see his features now. But the memory of them haunted her more often than she cared to admit.
She drew in a steadying breath, trying to decide where to begin. She looked back to see Mr. Taber still watching.
“What do you want, Eliza?” Menace asked, not turning to look at her.
She stopped, still several feet away. The cad. How had he known it was her? Still, she was strangely relieved to be out here with him and not in the ballroom still. “What are you doing here? I never see you at these sorts of events.”
“Because I never come,” he replied. Then he turned to look at her. A half wall flanked the terrace and he rested his lean hip against it, looking casual and masculine and rakishly handsome. “And you answered a question with a question.”
“So I did,” she murmured, moving closer again. But not too close. The man was distractingly appealing. He radiated the sort of heat that made her flush and he smelled like…leather and pine and male musk that scattered her thoughts. Rakes were so good at that. And he was the best. “I was hoping to ask you a few questions. Privately.”
She heard him let out a sharp breath, his back straightening up. “No.”
Drat.
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Eliza suspected that her brother-in-law, the duke, had warned Menace to stay away from her. Which suited her just fine. She didn’t need a rake making her already complicated life even messier. In fact, she’d like to avoid men and marriage all together.
Her sisters all had a rosy view of their parents’ marriage, one that drew them to the union. But as the eldest, Eliza knew better. Her father had been gone for long stretches, casting most of the work onto her mother. Work her mother had then relied on Eliza to help complete.
The truth was, Eliza didn’t need a husband and she wasn’t sure she wanted one either. Not when she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. But the sooner she got her sisters married, the sooner they’d be out of her uncle’s clutches. “You don’t even know what questions I might ask.”
He shook his head. “I know exactly what questions you’re going to ask. Ask them of your brother-in-law.”
Eliza held in her huff of frustration. She had…multiple times. Bash, in a misguided attempt to protect her, kept telling her not to worry. The men were handling it. She didn’t need to be coddled or protected, she’d been the protector her entire life. “Well, I’m going to ask you. Has anyone found any direct evidence of wrongdoing on my uncle’s part?”
Menace grimaced as he turned to face her, his eyes wandering down her frame. She knew the look. Men often gave her such glances. The difference was the effect his had on her. Heat prickled along her skin.
“Besides when one of his henchmen shot Bash’s driver?”
She stepped closer. “Thank goodness he recovered.”
Menace shrugged. “I agree except the shooter swore it was an accident and where there was no death…”
She frowned. “No wrongdoing.”
“Nope,” he replied, leaning his backside against the wall and kicking out his feet. “I know he sold your house. But that’s it and that was completely legal. Are we done now?”
She moved closer still, making certain to add a bit of sway to her hips. He noticed. “Nearly.” She gave him her most angelic smile. The one she used when she needed something. “The mystery man who keeps appearing. Do we know who he is yet?”
A man had raced in and rescued her and her sisters when their uncle had attacked their carriage, but no one knew who he was. They did know that their father had a secret partner and they’d wondered if their mystery man was one and the same but so far, they’d gotten no proof.
“Why are you asking me all of this?” He gave her a level stare.
“Because,” she started, then paused. She was close now, close enough to touch him. Her fingers flexed. She shouldn’t want to reach out. She should only be calculating whether or not she should touch him to get the information she needed. “Bash is under the misguided impression that he needs to protect me.”