Even if she had no idea as yet what that explanation was...
Besides which, she was so obviously battered and bruised, it was ludicrous to imagine that any man might find her attractive in her present state.
Although, there was no denying that Griffin himself had physically reacted to her close proximity earlier.
Perhaps it was just that he was a little odd, if he was attracted to a woman who was covered in bruises!
Which was a little worrying, now that Bella considered the possibility fully.
The Duke did not look like a gentleman who enjoyed inflicting pain, but that was no reason to suppose—
‘I apologise, Bella.’
The bed dipped beside her as the Duke, obviously tired of waiting for her response to his initial overture, now sat down on the side of the bed.
‘Bella?’
Her body went rigid as he placed a hand lightly against her spine. ‘We both know that is not my name.’ Her voice was muffled as she spoke into the pillow.
‘I thought we had agreed that it would do for now?’ he cajoled huskily.
Until they discovered what her name really was, Bella easily picked up on his unspoken comment.
If they ever discovered what her name really was, she added inwardly.
Which was part of the reason she had been so upset when she’d returned to the house just now.
Oh, there was no doubting this aloof and arrogant Duke had behaved appallingly out in the garden just now; he had spoken with unwarranted terseness to Arthur Sutton, and had certainly been disrespectful to her. His implied accusations regarding the two of them had been insulting, to say the least.
Bella’s previous treatment, as well as her present precarious situation, meant that her tears were all too ready to fall at the slightest provocation...
Griffin Stone’s behaviour in the garden had not been slight, but extreme.
Bella slipped out from beneath his hand before rolling over to face him, hardening her heart as she saw the way he looked down at her in apology. She had been enjoying her time out in the garden, and he had now spoilt that for her.
For those brief moments she had spoken with Arthur Sutton she had felt normal, and not at all like the bedraggled and beaten woman the Duke had found in the woods the previous night.
Her chin rose challengingly. ‘Your behaviour in the garden—the cold way you spoke to Arthur Sutton, as well as to me—was unforgivably condescending.’
Griffin only just managed to hold back his smile as Bella administered the rebuke so primly. To smile now would be a mistake on his part, when Bella was so obviously not in the mood to appreciate the humour.
‘And wholly undeserved,’ she added crossly as some of that primness deserted her to be replaced by indignation. ‘You may well be overlord here, Your Grace, but that does not permit you to make assumptions about other people. Assumptions, I might add, that in this case were wholly unfounded.’
Oh, yes, this young woman was certainly educated and from a titled or wealthy family, Griffin acknowledged ruefully; that set-down had been worthy of any of the grand ladies of the ton!
Did Bella even realise that? he wondered.
Possibly not, when she had no knowledge of anything before her arrival here last night.
Appeared to have no knowledge, he again reminded himself.
There was still that last lingering doubt in Griffin’s mind regarding her claim of amnesia. Added to, no doubt, by his having just observed her in conversation with one of his under-gardeners.
What if she had been passing information on to Arthur Sutton? If her arrival here in his home had been premeditated?
Shortly before the assassination plot against the Prince Regent had been foiled several of Maystone’s agents had been compromised. Griffin had been one of them.
There was always the possibility that Bella had been deliberately planted in his home, of course. That she was here to gather information from him as to how deeply their circle had been penetrated.