Merciful heaven.
The Duke of Mandeville stood framed in the doorway like a dark omen, his head nearly brushing the arch, his cold amber eyes staring straight at her, his expression every bit as unforgiving as the winter air. Even his beauty was unnerving, like some exquisitely painted masterpiece meant to be admired from a distance, never touched.
“I’m not imagining him, am I?” Elowyn asked without looking away from the formidable figure even knowing the answer. The man was a thousand times more intimidating in the light of day than at night. “You see him, too?”
“Oh, we see him, all right,” Isadora murmured, sounding as dazed.
“Now that we have my existence out of the way,” the duke drawled with frosty politeness. “May I have a private word, Lady Elowyn?”
Flustered and mortified when the half-eaten macaroon plopped to the ground, she rose to her feet. Heat flooded her cheeks as she brushed crumbs from her skirts. Of all the undignified things! She wanted to investigate the location of the macaroon, but the man seemed bent on holding her gaze prisoner.
Persephone dragged Isadora up with her. “Hmm, we’ve been meaning to examine the new portrait in the morning room. Right, Isadora?”
Isadora nodded like a hen pecking rice.
What new portrait, you traitors?
Elowyn wrenched her gaze away to glare at her friends, but before she could utter a single word of protest, they darted from the room, the duke moving aside to let them pass. He shutthe door after them, crossing his arms while taking a wide stance right there, blocking any escape.
Elowyn blinked at the man, unsure where or how to place her hands, trying her best not to dwell on the fact that she’d never been alone with a man other than her family in a room before. And there was a macaroon somewhere at her feet. Of course, she knew exactly why this man appeared before her now. “Is this truly necessary?”
“You tell me, Lady Elowyn.”
She furrowed her brows. “I’m not sure I take your meaning, Your Grace. And how did you slip past our butler?”
“I didn’t slip past anyone. I pushed past them. And then warned them to silence. As for my meaning, that should be clear.”
His bluntness astonished her. “You’re here to enquire about my intentions.”
“Not quite. I’m here to enquire about your motives.”
“My motives?”
“Yes, your motives. I’ve yet to meet a woman who didn’t help a man like you did without some motive in her heart.”
Elowyn could scarcely believe the man. Well, she supposed she couldn’t blame him for his caution. He had nearly been trapped in marriage to Lady Gabrielle. But that didn’t mean he could now trapher. After all, she could be considered his savior, right? Where was the gratitude? “I don’t have a motive, Your Grace. I only have an intention, and that is not to get embroiled in your business.” Thank you very much.
“You already are embroiled. Didn’t that woman pay you a visit today?”
That woman. . . He must truly not like Lady Gabrielle’s company.
Elowyn’s eyes widened. But more to the point, “How do you know she called on me?”
“My future is on the line, Lady Elowyn.” Coldness seemed to bleed from him. “This is no small matter. You, by some stroke of fate, now hold this future in your hands.”
But she didn’t want that responsibility! She didn’t want it at all! “I have no desire to play God over your life.” Lady Gabrielle was not pleasant to deal with, but this man would be outright lethal. Between the two, there was no doubt in her mind who she would choose for posterity’s sake.
“You have no desire of playing God and yet here we are. One word from you changes the course of lives.” He left his post at the door and approached her, step by slow step. A predator stalking its prey. “I do not like that at all.”
Neither did she!
The duke suddenly stood right in front of her, unfathomable glacial gaze boring so deep inside her she imagined no amount of proverbial scrubbing could ever wash away the chill settling in the base of her spine. “One of us loses,” he said softly, barely above a whisper. “I don’t intend for it to be me.”
“Then . . .” How could she reassure this man? “Rest assured. I will not withdraw the claim I made last night.”
“That ridiculous claim no one would ever believe?”
A spark of annoyance ignited in her heart. The man clearly didn’t trust her.