“No? Then what?” Wrath asked. “If not her, did you offend her brother or father? Do you have a duel at dawn and require me to be your second? My answer is no, by the by. I don’t support fools.”
“Harsh.” If only it were as simple as a duel. “Not that either.”
“Then bloody hell man? What did you do?” Wrath’s voice dropped. “You didn’t kidnap the chit, did you?”
Julien yanked the cravat from his face and shot his supposed friend a glare. “No.” However, now that the question had been raised, the prospect didn’t sound all that atrocious. All he lacked was reason. However, if hedidkeep Lady Elowyn locked away, they couldn’t possibly sway her to their side, could they? She could never falter. Never go back on her word.
Wrath crossed his arms. “Then I don’t see what can be worse than that in the mere hours since I last saw you.”
“Your worse and my worse are undoubtedly two different things.”
“Then let’s hear it.”
Julien sighed and regaled his friend with his failings, leaving out how his damn body overheated and hadn’t cooled down yet. A thousand different kisses? Just what wasgoing on in her head of hers? So many different kisses didn’t exist, but that didn’t stop him from thinking of all the thousand ways he could kiss her. A thousand different ways she could writhe beneath him. A deuced inconvenient conundrum. He couldn’t afford to lose focus now. He was so damn close. So damn close to crushing his mother’s murderer. Kisses? He should laugh in the face of a damn kiss. “Apparently the wallflower turned into a wildflower.”
Wrath nodded flatly. “So, you coerced the chit into giving you her first kiss in payment for her silence? That doesn’t seem like a deal to me at all.”
“I told her she could have anything,” Julien muttered. This was his damn fault. “She chose a kiss.”
“It seems you are determined to leap from one pot of fire to the next.”
“Lady Elowyn doesn’t have a scheming uncle.”
“She still has a brother and a father. She could also be scheming herself.”
Julien waved Wrath’s concern aside, taking a swig from the bottle. She was scheming, yes. But her little schemes had nothing to do with him. “She won’t be a problem, nor will her family.” In any event, he’d gotten what he wanted. A kiss in exchange for not going back on her outlandish lie. And he would go back to his business of devouring Silkin, cutting off any avenue he could crawl for, all the while staying as far from the wild beauty as fervently as possible. Simple.
His butler appeared at the door. “Your Grace, the Marquess of Dansbury is requesting an audience.”
Wrath arched a brow.
Julien scowled. If it wasn’t for Cranbrook, he’d put that damn Marquess on his list to deal with next after Silkin. The man had too much gall and too little brain. “I’m not in the mood. Send him away.”
“Yes, Your Gra—”
“But I’m not in the mood to go away, Mandeville.”
Julien sent a cold look to the grey-haired man with the heavy white mustache who shouldered his way past his servant and strode into his bloody study as though he owned the right. He didn’t bother to stand on ceremony. “You’re not in the mood for many things,” he said coldly. “Certainly not honest dealings.” The wretched man took a breath and finished with, “You ruined my niece.”
Julien sneered. “So what if I did? Go find someone else to marry her off to. It won’t be me. Ever.”
Dansbury’s face turned a shade of purple. “You took advantage of an innocent girl.”
“Innocent?” Julien pushed up from the chair and rose to his feet, setting the brandy down on his desk, facing Dansbury. “Your niece and her friends orchestrated an elaborate trap. But you know all about that. Never imagined you’d fail, did you?”
“I don’t know what you’re blustering about! There was a witness to your deeds.”
Julien stiffened at the mention of Lady Elowyn. “A witness? Don’t make me laugh. You miscalculated, Dansbury.”
Wrath chuckled, leaning casually against the desk. “Grossly miscalculated.”
“Don’t do something you will regret, Mandeville. When that girl comes forward—”
“That girl already discredited your niece’s claims,” Julien interrupted, lips curling. “Apparently, she is a woman of principle, unlike your family. She won’t dirty herself with the schemes of others. And even if you do find a way to convince her now, if she suddenly sings another tune, don’t you think that will provoke more questions than answers? Give up already, Dansbury. You lost.”
Dansbury’s hands clenched into fists. “You think you can simply walk away from this? Let us see if Cranbrook agrees or not.”
Julien frowned. So, this arse had already taken his fabricated grievances to the duke. Damn it. He wanted to throttle the man. “There’s nothing to walk away from.” And God was his witness, if Dansbury was the reason his revenge fell through, he would destroy the man and every single last thing he held dear.