And then she stepped into the path of a fox and a wolf, and that wolf . . . he . . . spoke to some starving part of her . . . But Mandeville was not a man to do the honorable thing. The way he had kissed her . . . and then agreed to stay away from her . . . No. A true gentleman would have courted her, right? Mandeville . . . he was every bit as ruthless as her brother had claimed. As the rumors whispered. But then he draped a jacket over her shoulders.
Madly confusing.
Elowyn didn’t rightly know which version of him to trust.
There were two dukes.
The calculating duke who did not wish to owe favors and demanded exchanges or the man whose hands had firmlyheld her when she missed a step. Perhaps both were true. Perhaps that was precisely the trouble with him: he was not one contradiction she could resolve and dismiss, but a dozen of them, and she’d never in her life met a man complicated enough to make her want to stay and untangle him rather than quit and wait for another season to try again.
Had she fallen for a man who could never fall back for her?
How Shakespearean.
Nevertheless . . .Donotbe that woman who falls for the first man she kissed, Elowyn.
That would be ideal, yes. But it might be already too late.
“Oh, right,” Persephone said, drawing her back to the present. “Do you know what happened after you left the night you caught him with Lady Gabrielle?”
Elowyn furrowed her brows. No. She’d never even thought of what happened after she’d made her timely retreat. “Why? Was it something bad?” Was that one of the reasons Lady Gabrielle had splashed wine all over her? Wicked woman.
“Mandeville climbed through the window to make his grand escape.”
Elowyn’s eyes flew wide at that. “He didwhat?”
“Right?I was shocked as well. A man as rigid as him climbing through a window like a thief.”
“Where did you hear that?”
Persephone smirked. “That wretched friend of that wretched woman let it slip to a friend of a friend. I won’t be surprised if more rumors spread about Lady Gabrielle after what she did to you. People are whispering tales of her jealousy.”
Oh, Lord. Another reason not to show her face in public.
“Do you know what I think?” Persephone added, her brows gathering thoughtfully. “I think no matter what that woman did, or how she made it look, he would have let her be ruined rather than marry her.”
Let her be ruined . . .The thought made Elowyn shiver, but shefeltthe ring of truth. Oh, she had no doubt he would have done just that. But why did he need her then? There must be something else going on beneath the surface. Her brother’s warning came to mind. The duke was not a man who required help. And Mandeville’s warning about Dansbury.
Just what in the merciful heaven’swasgoing on?
“Lady Elowyn.”
Her back snapped straight at the gruff voice that skittered over her skin and burrowed straight into the marrow of her bones.
“You heard that, too, right?” she asked Persephone, not yet daring to turn.
Her friend’s eyes went wide, darting from Elowyn to a point somewhere behind her, then back again, a slow grin spreading across her face. “Oh! Look!”
Don’t you dare.
“The archery match is starting.”
Persephone!
“I’ve been waiting for this all afternoon,” her friend chirped, wagging her brow before ending with, “See you later!”
“Persephone!”
Elowyn drew a deep breath. If she could run after her friend, she would. Her feet, however, remained rooted onthe spot. Slowly exhaling, she turned to that overwhelming, looming, presence, her gaze meeting a pair of burning, cold, amber eyes.