Chapter Seventeen

"D ukedom?" Dustin couldn't believe his cousin had forgotten all that had happened. "What's left of the dukedom?"

"How dare you kiss my fiancée?" John thundered.

"I asked," Dustin spoke slowly, enunciating every word, "what is left of the dukedom, John?" Since Father had ruined so much with his bad deals, Dustin thought all he could do was save humanity from the damage that had been done. There couldn't be much left of their family's holdings.

"Enough for me to secure a future for my son. And I need a duchess by my side." John's voice sounded as angry as a boar ramming into a tree trunk. "And you have no right to kiss my duchess. My fiancée."

"First of all, I didn't know. Second, I won't allow it." Dustin reached for Lexi's hand and gripped it firmly. He needed her to know he wouldn't run this time, not even if it was her father who'd investigated his departure. He was not going to turn his back on her. And he was not giving her over to John, most importantly.

"She's mine," John growled. "Her father consented."

"I'm not anybody's property," Lexi snapped, but when John flashed his teeth, she added, in a more subdued voice, "Your Grace…"

"I have a special license. All that's missing is the date," John said. "It clearly says the Duke of Duncan is betrothed to Lady Alexis Wentworth." John's gaze sat furiously on Dustin, ignoring Lexi entirely. "Mrs. Dove-Lyon said it had to happen quickly. She had a girl for me who had all the virtues of the perfect duchess."

"She does." Dustin locked eyes with Lexi. "She has every virtue of a fairy tale princess."

"Until you claimed them, it seems. How do you know her anyway? You've only been in Town a short while."

"He's my dentist," Lexi said solemnly. She indeed had the courage of three men. "I came for treatment."

"Treatment?" John's voice sounded skeptical at best and didn't mask any of his rage. "This was the reason for the bill you held in your hand?"

"Yes, Your Grace."

"Are you sick?"

"No, Your Grace."

"Why did you need a doctor then?"

Lexi swallowed hard and shot Dustin a look. He wouldn't betray his patient's confidentiality; his lips were sealed, even if Herbert knew, John didn't.

It was sealed with a kiss.

"I suffered a toothache, and Mrs. Dove-Lyon made her services contingent upon my—"

"You're nineteen and missing teeth?" John's voice grew louder. "I was promised a virgin."

"I assure you, Your Grace, I'm not missing any teeth and that —" she attempted to pull her hand away, but Dustin didn't let it go—"is also intact. I am a virgin." Her voice was low but she raised her chin high. Dustin never thought the gestures of such well-bred girls could capture his heart, but she had taken all of it somehow.

"But your teeth are rotten?"

Lexi reddened.

She'd thought herself ruined, soiled by the man's touch, for it had burned into her soul. She felt marked by the gold fillings. She did think she'd lost something, but hearing the cocky Duke speak to her in such a manner was the jolt she needed.

"My teeth are not rotten." As she spoke the words, she felt the self-loathing lift off her, and the need for perfection drifted off in life like rain clouds when the sun emerged. "I had a toothache, but my teeth are quite restored with four gold fillings and an inlay."

"Restored?" John snorted and threw his hands in the air. Then his gaze met with his son's, who was pouting. He lowered his eyebrows, and his gaze narrowed.

"You lost your virtue though, you and Dustin…"

"I have not," Lexi interjected.

"Except the ones I care about."

"She has all the virtues anyone cares about, John. She's wise beyond her age, as courageous as three men, and she has a sense of justice—"

"Then let Aristotle have her with her cardinal virtues. I need a mother for my son and a duchess for my castle."

"You mean my castle?" Dustin snapped.

"Oh, now you want it back? Now that I took my seat at the House of Lords and got the tenants to pay off their debts, now that the accounts are liquid—"

"Come on now, John, you know you were groomed for all this. You never wanted anything else and when you realized I was making room, you readily swept in."

"And are you seizing the duchy back now?"

"I don't know, John. I didn't think I could do better than you. But you've shown your true colors today, and they paint the picture of rot."

"D-u-u-u-s-t-i-i-i-n," John growled, ready to pounce like a tomcat. "I stepped up when you left. I restored the Duncans and I'm not even a Fitzwater."

"It's not my fault nor have I earned being a Fitzwater! So what if I'm from a line of czars and dukes, hm ? Wouldn't you be jealous even if I were a pauper?"

John was seething and his breathing came audibly labored. "Where were you in the meantime, hm ? Practicing the art of love in India was the last I heard."

"I studied medicine. Treated patients."

"Ah yes, I can just imagine the treatments you gave the pretty girls in Delhi, Dustin."

Dustin let go of Lexi's hand and propped his hands on his hips. He stood tall and looked into John's eyes. "To you, it's Doctor Dustin Gerald Fitzwater." Lexi had never seen a man even better than a prince in shining armor. "And don't you dare compare her to any of those other women. There's nobody else like her!" He was charming and pedantic as a dentist, dashing and sensual when he kissed her, and now he was nothing short of glorious in her defense.

"Did you at least like the poses he showed you?" John cast Lexi a fake smile before she could even wonder about his meaning, seeping with mockery. Just as John's voice rose with the end of his question, which was probably not even the end of the insult he likely wanted to tack onto the back of it, flesh hit flesh, and a blunt grunting noise permeated the tense air.

John's fist flew toward Dustin, who blocked it with his left palm and threw a punch at an upward angle on his jaw. John tumbled backward until he hit the cart. Some of the instruments fell to the floor with a clang.

What a disaster.

She'd kissed the cousin of her betrothed. After all the trouble she'd gone through to get Mrs. Dove-Lyon to find her a perfect match quickly, she'd ruined everything. She'd fallen for the wrong cousin but the real Duke of Duncan, and was now betrothed to the fake duke?

Lexi's head was spinning with the trouble she'd made for herself.

Over the past week, each night while her mother had made every conceivable wedding preparation, Lexi had dreamed of the dentist-prince. She'd imagined standing on a large marble balcony in the warm, jasmine-scented air under the starry sky like Princess Leela. Oh, how her heart fluttered at the thought of the dentist-prince gazing at her dreamily and then, kissing her.

She'd been innocent as to how it would feel or even how it would be. In reality, he smelled better than even jasmine, felt better than her wildest dreams, and kissed her with bone-melting vigor that made her breath hitch at the thought.

Lexi was trapped in an agreement with Mrs. Dove-Lyon, promised in writing to the duke—who now wasn't even the duke… oh, her head was pounding. Was she exchanging one duke for another?

It made no sense; how could she have fallen from grace as quickly as her sister? While she first thought she was better than Melissa, she was in a worse place now as far as the ton was concerned. At least Melissa had walked into her doom with her eyes wide open. Lexi had merely stumbled and fallen from grace.

The silence was too heavy to bear. What had she done? And how could she have known? She went to seek the services of a dentist and he'd reminded her of a prince. How was she to know that the prince was really a duke?

In the world of the peerage, a prince was better than a duke, but both ranks of men, with their entitled desires to do what they wanted without thought for the lives of others had destroyed her and her sister. Men and their egos.

How was this possible?

She watched John wipe blood from his mouth while Dustin shook his fist and rubbed it with the other hand. The thin metal instruments were scattered on the floor, and the wooden cart turned over on the floor. Herbert stood next to the chair, agog, yet she could see excitement shining in his eyes.

Dustin turned to look at her. His eyes were cold. "How could you stomp in here and ask for a kiss when you met your betrothed just last night?" He asked slowly as if he couldn't stand the bitter taste of his words.

"You did what ?" John turned to her. "You asked for it?" He turned to Dustin. "She's not as well-bred as I hoped. But what did I expect? Look at her sister."

"J-o-o-o-h-n," Dustin growled.

Lexi's heart pounded so hard, it was nauseating as if the whirlwind of her feelings left her seasick.

Now they were both looking at her and the young boy was all that was between them. But he looked at her with accusing green eyes.

And then she realized they all had the same shade of green eyes, shades of clover sparkling with dew. It was a lovely warm shade she'd thought she could dive into and get lost in when the color, like the jade on Prince Jai's chain, had belonged to her dentist-prince. Dustin's eyes had sent a shiver through her weakened knees with a look. If she could be in his arms again, she imagined she would see into that green, that beautiful meadow of bliss like magnifying lenses in a painting.

Now, with all members of the family standing together, she could see that John had the same eye color. Yet, her reaction to him was no more than to the door, the chair, the wall. She felt nothing more than an acknowledgment of his presence. No flip-flopping heart, cold sweat, or hairs pricking up with alertness when he was near.

Only her dentist-prince had this effect. Only he had her heart.

And he was staring at her as his mouth widened into a mischievous smirk.

"I kissed her. Quite thoroughly," Dustin said to John. He walked around Herbert and came to Lexi's side.

Dustin reached out and took her hand. Cold fingers and moist, like the green girl she was, she hung her hand limply. His grasp became firmer as if he were taking action in the moment she froze. Melissa would have known what to do but Lexi felt at sea.

How their roles were reversed now she was to have him in her life.

Was he in her life?

And if so, for long and as what, she didn't dare wonder.

So, she had to act.