Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

“ W here is she?” Keith almost missed her in all the hubbub of everyone preparing to leave.

He had seen Celia at breakfast, but he had not talked to her, for she had been surrounded by people asking after her welfare following the snake bite. Now that they were all preparing to leave Lady Arundel’s house, he intended to take the opportunity to speak to her before it was too late.

He marched down the driveway, his eyes flitting between the different carriages. He was just beginning to think he’d made a mistake and missed her departure when he saw her walking toward a small carriage, so small that it had to be carrying only her away from the party along with a footman or two. She walked rather quickly toward it, the wound on her leg apparently healing rapidly.

“Lady Celia?” Keith called and walked toward her, rather glad her carriage was so far away from the others that no one could hear him calling to her.

She turned her head around, and then something strange happened. Rather than holding his gaze as she had so often done over these last few days, she looked away rather quickly. She even moved more quickly toward the carriage.

“Lass?” he called again, reaching her in time to stop her from climbing into the carriage.

He watched her intently, noting that she would not look him in the eye.

What the hell has happened to ye?

Her demeanor now was a far cry from what it had been the day before in her bedchamber. There, she had been all passion and fire. Now, she was ice and distance.

“How are ye feeling?” he asked, glancing back when he saw her footman loading her portmanteau onto the carriage. He could not ask what he really wanted to ask.

“Much better, thank you.” She looked over his shoulder, into the carriage, still not meeting his eyes.

“I am glad to hear it. It pained me to see ye so sick.”

She didn’t appear to hear him and just gestured to the carriage, showing her intention to leave.

“Before ye depart…”

He glanced at the footman. Fortunately, the servant hurried off to assist her sister. It gave Keith the perfect opportunity to say what he truly wished to say.

“When will our next lesson be?”

“What?” She looked him in the eye, at last.

“Well, ye were going to give me my first lesson at the ball. I rather enjoyed how that lesson went.” He smiled a little, hoping to remind her of the kiss they had shared on the terrace. “When will our next lesson be?”

“Oh, of course, because these lessons are all for the purpose of finding a wife, aren’t they?” she huffed. “I think it best we have no more lessons.”

“What?” He stepped toward her, but she stepped back.

It was as if his veins had filled with ice. Any chance of stealing a kiss before she left was clearly out of the question.

“You are clearly capable of seduction all on your own,” she said. “You hardly need my help for such a thing. You won your wager. You seduced me, so you could seduce any other woman too, couldn’t you? You can act like a gentleman when you wish to. So, let us part and never discuss this subject again.”

She walked around the carriage, apparently giving up on trying to climb into it from this side.

“Celia?” he hissed, turning to follow her.

He checked that no one was looking their way, but everyone was too busy boarding their own carriages. It left him free to dart around Celia’s coach.

Secreted behind the vehicle, he took hold of her arm, stopping her before she could disappear inside.

“Now, sweetheart, are ye going to tell me what this is all about?”

“Do not call me that again. Ever.” Her eyes were full of fire now, but not the passionate kind. She was incensed .

“Ye think I just seduced ye for a day’s amusement? Is that it?” he asked, releasing her, though he did not wish to.

The feel of her arm beneath his palm reminded him of just how much they had touched each other the day before.

One kiss and maybe she could forget her anger…

But he wouldn’t do that to her. He needed to understand her first. It was a strange feeling. He was used to agreements over pleasure. But with Celia? That was a different story.

What they had experienced was not just momentary pleasure. At least, not to him.

“I think you are a seducer and yet able to act the part of a gentleman very well. You cared for me when I was wounded, and you brought me food too. See?” she said, arching her eyebrows. “You can be charming when you want to be.”

“What exactly are you driving at?” He took hold of her arm, stopping her from leaving.

“Gentlemen don’t touch ladies out of the blue,” she hissed.

He actually laughed. He couldn’t believe this was what they had come to after all they had shared in her bed.

“It was hardly out of the blue, was it?” he reminded her. “And I did more than just touch ye.”

“Enough,” she hissed. “You will not do it again. What happened… it can never happen again.”

Yet, she looked away. Despite her determination, there was a flicker of weakness there.

She liked it as much as I did. She cannot hide that.

“I wish you a happy marriage.” She flicked her hand at him, urging him to get out of the way as she reached for the carriage door. “You will never touch me again.”

“Oh, lass.”

He couldn’t resist. To think that the woman he was infatuated with was just about to flounce out of his life, taking with her all this fire, all this spirit, all these reasons to smile… was infuriating.

He laid a hand over hers on the carriage wall. She halted, gasping in surprise at his touch. “Something tells me”—he bent down, moving his lips to her ear as she faced away from him—“that ye may want me to do just that.”

“You arrogant sod.”

“Passionate, perhaps.”

“No, arrogant.” She turned defiantly, yanking her hand out of his grip. “This is what you all do, isn’t it?”

“All of whom?”

“Men,” she spat. She looked around, but they were completely secluded on this side of the carriage. There was no one there to disturb them. “You seduce, you take, and you disappear after tainting our lives.”

“What do you mean?”

There’s something more to this.

He didn’t doubt that for a second. He could see it in the firm set of her jaw and the way she looked away.

“What has happened to give ye such an ill impression of men?”

She tried to walk away, but he took hold of her arm again, just strong enough to keep her there. Startled, her lips parted as he pulled her against his side.

“We’ll be seen!”

“What are ye hiding?” he whispered. “What blaggard gave ye such an ill impression of men that ye now paint me black too?”

She hesitated. No longer did she try to tug away from his grasp but stayed perfectly still. His fingers splayed a little across her arm, showing her that she was safe. She looked down at his hand, but she seemed less than delighted by his touch. Her lip curved a little and then flattened.

“I first saw it years ago,” she whispered. “My cousin, Charlotte, was seduced by an older man.”

“I cannot imagine ye falling for such a trick.”

She looked up, her expression haunted. “He promised to marry her. He promised no one would know… When she fell pregnant, he sent her away to the country. It turned out, he was already married. He didn’t want a scandal. He sent her away to have the child alone. When she became sick, he sent no physician. He treated her as if she was a bug, just a beetle left to die now that he had had his fun playing with it.” She blinked, rather fast. “By the time we heard about poor Charlotte’s state, she had died—the child, too.”

Keith drew in a breath, feeling sick to his stomach. That a lady and her child were treated so cruelly was disgusting. Without thinking about it, his grip on Celia’s arm loosened until he was all but cradling her.

“And ye think every man would be so dismissive of a woman’s love as to abandon her? To leave her to her death?”

“He did,” Celia said, lifting her chin. “He had what he wanted. He took her to bed. He not only ruined her life, but he also stole it from her. To my mind, it was as good as murder.” She shook her head, looking away from him again. “How many times have I heard about the inconstancy of a man’s attention? Of how they get what they want and then leave?”

Something burned angrily in Keith’s chest. Yes, he’d had lovers, but he was not the conquering type. He didn’t push a woman into his bed and then leave. No, it was always mutual passion, mutual trust, then a mutual agreement that they’d each had enough.

“But why do I tell you this?” She freed her hand from his grip. “You only care to conquer one more lady, don’t you? Now you’ve had me, you’ll be onto the woman you will make your wife.”

“Careful, sweetheart.” He let her step away, turning to face the carriage door, even though the anger would no longer abate in his chest. It rose and swelled like a burning fire.

She stepped into the carriage. As she sat on the bench, he grabbed the door, refusing to let it close just yet.

“Celia…”

He couldn’t let her go like this. How could he let Celia, of all people, think that every man, especially him, would treat a woman in that way?

“I am sorry about what happened to yer cousin, but that is not who I am. It is not who I wish to be. I’m…”

He looked down at her gown, her curvacious body, and thought of how entangled they had been the day before.

He could have confessed everything to her then. In the midst of their passion, he could have whispered to her that marriage was not for him, for the right reasons, but how would that have helped matters?

“I’m… I’m trying to protect ye,” he insisted.

Her brow furrowed, and she actually scoffed at him.

“Protect me?” she repeated in plain dismissal. “I wasn’t aware I needed your protection.”

“Too late, ye have it.”

“Then I don’t need it anymore.” She took hold of the carriage door again. “Goodbye to you, Your Grace. I wish you well in your marriage. May it be Lady Alicia—then at least I can have some comfort in this affair.”

“What is that?” he asked dubiously as she closed the door and looked at him through the open window.

“My reputation as a matchmaker will be even greater than before.” She didn’t look pleased by the idea.

She struck the side of the carriage just once. Abruptly, the carriage jerked forward. Keith had to leap back to avoid being run over by the wheels. He stared in amazement as the carriage rolled away.

The coach turned at the end of the driveway and disappeared, all too fast.

How can things change so quickly?

Slowly, Keith walked back to his carriage. His mother was climbing inside, saying a heartfelt thank you and a goodbye to Lady Arundel. Keith was rather purposeful in giving them both a wide berth. He went to the horse he was going to ride back to his home instead.

As he took hold of the reins, a gentleman stepped before him.

“Xander?” Keith said in surprise.

“They have a way of getting under our skins, the daughters of the Marquess of Pembroke. Trust me, I know.” Xander glanced back at his wife, who was laughing with her friends. “Here.” He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small card. It bore his full name and title, along with his address in London. “Stay in touch. Lord knows London is hard enough for one duke who doesn’t want to be like the others.”

He winked at Keith and then walked away before Keith could even thank him.

Keith was quick to pocket the card, rather glad that he had at least met someone at this party who he could get along with.

He was about to pull himself up into the saddle when someone else appeared at his side. It was Lady Alicia.

“I enjoyed meeting you, Your Grace,” she said rather bashfully, flushing the color of a tomato.

“And you, Lady Alicia,” he said woodenly.

He was distracted, thinking of just how far he had to go to make Celia blush. It was so much more enjoyable when he had to tease her or push her down onto that bed to see such a blush.

Flicking the reins, he pulled himself up into the saddle.

“Perhaps we shall see each other again in London?” Lady Alicia asked with plain hope.

“Yes, perhaps.”

“I will soon attend a musicale and a ball at Almack’s. I hope I shall see you at some of these events?”

“I am not exactly a social butterfly,” he said uneasily.

He glanced toward the house behind them. He hadn’t even wanted to come here, but he had come because he knew it would make his mother very happy.

“Well, perhaps we could…” Lady Alicia trailed off.

Keith didn’t even really notice. Between his distraction over Celia and watching his mother climb into the carriage, he had enough on his mind. He steered his steed away from Lady Alicia and toward his mother in the carriage.

“Are you all right?” he asked Elizabeth as she sat on the bench, tired and yawning.

“I am well, indeed,” she assured him. “I’m so happy we came to England, Keith. It is an even happier place than I remember it.”

She smiled, and around her eyes, beneath the heavy makeup she wore, he could glimpse a scar that his father had given her.

The mere sight of it sickened Keith.

He could practically hear in his mind what his father had said after it had happened.

“She will do as I tell her to. She must, Keith.” His father had wrapped his hand in a bandage, for he had hurt himself when he had struck her. “That’s what marriage is. It’s being bound to one another, even if ye drive each other to the brink of death.”

Keith glanced at the driveway down which Celia had disappeared, then he glanced at Lady Alicia’s retreating figure.

I’ll be driving no woman to the brink of death.