Say Yes to the Duke (33 page)

If they were to meet there, this was their last opportunity.

He pulled out his pocket watch. It was three o’clock.

His heart rose, then sank.

As the next ten minutes passed, he vacillated between frustration that she hadn’t
understood his covert message, depression that she might have understood it but
ignored
it, and fear that she’d tried to come to him but been caught.

The last possibility drew beads of sweat to his temples.

However, he didn’t hear anything. That was a good sign. Of course, the house was vast,
but surely he would have heard something if there had been a conflict.

One of the doors shifted. Every fiber of his being tensed.
Let it be she.

He moved to the corner nearest the entrance and waited. Contrary to what he’d told
the butler, the doors were tightly fitted. No way a dog could have nosed one of them
open. Neither could a beam of light from within the cellar escape. But what if Janice
had been nabbed, after all, and this was a footman come to drag him away to be beaten?
Or jailed?

What if it was Grayson himself?

Luke had no weapon but his fists, and now they clenched, prepared to slam into the
face of anyone who meant him—or Janice—harm.

“Luke!” came the soft whisper.

It was as if a knot of rope in his chest came undone. He rushed to the door and held
it up.

“Come in,” he said, his voice warm with welcome.

All fear of discovery took a backseat for that one, incredible moment.

She’d understood. And she’d risked everything to see him. She either had not gotten
the note or been afraid to answer it.

Clad only in a night rail and a shawl, she pushed her way through the small crack
she’d allowed herself at the door and shut it gently behind her. When she descended
the steps, he lifted her at the waist, brought her down snug in front of him, and
kissed her.

Here,
he said to himself.
This is it.
Finally.

The place where he felt safe and loved.

If his life were a song, that moment was its glory note.

“Oh, Luke,” she whispered again, in between the kisses he rained all over her mouth,
her eyes, her nose, her jaw.…

“You’re here,” he said.

“Of course I am,” she said softly, and drew his head down for another long, passionate
kiss. “I’ve been utterly miserable. Halsey is forcing me to marry him. He says he’ll
hurt you badly if I don’t.”

Everything in Luke froze. “So he knows about us?”

She nodded. “He discovered me coming back in with hay in my hair.”

It wracked Luke, knowing he’d put her in danger. He gripped her shoulders gently.
“Are you all right? Has he tried to punish you in any way? Because if he has, I’ll—”

“I can take care of myself,” she interrupted him firmly. “But I’ll admit I can’t seem
to get out of this. My parents and various and sundry siblings are coming this afternoon
to first inspect him at close range and then give their blessing to the union.”

“Then you must say no,” said Luke. “When your father arrives, you’ll be well protected
from Halsey’s wrath. Tell your parents you’re being coerced.”

“No.” She smiled tenderly and pushed a lock of hair off his forehead. “I wouldn’t
dare. I can’t put you at risk.”

“I’m not.” Luke tilted up her chin. “I’ve been on my own since I was eleven. I’ve
endured countless threats to my person.”

She chuckled. “Your nose—handsome as it is—attests to that fact.”

“So it does.” He pulled her closer and kissed her thoroughly again, this time skimming
up her night rail to caress her shapely leg.

She grinned and shook her gown down. “Your seduction skills, excellent as they are,
won’t make me stop talking sense to you. Luke, he’s a duke. He can do anything he
wants—have you arrested on false charges, deport you, even kill you, and get away
with it.”

“It won’t happen.” He attempted to assure her more by kneading her shoulders. The
cleft between her breasts was just visible, making him hungry to worship her body
more thoroughly. “As of later today, consider yourself a free woman.”

“No,” she protested.

“Yes,” he insisted. “You can celebrate returning to London with your parents. You
can’t be with Halsey and be happy.”

“I don’t care about my own happiness. I only want you to be safe.”

“But I’ll slip away, too. And it will be as if this whole sorry episode with the Duke
of Halsey had never happened.”

At those words, she pushed off his chest, her eyes stricken. “How can you speak so
easily of my leaving?”

“You know I don’t want you to go.” But what choice did he have but to let her?

“Well, I’m
not
going. I don’t care what you say—I can’t put you at risk. I would be terribly unhappy
in London not knowing what happened to you. Every day I’d wake up and wonder if you
were in jail or, God forbid, dead in a ditch somewhere.”

Her voice cracked, and she sank to her knees. Her eyes shone with unshed tears.

Blast it all, he hated to see her so low. And all because of him. He knelt beside
her and took her hands. “You
have
to go,” he told her softly. “You can’t marry the duke. I can’t see you throw your
life away on him.”

Her breath hitched. “Whether I’m in London or here, I’ll have a life without you.
So what does it matter?”

She shut her eyes, and a single tear fell out, which he brushed away with the pad
of his thumb.

Ah, his heart was sore. “You have a chance for happiness in London,” he said huskily.
“It’s better for you to go.”

Better for her.

Not for him.

But he must say it.

“You’re wrong.” She had a stubborn light in her eye. “I’ll be happy nowhere. So I
choose to stay here and marry the duke. At least I’ll have his word that he won’t
come after you. That will be my solace.”

Luke sighed. “You can’t trust anything he says.”

She shook her head. “You’re only making things worse.”

“And I mean to.” He stood and pulled her to her feet. “Go back to London with your
parents. I want
you,
at least, to have a life again. And you will. It may take time, but you will.”

She looked up at him from under long, damp lashes. “You mean, you won’t?”

Damn his own hide for revealing too much. It wouldn’t help her to know that he’d suffer.

“Will you miss me that much, Luke Callahan, that you won’t have a life without me?”
she persisted.

There was a long beat of silence while he considered what to tell her. He looked into
her eyes and saw all his hope for happiness there. When she was gone, that hope would
turn to dust.

How he wished she’d never inspired it in him in the first place!

“You’re afraid to say it, aren’t you?” Her voice was almost triumphant. “But it’s
too late. You said it. You admitted that you’d have no life without me. You care about
me that much.”

He glowered at her. He’d nothing left with which to defend himself. She’d taken it
all.

All.

His entire life was in her hands, and he was suddenly angry. “I was fine before you
came, do you understand?”

“I-I know, and I’m sorry—”

“You wrecked all the notions I had about how to live.” His wall was in pieces now,
crumbled all around him.

“Truly, I’m sorry.”

“Do you think I can go on, knowing you’ve given yourself to a scoundrel?”

“You don’t have to.” She grabbed his arm. “You haven’t considered another option.
I’ll run away with you. I don’t care about my title and wealth. I don’t care that
you’re a groom and I’m a lady. Let’s run away. Let’s go
now.
I love you. And even though you haven’t said it outright, I know you love me.”

He pulled away from her. “We can’t do that.” It was the most ridiculous notion he’d
ever heard, and it riled him that she was playing so free and easy with her life.

“Why not?” Her face was still alight with that damned hope. “Of course we can!”

“No.” He knew it down to his very bones. “
No,
we can’t.”

“Why not?”

Because he wasn’t worthy of her, that was why. Because he didn’t deserve the privilege
of even being near such an angel, a tender young woman with so much love in her heart
that she was willing to throw away the grand life she was meant to live to be with
an ex-boxer, a soldier, and a stableman.

She didn’t know it, but he’d crush her. He was a man with no understanding of how
to love. He didn’t know how to live among people and give them what they needed. He
was a walking disaster who’d only bring her pain.

He swallowed. “You’re not going to throw away your life on me.”

“I won’t be; I’d be gaining it,” she said with such fervor it seared his soul.

“You’d be throwing it away,” he insisted. “And as such, I won’t consider running away
with you. Do you understand?”

She stared at him, her face white.

Good.
Let her hate him. “And I won’t let you marry Halsey,” he added roughly.

She shook her head. “You can’t stop me. I will marry him, damn you! I will!” She pushed
on his chest. “If you won’t run away with me, that’s what I’ll do.”

“Janice—”

“So which will it be? You and me, together as husband and wife? Or me … the wife of
the man sleeping above us right now?”

“Neither,” he said. “You’ll go back to London an unmarried lady. And you’ll wait for
a husband who can treat you the way you deserve to be treated: with respect and love.”

She gave a short laugh. “You’re not that powerful, Luke. You may be able to crush
my love under your feet—for that’s what it is,
love
—but you can’t make me do anything I don’t want to do.”

“I can talk to your father about Halsey—”

“Yes, and I’ll tell him you’re a highly unreliable source of information. You’re a
groom in the stables. A disgruntled one.”

Frustration made him furious. “Listen to me,” he said, holding her tight. “Trust me
when I say you’re not safe married to Halsey. Not only is he a danger to you; I plan
to bring him down. And I don’t want you suffering with him.”

“Bring
him
down?” Janice gave a short laugh. “How do you propose to do that? And why? What has
he ever done to you? Does this have anything to do with your mother and her mistreatment?
Because I’m sorry to tell you—truly I am—but that diary was destroyed. The dowager
gave it to the gardener to throw into the stove house oven. I wanted to tell you,
but I couldn’t get you a message.”

It took everything in him not to react.

His mission … gone.

The nuns.

Still vulnerable.

His mother and father …

Unavenged.

Janice must have sensed his devastation. “Look,” she said softly. “Even if you did
find evidence of your mother’s mistreatment in the journal, the current duke isn’t
responsible.” He stared at her, unseeing. “Listen to me, Luke!”

He focused back in, reluctantly.

“The one responsible would be someone else,” Janice said, “and except for the dowager,
the other members of the family are dead.” She took a deep breath. “I did learn something
of interest about this family’s past. Something huge. But it appears to have nothing
to do with your mother.”

“What?”

“About that drowning … the dowager said that Halsey’s father, Russell, left his brother,
Everett, to die.”

Luke’s entire body was blindsided by a new wave of shock at hearing actual details
of a family picture he’d been barely able to piece together.

“I get the impression Everett’s death was by neglect,” Janice said. “Russell simply
walked away from the pond as his brother struggled. It was all I could get out of
the dowager.”

Luke shook his head. What a family he came from. Such evil. Such cruelty. And his
two parents both appeared to have been victims of it.

“I know it will be difficult to move on considering that your mother’s history here
apparently wasn’t pleasant,” Janice said, “but I must remind you of a simple fact:
Halsey’s a powerful duke who can’t be held responsible for what happened to her. You’re
a groom with no influence whatsoever.”

“Am I?” He held her close. “Have I no influence over you?” She turned her face aside,
but he turned her back. “You know I do.”

She said nothing, but her eyes were stormy.

“And I plan to use it,” he said. “You’re going to say yes to me right now. And later
today, you’ll say no to the blackguard upstairs when he delivers his official marriage
proposal. You’ll remember what I told you—that you can never be his. And it’s because
you’re mine. You’ve made me admit it. Now face the consequences.”

Chapter Thirty

Luke slanted his mouth over Janice’s and kissed her fiercely.

She wanted to resist him. She did. She was furious at him. “I hate you for not running
away with me,” she whispered.

“But you love this,” he said, caressing her breast. “You love what I can do to you.
Admit it.”

“Never.”

It was cold in the cellar, but heat emanated from both of them. The lantern light
threw the shadow of their bodies in profile on the cellar wall, and the dusky odor
of earth reminded Janice how primal was her attraction to this workingman. According
to society, he wasn’t fit to look her in the eye.

But he did now. And he did it as if he was not only her equal. For this moment, he
was her master.

“Take off your night rail,” he told her.

He was clearly giving her no other choice.

She stared at him a long moment. His eyes held so much in their sapphire blue depths.
But he refused to let her see.

“I’ll agree to your game.” She took a step back. “But beware. I’m playing my own.”
She pulled her gown over her head. “This is what you’ll be missing,” she taunted him,
“as you won’t run away with me.”

The chill air hit her nakedness like a bucket of cold water, but the look in his eye
made her hot with wanting him.