The Duke's Revenge (20 page)

Christine smiled and said, “Lovely young
woman, I bet she’ll be snatched up in no time at all if she lives
in London.” She turned to Max and her brown eyes twinkled. “You’ll
have a heck of a time looking after her and shooing all those
London dandies away from your doorstep, your grace.” She
laughed.

Max did not like that comment one bit. He
frowned darkly and left the room without a word.

CHAPTER 17

Ivy stared at her plate a footman had just
placed in front of her. Although the roasted veal looked very
appetizing indeed, she didn’t think she could handle anything at
that moment. She thought she would probably throw up in front of
everybody if she were to overfill her small appetite.

The fact that the duke’s sharp eyes were
constantly on her person didn’t help with the matter either. This
caused her to be unreasonably nervous despite that it was only an
informal dinner with only herself, the Duke of Lynwood, and the
Count and Countess of Huntingdon. How she wished with all her heart
that dinner would finish soon.

“
Ivy, why don’t you tell
us a little bit about yourself?” Christine said as she placed her
glass of champagne down on the table.

Ivy looked up from her meat that she was
forever playing with the perfectly polished, silver knife and fork
to the countess, dreading that very subject to surface into their
conversation. She eyed the other woman for a fleeting moment,
smiled hesitantly, and lowered her eyes again to look at her now
lumpy, cold meat.

“
I do not think I have
anything of interest to talk about,” she started and placed the
knife and fork down.

“
Nonsense, everyone always
has something interesting to talk about,” Christine said as she
tossed her long, chestnut tresses over her shoulder. “Do you play
music by the way? Because I don’t.” She smiled cheekily and winked.
Her eyes were bright and her cheeks were very rosy after the couple
of glasses of champagne she had drunk.

Ivy shook her head and grinned. “I’m rather
short on education, my lady.”

“
You’re not alone there,”
Christine said with a frowned and moved to whisper so that only Ivy
could hear what she was going to say next. “I feel rather ashamed
for my lack of education. I would hate to think that this flaw of
mine might embarrass my husband in the eye of the ton.” She moved
back and sighed. “But it couldn’t be help. I’m trying my very best
to learn all that a young woman of society needed to accomplish,
which might I say is very many indeed.”

“
I’m very surprise, my
lady, did you not learn it prior to your marriage?”

“
Christine please,
Ivy.”

“
I’m sorry.”

“
Don’t be,” Merrick said
from the other side of the table. “My wife has the habit of making
everyone her equal.” He laughed merrily as though he didn’t mind
that very fact.

“
What’s wrong with that?”
Christine turned to her husband with her brows raised a notch as
though in a challenge.

“
Nothing is wrong, my
love,” he replied and grinned.

Ivy saw the dangerous gleam in his sea-green
eyes as he said that, and the tone of his voice implied something
deep and personal, just between the two of them. She heard
Christine gasped in respond.

Would she be able to feel like that, she
wondered, and turned her gaze to Max. She saw his sharp eyes on her
again. Instantly her stomach hallowed, and she lowered her eyes to
look at her now inedible meat.

“
I have not the chance,
Ivy, to learn of such accomplishment that young woman of the
society needs to know,” Christine said. “I know this might sound
rather silly but you see, my family had not the mean. I was very
ignorance of the way of the society at the time.”

“
Aye, my love, very
ignorance indeed,” her husband said, “and you gave me one hell of a
headache with your hellion behavior and stubbornness.”

“
If not for my
stubbornness, my lord,” Christine retorted, “you might not be here
today, sitting there reminding me of my shameful flaws. May I
remind you also, my lord, that you might have been
murdered?”

“
Aye, and I am very
grateful for that, my love.” He gave her a devilish smile that
caused her heart to skip a beat.

The darn man, Christine
thought, he was too handsome for her weak heart. No wonder they
thought him
the
catch of the season two years ago. He had taken her heart the
very moment he had saved her from being beaten to death. If it was
not for him, her family could have starved to death; and if it was
not for him, she would have never met her father, the Earl of
Queensbury.

“
Murder?” Ivy asked in
shocked.

“
Aye.” Christine turned to
her friend. “Can you imagine that it was his own flesh and blood
that wanted him dead?” She shook her head in incomprehension.
“Money could really make people do impractical things.”

“
Christine, I do not think
Lady Ivy would want to listen to such story,” Merrick said over his
wine glass.

“
Dear me you are right,
Merrick. We shouldn’t really talk of such things during dinner.”
Christine nodded her head in agreement. “Now let’s converse about
something else. What about you, Ivy? Tell us a bit about
yourself.”

“
I, err...” Ivy
hesitated.

“
Why don’t you tell
Christine a bit about your past, Ivy?” Max said from across the
table. The tone of his voice was so deep that Ivy thought she heard
it echoed in the dinning room.

“
Yes, that would be
marvelous,” Christine said as she turned her gaze back and forward
between them staring at each other. “Go on,” she urged.

“
Well...” Ivy glanced away
from Max’s intensive gaze and looked about her surrounding,
remembering her father. “Papa was very generous to me,” she began,
“although he was never home much. He was always in London
and...”

“
And your mama?” Christine
probed gently.

Ivy turned to look at Christine and her eyes
had that faraway look. She clamped her lips together and said very
quietly, “She was always here, with me.” She turned to look at the
candlelight before her and whispered, “Papa was sick. He died eight
years ago.”

“
Oh Goodness, what’s wrong
with him?” Christine asked as she rubbed Ivy’s arm gently to
comfort her.

“
I’m not so sure. The
doctor said he was very depressed. I do know that he was in debts.
When he died we had to sell our home to...” She turned her gaze to
Max again.

He stared at her. His eyes were sharp and
intense on her face. It was like he was searching deep into her
soul. She shivered in respond but could not seem to shift her gaze
from his.

“
To who?” Christine asked
as she looked at them staring at each other across the table
again.

Merrick cleared his throat to break the
prolong silent. Ivy blinked and lowered her eyes. Max still had his
gaze fixed on Ivy.

“
Christine,” Merrick
began, “love, why don’t you be a dear and pass me a piece of that
apple loaf?”

Christine looked at her husband with a
frown. “Really, Merrick, my lord sir, I’m sure your hands are long
enough to get that yourself.” She sighed as though men couldn’t be
helped with this kind of thing and said, “But since I am a good
wife I will pass it to you.” She smiled, reached for a piece
sitting on an elegant, big plate beside her right elbow, and handed
it to him.

“
Many thanks, love,” he
said.

“
Not a problem,” she
nodded once, and wasting no time, she turned back to Ivy. “Now, to
who?”

“
To the, err,” Ivy stole a
quick glance at Max and continued, “the highest bidder.”

“
That’s so sad,” Christine
said and padded Ivy’s back.

“
We were forced out of our
home,” Ivy continued as she stared into nothingness.

Max narrowed his eyes at her.

“
I wish I will never meet
that cruel man,” Christine said. “He has no heart to have forced
you all out of your own home like that. A man like that should
never live in peace. He would forever be tormented with guilt, I
assure you, Ivy.”

“
Christine, love, don’t
you think the man has his own reason to have done what he did?”
Merrick commented with one of his brows lifted up a notch as he
raised his glass of Madeira to his lips.

“
Why, Merrick, are you
trying to defend this ogre?” Christine accused and dumped her own
glass of champagne down on the table.

Merrick slowly sipped his wine while he eyed
his wife. God, she was beautiful with her chestnut hair formed into
ringlets and there were some long tendrils dancing near her face
and brushing against her petal white skin. Her gown was of a sea
blue color that had quite a low neckline thus showing her soft skin
to him, enticing him.

“
Nay, my love,” he started
as he looked at her breasts with half-closed eyes. He felt quite
excited and very warm indeed.

“
I’m not defending
this
ogre
as you
so call him,” he said, and he remembered the first time he had seen
those enchanting breasts. They were very round and there were
droplets of water on them.

It had been a beautiful
summer afternoon, and he had returned from a dinner party--annoyed
and frustrated because he hadn’t been able to understand why he had
this overwhelming desire to bed his own ward. And there he found
her bathing
naked
in the lake. The moment he realized that his ward was
actually a fully grown woman, and a damn beautiful one to boot, he
had fumed. When he had decided to teach her a lesson because she
had been masquerading as a boy in front of him, he found that he
couldn’t wait to get started and he dame well couldn’t wait to
touch her either, everywhere.

“
That ogre, my lord sir,
had forced our Ivy out of her home. He is a man with no heart I
assure you,” Christine said and then turned to Ivy. “You know, at
the very least he could’ve allowed you time to find another place
to stay.” She shook her head and then looked at Max. “And where
were you, your grace?”

Max raised his blonde brows at her.

Merrick chuckled at her attack.

“
Where were you when all
this was happening? You are her cousin and yet you weren’t there to
help them when they were in obvious crisis.” She shook her head.
“You men.” She sighed as though
they
men couldn’t be
helped.

Max laughed. She was such a character, he
thought, this Christine. He could still remember the first time he
had met her. She was Merrick’s ward then, and he knew straight away
that this ward was dressing herself as a boy was in fact a
beautiful woman in disguised. He hadn’t forgotten that sunny
morning when she was helping the gardeners cleaning up the pond
either. She was pulling weeds, and he, the unconventional Lord
Devil that he was, had offered to help her. When they both tumbled
into the muddy pond, Merrick had screamed at them and had ordered
her to return to the Hall. She had refused, however, and his angry
friend had caught her and had meant to punish her, Max was sure of
that. The stubborn girl, however, had a mind of her own and in the
end they were wrestling in the mud instead. And he had found
himself laughing like he never did before.

Max’s deep, timbre voice caused Ivy to look
at him. When he stopped laughing, he turned his gaze to her.
“Perhaps your mother had done something to deserve such a fait, my
dear.”

Ivy gritted her teeth and said, “My mother
did nothing of the sort.”

“
Your grace!” Christine
gasped. “How could you say that?”

“
Mayhap it is the truth,”
Max said and turned his attention to his Madeira.

“
Do ignore him, Ivy, men
are insufferable. Mere male, you know. Now tell us where you went
after this heartless man had thrown you all out of your own home?”
Christine continued.

Ivy blushed. She didn’t want to talk anymore
of her past and insisted said, “We should change the subject.”

“
Ivy, please, we are
friends now,” Christine persisted.

“
Have you been to
Staffordshire Town?” Ivy asked.

Christine clamped her lips together. “Well,”
she said, “no, but I’d love to.”

“
It’s very beautiful. We
should go together,” Ivy suggested, pretending to be very
interested in her food all of a sudden. “Could you pass me that
trifle please?”

“
You look happy when you
talk about the town,” Christine said as she took one and handed it
to her. “What’s there that interests you?”

“
Nay, nothing,” Ivy said,
biting onto the nicely thick layer of Naple biscuits, custard, and
the heavenly light syllabub. The creamy, thick custard stuck to her
tongue, and to her surprise, she liked it. “But they do have this
wonderful pastrycook’s shop. The cakes are marvelous.”

“
Pastrycook’s shop?”
Christine raised her brows. “Oh, how wonderful, Tyson would love to
go. He simply adores ice cream.”

“
Tyson?” Ivy turned to her
friend.

“
My foster brother, he’s
about twelve years old or there about. I’m not so sure of his age
really.”