Rufus Drake: Duke of Wickedness by Carole Mortimer

Author:Carole Mortimer [Mortimer, Carole]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781460385968
Google: Bzo6CQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Two more days passed before Anna saw Rufus again, and at a time and place she was completely unprepared for.

Hurrying out of the rain, on her way into the church to arrange the flowers for tomorrow’s Sunday services, she instead came to an abrupt halt as she saw a solitary man standing a short distance away in the churchyard.

Rufus.

He stood at the Drake crypt, head bent, seemingly unaware of the light rain falling and dampening his hat and clothes.

He looked so alone.

Which was a strange thought to have about a duke. A very wealthy and much-sought-after duke, as village gossip indicated that every well-connected family in the area had sent him invitations to dinner parties and hastily arranged balls.

Invitations Anna knew he had so far neither accepted nor refused.

She fought a battle within herself for several minutes as she continued to watch Rufus, part of her wanting to continue on into the church and begin her flower arranging and forget that she had ever seen him, the other part of her drawn to somehow try to alleviate some of his loneliness.

The softness of her heart meant the latter easily won out.

Leaving her flowers in the vestibule, Anna came back out of the church to walk down the pathway towards where Rufus stood.

Rufus knew almost instantly that he was no longer alone, sensing—no, feeling—Anna’s presence behind him, at the same time as he smelled the faint hint of mint he now associated only with her.

He turned slowly to look at her from beneath the brim of his hat. “You should not be out here in the rain.” The shawl she had draped about her shoulders was already showing damp, as was her pale green gown.

“Neither should you,” she countered gently. “Were you very close?” She looked up at the crypt where the names of Rufus’s uncle and two cousins had been added these past three years.

“Not close enough.” He gave a sad shake of his head as he too glanced up at his ornate family crypt. “I suppose we all think there’s plenty of time, that next week, or next month, or next year, we will make an effort to spend time with family, with those we love. And then fate decides otherwise.” He turned to look at her, “No, I was not close to my uncle and cousins, Anna. But I now wish that I had been.”

“You have other family?”

“Oh yes,” he smiled. “I have an interfering mother, and a maternal cousin who can be just as interfering.”

“They both love you, else they would not take the time to bother.”

Rufus looked at her incredulously for several moments and then he gave a rueful smile. “You are very wise for one so young.”

She shrugged. “I am a parson’s daughter.”

She was the strangest parson’s daughter Rufus had ever met. The only parson’s daughter he had ever met.

Anna was only in her very early twenties, and yet there was such wisdom in her eyes, so much understanding for what he had been trying to convey with words that, to him, seemed too trite, too dismissive.

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