The Dissolute Duke by Sophia James

Author:Sophia James
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781472003713
Publisher: HarlequinUKLtd
Published: 2013-03-12T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

‘You crept up on him like a coward and knocked him out?’

He shook his head and then clutched at the side of it.

‘With a whole group of others to help you do your dirty work?’

‘Of course not.’

‘You used an iron bar on his scalp and hit him with it from behind, allowing him no chance to defend himself, and when he was down you kicked at his face?’

He seemed to suddenly lose patience with her questions, leaning forwards to take her hand into his.

‘Thank you, Lucinda.’

‘You are welcome, Taylen.’

His blood had made his palm sticky and he was careful to wipe her fingers with the tail of his shirt when he let go. Such a simple action and so much imbued within it. She looked away so that he would not see the emotion on her face. Outside the London streets were as busy as usual, nothing changed. Inside her world had shifted, though, the touch of his fingers against her own different now, more familiar. His smell. His warmth. The breadth of his thighs as they pressed against the velour on the seat.

‘My parents always believed in the concept of treating everyone as an enemy. Tonight I forgot.’ The words were said concisely, as if he would place a point on each one of them.

‘Advice like that makes me wonder whether such people have the right to offspring. Surely no child deserves to be brought up under such a cruel misconception.’

The sound of his laughter filled the small space, allowing accord to push through shock and anger. ‘Are you usually so forthright, Duchess?’

‘Indeed I am, Duke. My family would tell you that it is one of my greatest faults.’

His head shook as the Wellingham town house came into view, the action shadowed on the wall of the carriage behind him by the light from the portico. His hair had worked free from its leather strap and lay around his shoulders, darker than the darkness.

‘But I would not. Free speech has always been a particular preference of mine. I think it a residue of being raised by parents who never said what they actually thought.’

‘Because they were trying to protect you?’

He laughed again and was about to say something more when a movement on the stairs before them caught his attention. ‘It seems we have a welcoming party.’

Lucinda’s heart sank. With the blood from his nose still smeared across his face, a rapidly darkening eye and a thickened lip, Taylen Ellesmere looked exactly like the reprobate her brothers had good reason to think that he was.

‘I won’t come in. I doubt my body could take another beating.’ The dispassionate and cynical Duke was back, no warmth in his eyes at all as the footman opened the door and the light spilled upon them.

‘A further rowdy night of fighting, Alderworth?’ Asher’s question was layered with disgust.

‘Someone has to subdue the scum of London. It may as well be me.’

‘No, it isn’t as you think it—’ Lucinda began as she stepped down from the coach, but her husband cut her off.

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