“I too would derive pleasure from wrapping my hand around the person’s neck and throttling them, but I am afraid that I am not in the habit of thrashing women,” Kolton remarked.
“Woman? Do you mean to tell me a woman had the audacity to threaten to sentence my daughter to hell on earth?”
“I am afraid so.” Kolton reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew the threatening document. “I searched Lady Prudence’s room again and found this.” He handed the other man the note from the blackmailer. “As it is plain to see, the missive is penned in a woman’s hand.”
“The woman is either an imbecile or a fool,” the duke said as he read the letter. “She doesn’t appear to have even attempted to disguise her writing.”
“You said you might know who is behind this; is it because you recognize the handwriting?” Lady Hope asked anxiously as she studied the note over her father’s shoulder.
“Yes. I believe it is Lady Helena Whenton who penned the letter.”
“Lady Whenton?” Stoneville said with obvious surprise. “I hardly know the woman.”
“I have met her,” his daughter offered, a disgusted expression marring her lovely features. “She is a vicious, sharp-tongued, harpy.”
Both men looked at the duke’s daughter with raised eyebrows.
Her eyes flitted back and forth between them, noting the surprise and censure directed her way by the two men. “I overheard her at your engagement ball, my lord. I gave her a piece of my mind on the topic of her atrocious behavior,” she informed both men, squaring her shoulders and lifting her chin defiantly.
The duke smiled for the first time since entering the room. “I am sure you gave her a taste of your own sharp tongue if I know you, my little hellion.”
Lady Hope smiled back at her father. “Yes. I gave her quite the scathing set-down; and it was most satisfying I must say.”
“The question is,” Kolton said breaking into the conversation, “where do we go from here. I would like to leave first thing in the morning to fetch Lady Prudence, but I doubt she will come willingly if she believes Lady Whenton has not been taken care of.”
“Leave that to me,” the duke said confidently. “I believe by late tomorrow the lady in question will suddenly have the strong desire to take herself off to the continent for an indefinite period of time. She may even decide to stay there permanently.”
Kolton nodded his understanding. He had no doubt the duke would have little, if any, problem convincing Helena that England was the last place she wanted to be.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Prudence hoped the weather would hold as she sat in the back garden of the hunting cottage she and Kolton had spent two glorious days and nights not so long ago, and stared up at the overcast sky. She loved sitting outdoors while she painted or sketched as she was doing now. She looked down at what she had drawn. Kolton’s cheerful expression and laughing eyes stared back at her from the page. Pain and longing for what they might have had washed over her like a thick fog. She traced his features longingly, wishing it was his face she was touching.
Prudence sighed heavily and closed her sketchpad. Would the pain and regret ever ease? In a little over a week, they would have become man and wife. They would have had a happy life. She was sure. She wished, not for the first time, she had gone to Kolton and told him everything. She probably should have, but couldn’t take the chance of him refusing to break the engagement and therefore expose Hope’s secret to the whole of England.
Hope. The only family she had left in the world. Prudence didn’t discount her second cousin, Victoria, and the rest of the Stanvilles as family, but Hope was her sister—the only one she would ever have, and Hope’s wellbeing had to come first.
Prudence stood and headed into the house; it was getting close to lunchtime and she should at least try to eat something. Her appetite had been non-existent these last few weeks. She had lost weight and listless as a result.
She was slicing the bread she had bought at the local bakery in town, a pot of soup heating on the stove, when the sound of a carriage pulling up in front of the house caught her attention.
Who on earth could that be?
She wouldn’t answer the door, she thought franticly as she removed the soup from the stove. She had purposely tried to attract little attention in Brenshire, but a stranger in a small town rarely went unnoticed. She prayed it was the local vicar to pay a call on the newcomer in his hamlet, and not one of Kolton’s friends come to use the hunting cabin. She couldn’t be found now; her solicitor had yet to finalize the purchase of the small house she had decided to buy in the quiet coastal town, hours away from London.
She heard the door open and bang shut followed by heavy footsteps coming down the hall.
“Prudence! I know you’re here. Don’t try to hide; this house isn’t big enough and my patience is at an end.”
Oh no!
Kolton had found her. What had made him think to look here? Then she remembered her letter to Hope. She had to have gone straight to Kolton. But why? Didn’t she know what would happen if she did?
Prudence quickly turned and headed to the back door to make her escape. She didn’t know where she would go; all she knew at that moment was she couldn’t allow Kolton to find her.
She had her hand on the door handle, about to yank it open, when Kolton appeared in the kitchen doorway.
“Something smells delicious. What are we having?”
Prudence froze.
Caught. Bloody hell!
She barely stopped the words before they flew from her lips. She dropped her hand from the door. She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and slowly turned to face the man she had managed to elude for weeks. Her heart constricted. He looked like he hadn’t slept well in the time that had passed, dark circles under his eyes bore testament to the fact. He was leaner, his face drawn. Prudence wanted to run to him, throw her arms around him, and kiss away the pain and anger she saw in his eyes. Instead, she looked away, fixing her gaze somewhere in the vicinity of his cravat.
He leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms over his chest. Prudence sensed the tension in him despite his casual pose. “Well? Aren’t you going to greet your betrothed? It has been quite some time since we last embraced.” he remarked, a hint of sarcasm lacing his tone.
“Kolton, I . . .” What could she say? She had deserted him, left him with only pen and ink serving as a farewell.
He straightened and closed the distance between them. He grasped her chin, forcing her to meet his eyes. “You don’t have to explain, I know everything. I only ask that you answer one question—truthfully, Pru.” The anger had left his expression, but she sensed the tension that remained. His eyes held hers, the vulnerability and entreaty that filled them made her blink back the moisture that gathered in her own.
Prudence had to swallow hard to dislodge the lump in her throat. “I will do my best.”
“Do you love me, Pru? No, look at me and answer my question,” he demanded softly when she lowered her eyes.
“Kolton, I can’t—”
He nudged her chin a little higher until she was forced to meet his eyes. Eyes that begged for the truth. “Yes, you can, sweetheart. Do you love me?”
“Yes.” She closed her eyes, trying to somehow block out the pain of knowing her answer made no difference. They could never be together, no matter what he said to try to change her mind.
Kolton let out a great gust of air and pulled her to him, resting his cheek against her temple. “Thank, God, Pru. It has been hell without you. The days—and even the nights—without your sweet light to brighten them were so unbearably dark and bleak. I love you so much, my dearest Prudence. Promise me you will never leave me again.”
Prudence drank in the sensation of being in his arms once again while her heart shattered into a thousand pieces. How could she possibly promise such a thing? But, how could she bear to hurt him again? If only there were some other way.
She couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. “Kolton, we can’t...I can’t . . .” she sobbed. “If you know everything, you must realize why I cannot come back, why I cannot marry you.”
“Yes, I know everything, love,” he said softly, pulling out a handkerchief and gently dabbing away the tears streaking her cheeks. “I know about your sister, I know about the blackmail. It is all over now, sweetheart. I know who it was who threatened you; and Hope went to her father and told him everything.”
Prudence’s heart leapt with hope for the first time in weeks. “You know who it is?”
“Yes. It was Lady Whenton.”
Prudence’s mind flashed back to the night of their betrothal ball. Lady Constance had said her aunt believed her own betrothal to Kolton had been in her future. She remembered all the nasty things Lady Whenton had said about her. It had never occurred to Prudence that Lady Helena would have the nerve or where to all to do such a thing. Obviously, Prudence had underestimated the horrid woman.
“But she has proof, Kolton. She still could—”
“The Duke knows of Lady Whenton’s scheme,” Kolton informed her. “Threatening his daughter was a dangerous move and not very bright of her, I might add.”
Prudence imagined threatening the wellbeing of a one of the duke’s love ones was ill advised. The Duke of Stoneville was as powerful a man as one could be, aside from Royalty itself. Prudence shuddered at the thought of what would befall Lady Whenton. “What will become of her?”
Kolton smiled grimly. “The Duke and I paid her a visit earlier today. With little persuasion she turned over what evidence she’d arranged to be stolen from you and agreed it was best that she leave the country immediately.”
He would have loved to have throttled the woman when she had smugly denied his accusation, and then had the audacity to suggest they resume relations. But, the look of shock and horror on the woman’s face when the duke and his daughter arrived shortly after him gave no little satisfaction. It proved amusing in fact.
Faced with the damning evidence against her, and the threat of both social and financial ruin, Helena had put up little fight before turning over the letter and diaries to the duke.
He pulled Pru against him and wrapped his arms tightly around her. “I assure you, Pru, there is nothing left to fear,” he assured her placing a kiss on her temple.
Prudence felt the crushing weight of guilt and pain, which had borne down on her since she first, read the horrible missive dissolve, freeing her to love and be loved by the most wonderful man in the world.
She threw her arms around him and hugged him back. “Oh, Kolton! I am so sorry I didn’t come to you. I didn’t want to leave, but I saw no other choice. Please forgive me for hurting you.”
His arms tightened around her. “I could forgive you most anything, my love. I know it couldn’t have been easy for you. Hurting someone is not in your nature. Just promise me you will never keep something so important from me ever again.”
“I promise,” she vowed, meeting his eyes solemnly. “I should have come to you at once; I know that now. I am so sorry—I cannot express how much.”
“I know. I know.” He cupped her face and lowered his head. His kiss was so sweet and filled with love; it brought tears to her eyes.
“I love you so much, Kolton,” she whispered when the kiss ended.
“And I you, Pru. And I you.”
Prudence rose to her toes and kissed him with all the love she had inside her. Kolton groaned and deepened their kiss, crushing her to him as he ravaged her mouth with hungry desperation. Their embrace grew heated, each striving to draw the other closer, to meld themselves into one being.
“I need you Pru. Now. I need you so much.” His voice was rough with emotion, his hands going to the fastenings of her dress and undoing them until he could lower the bodice of her gown and shift to her waist.
Prudence cried out when he cupped her breast and captured her nipple between his lips and suckled her. Her knees gave out and he caught her. Turning, he lifted her onto the table and stepped between her legs.
Prudence was on fire. She couldn’t wait to feel his bare skin pressed to hers. She pushed his jacket off his shoulders and opened the fastenings of his vest. When she came to his cravat she grew restless, yanking at it roughly until it fell open. Impatiently, she fumbled with the fastenings of his shirt until she gave up and tore at it, sending buttons flying in all directions.
Kolton gave a feral growl of approval against the curve of her neck, tossing up her skirts and deftly opened the fall of his pants.
“Now,” he rasped, grasping her bottom and plunging his hard shaft deep inside her and letting out a heavy groan of pleasure.
“Yes, Kolton!” she cried, wrapping her legs around his waist and pulling him deeper.
He set a rhythm that was fast and strong. “I love you, Pru,” he breathed, capturing her lips in a hungry, openmouthed kiss that sent spears of excitement straight to her womb.
He lay her back on the table and thrust his hips faster, pounding his cock into her mercilessly while little mewling sounds of pleasure tore from her throat as she gripped his clenching buttocks, urging him on.
She tossed her head helplessly side to side as he molded her breasts in his hands and drew at her nipples, scraping his teeth lightly against them and flicking them with his tongue.
“Oh, god, Pru. The taste of you, your smell, you are so tight and wet. God, how I have missed this. Missed you. Never leave me again,” he moaned.
He straightened and grabbed her hips, pulling her to meet each of his driving thrusts. She looked into his eyes. The love and unbridled passion on his face sent her spinning out of control. Prudence clutched at his forearms, screaming as her body strained toward him, her climax gripping her womb with powerful contractions of pleasure.
“Yes, Pru,” he cried and pumped relentlessly in and out of her, his muscles straining, the tendons standing out at his neck as he neared his own release. “Come for me. Milk me dry. Oh,
yes
!” He threw back his head with a roar of completion as his orgasm seized him and he emptied himself inside her.