Taken by the Duke (23 page)

“Please,” she said, softening her tone.

“Yes. Yes.” He swallowed. “Sanders, are you hidden somewhere in the fray?”

The butler pushed his way past the larger footmen and bobbed out a clipped nod. “I am, Your Grace.”

“Will you please show our…our guest to the west parlor and provide him with food and refreshment after his long ride here?”

Liam shook his head. “No. I’m not going to go sit in your fucking parlor—” Ava flinched, for her brother had never used such language before her. He didn’t seem to care that he just had. “—and eat your food while you have my sister naked in your bed.”

Ava turned back to him. “Liam, I want to get dressed. I’m sure the duke wants to get dressed. We are not going to resolve this until both of us have a chance to do this. Now stop being an ass, go downstairs, have something to settle your stomach and wait for me.”

He stared at her, his mouth twisted with horrified recognition.

“If you try to take her again,” he said to Christian, his voice low and dangerous. “I will find you and shoot you where you stand, prison or the hangman’s noose be damned.”

Christian’s lips parted as if he would reply, but Ava answered instead. “He isn’t taking me anywhere. Please, Liam. Please.”

Her brother didn’t answer her, but turned on his heel and headed from the room, following Sanders as the other servants dissipated and shut the door, leaving Ava and Christian alone again.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I have no idea how he would have found out where I was taken.”

Christian shrugged. “I’m sure he knows a great deal about me, about my holdings. My sister might have even told him about this house. It doesn’t matter—he is here now.”

She nodded, but tears were already stinging her eyes. “Please promise me you won’t hurt each other.”

He moved forward and took her into his arms. “I swear to you, I will not hurt your brother. I cannot speak for him when it comes to me, especially considering the scene he walked in on.”

Heat flooded Ava’s cheeks as she pulled away. “I should dress. Please don’t go downstairs and confront him without me.”

Christian looked at her for a long moment, his expression unreadable, hooded. “I won’t.”

Relief flooded her as she turned to leave his bedroom and find Laura to assist her. But as she reached the door, his voice stopped her.

“Ava,” he said. She turned. “Would he hurt you?”

She blinked in surprise at his question. But the answer came as naturally to her as breathing.

“No.
No
, he would never hurt me.”

“He’s very angry,” he said, tone neutral.

She shrugged. “That he is, and I’m sure quite disgusted with me now that I think he can see I am not the victim he portrayed me in his mind. But despite what you think you know about Liam, despite what you have heard or thought or felt about him, he would never raise a hand to me. He loves me. In his own way.”

“And you are certain of this?” Christian pressed.

Her brow wrinkled, because she was unsure why in the world he would even ask her these questions so insistently.

“I’m absolutely positive. There is no doubt in my mind.”

He nodded slowly. “I will knock on your door when I am dressed, and we can face him together.”

Something in her made her hesitate. Made her want to rush to him, to do what she had promised her brother they would not. She wanted to run away with him.

But instead she slipped from the room and walked toward her own chamber on heavy feet and with an equally weighted heart.

Christian checked his appearance one final time before he exited his chamber and went down the hall to collect Ava. With every step, his mind hurt. His body hurt. His heart hurt.

He knocked on her door and a moment later it was opened by Laura. He normally pulled his gaze away from his sister’s former maid because seeing her brought back so many painful memories, but today he looked. Laura was pale, her lips thin, and there were shadows beneath her eyes.

“Are you well?” he asked, taken aback by what he saw.

She jolted at the question. “Of course, Your Grace. I was simply helping Lady Ava.”

She motioned into the room and Christian saw Ava sitting at her dressing table, fussing with her hair a little.

“I’m almost ready,” she said before she shot him a nervous glance.

He was about to enter the room when Laura reached out to grab his arm. Her fingers dug into him, and she looked at him with wild eyes.

“Reports from the other servants say that bastard is here,” she whispered, staring at him. “Tell me, is it true?”

Christian yanked his arm free from her grip and stared at her in shock. He did not think a person in his employ had ever been so forward.

“Mind your place, Laura,” he said, equally low so that Ava wouldn’t hear the exchange. “You may have been close to my sister, but you are still under my employ. Ava’s brother is here, yes, but he is our—” He swallowed hard against the foreign thing he was about to say. “—
guest
. If you cannot control yourself in his presence, be certain you do not cross his path.”

He looked at her again, with her wild stare and shaking shoulders.

“In fact, I order you not to do so,” he added. “I don’t want Ava more upset than she already is.”

Laura stared at him for a long moment, and then she bobbed out a quick curtsey. “Yes, Your Grace. Of course.”

She said nothing more and left the room. Christian shook off his surprise at her strong reaction to matters at hand and entered the room.

“Did Laura leave?” Ava asked, looking back over her shoulder again.

For a moment, Christian forgot every horrible thing that was surely about to happen. As he stood there, watching Ava finish her final preparations, he couldn’t help but picture this as his everyday life.

He shook that thought away instantly.

“Yes. She was called to help another servant,” he lied. “But you look lovely. I cannot imagine you need more assistance.”

She smiled at him as she stood. “I don’t, but I wanted to thank her for putting up with my fidgeting.”

He held out a hand. She hesitated before she took it.

“Christian,” she whispered, looking up at him.

He nodded. “I know.”

They held stares for a moment, then she nodded once and allowed him to lead her from the room. It seemed like the walk to the parlor took an eternity and yet when they arrived at the room, which Sanders had arranged to be watched by two footmen, Christian was disappointed it was over.

After all, once they entered that room, nothing would be the same.

Ava released his arm as she looked at the guards with a frown. “Did you ask Sanders to lock him in?”

He shook his head before he turned to the men. “You may go back to your duties.”

One of the footmen hesitated. “But sir—”

“Your duties,” Christian said through clenched teeth. “Return to them immediately.”

The men scattered, but Ava didn’t wait to retake Christian’s arm and allow him to take her inside. She sighed heavily, then pushed the door open herself.

Windbury was pacing at the fireplace, rather than seated where food and drink had been left for him. When the door opened, he spun around to face them and scowled.

“I’m pleased to see you dressed,” he snarled.

As Ava flinched, Christian took a step forward. “Have a care. Ava is a lady and your sister. I cannot tolerate you treating her as less.”

Windbury glared at him. “As you have?”

“Please!” Ava snapped, raising her hand to silence them both. “Enough. Liam,
what
are you doing here?”

Windbury continued to stare at Christian.

“Liam!”

He shook his head and finally allowed his gaze to settle on her. Christian was pleased to see that, just as she had said earlier, the other man didn’t seem violent toward her.

“Rescuing you, or so I thought.” Windbury turned away to look out the window.

Ava moved toward him slowly. “I meant, how did you find me?”

“A letter,” her brother murmured.

She tilted her head in confusion. “My letter could not have reached you so quickly.”

He turned back. “Not a letter from you, though I am pleased to hear you finally bothered to let me know you were alive. I look forward to reading your explanation of this travesty when we get home. No, the letter that brought me to you was from an anonymous person working here.” He smiled at Christian. “You have disloyal servants.”

A month ago, that would have enraged Christian, but today he felt very little in response. His servants had never made it a secret that many of them were uncomfortable with his stealing Ava. It couldn’t surprise him that one might have risked his or her job to try to end the madness Christian had created.

Ava rubbed her eyes. “Liam—”

Her brother ignored her. “I should kill you. Challenge you at dawn.”

Christian knew Windbury was trying to make him rise to the bait. It was very difficult not to do exactly that. After all, his life had been spent in this manner. But now he kept his worst responses quiet within himself.

Ava shook her head. “Please, hasn’t there been enough death, enough injury? Enough pain from this ridiculousness? No duels. Not for me, not when I do not require them.”

“He took your innocence,” Windbury insisted through clenched teeth, looking at her briefly. “Do you think I can allow that to stand?”

She stared at her brother with all the strength which Christian had come to admire so deeply.

“You say that as if shooting this man down would be in my defense. There would never be another lie so potent.” She shrugged. “You would shoot Christian for your own hate, not for me.”

Windbury stared at her. “You don’t know—”

“I know perfectly well what happened to me.” She folded her arms. “Yes, Rothcastle took me. He did it to torture you, just as I know you have done things to torture him in the past. It was wrong of him to do so. I think he knows that.”

She glanced at Christian, and although she didn’t wait for his response, her words cut him to the bone. Of course he had known it was wrong. He hadn’t cared.

Until he knew her.

“But whatever happened after that was my choice,” she insisted. “The duke and I came to an arrangement, and I do not regret nor apologize for that.”

“An
arrangement
,” her brother repeated, his tone flat and dull. “I shudder to think what you bargained your innocence for.”

“You,” Christian said softly. “While we have been making war, your sister was willing to risk everything to broker peace. We should be ashamed to be in her presence.”

Ava turned toward him, her lips parted and her eyes glittering with tears. She stared at him, and he could see how taken aback she was by those words.

“It is true,” he murmured, for her rather than for her brother’s benefit.

Windbury squeezed his eyes shut. “I am sickened by this entire disaster. And I am taking my sister home.”

Christian would have spoken, but Ava did not give him the chance. She pivoted on her brother.

“No!”

Liam stepped away from her, mouth twisted in something akin to disgust. “You cannot be serious.”

“I am very serious. This man and I have a bargain and I—”

Christian stepped forward. In her desperation, Ava could not see how deeply she was damaging her relationship with her brother. But he couldn’t allow her to do that, for her sake, not Windbury’s.

“Ava,” he said, cutting her off. “I’m letting you go.”

She froze, still facing her brother. Her shoulders were so stiff, her hands clenched into shaking fists at her sides. Finally she turned toward him. And her face was lined with upset, betrayal, embarrassment.

“You and I had a deal.” She swallowed hard and her voice cracked. “I do not renege on my promises.”

How he longed to touch her now. To comfort her. But it wouldn’t help. It wouldn’t make it better. In fact, it would make it so very much worse.

“But we made those bargains when we were different people,” he whispered.

“Please, you held my sister hostage for ten days. You cannot say that so short a time has changed you,” Windbury scoffed.

Christian looked at the other man evenly. “One stolen moment with your sister could change a man.”

Ava blinked, and he could see her fighting tears as she stepped toward him. “Christian—”

He shook his head. “Your brother won’t leave you here. Nor should he. Don’t fight him. Go home and pretend, if you can, that I never sullied your life. But know that you have changed mine, Ava. You have changed me, and I thank you for that.”

He expected her to smile at that statement, to nod and accept what he said. Instead, her frown deepened.

“So you are finished with me, then,” she said, almost more to herself than to either of the men in the room with her.

Windbury rolled his eyes. “For God’s sake, Ava. It’s over. He has used you and now it’s time for you to come home.”