This was insanity. It was wrong on so many levels, he told himself as he deepened the kiss, but it also felt so completely right that he was powerless to stop himself. He parted her lips with the tip of his tongue and explored the contours of her mouth like a man with a point to prove. She responded by wrapping her arms around his neck as their tongues tangled in an exotic dance that required no music.
Their bodies collided and Troy was dimly aware of her curling her fingers in his hair. He was more acutely aware of his growing desire, the deep oneness he felt for this wild, vibrant and gloriously diverse female who both tempted and infuriated him on so many levels. He had quite simply never met anyone to compare to her and wanted her with every fibre of his being.
How he found the strength to break the kiss before compulsion overcame common sense and he took matters beyond the point of no return he could not afterwards have said. Her mere presence plagued his senses and almost caused him to forget his own name. Mrs Brione Gilliard had a very great deal of chaos to answer for.
‘What was that for?’ she asked, blinking up at him in a dazed fashion as she ran a finger with infinite gentleness down his scarred cheek. ‘I thought you were angry with me.’
‘I was angry with myself and took it out on you, which is unpardonable.’
She seemed satisfied with that explanation, inadequate though it must have sounded, and smiled as she moved into the room, taking a seat beside the fire. Troy decided to sit across from her. That way there was a vague possibility that he would manage to keep his hands to himself.
‘These are unique times,’ she said, glancing down to adjust the fall of her skirts. She snatched off her gloves and then her bonnet, which had been knocked askew during their kiss. ‘You are angry because I am speaking with the suspected traitors and you feel less in control as a consequence. You also feel culpable because the traitor was a member of your regiment—but really, I cannot see how that can be your fault.’
He chuckled. ‘You understand me too well.’
‘You might be a duke, but you are also a man like any other.’
‘I shall remember that when I next feel the need to get above myself.’
A teasing smile touched her lips. ‘That I very much doubt. You are far too accustomed to dishing out orders and having them obeyed without question. That is also why you are so angry with me—but as I have told you before, I am not one of your soldiers. I also have a brain in my head, which means that I am perfectly capable of thinking for myself and adapting to situations as they arise.’ She sent him a challenging look that required Troy to fist his hands to prevent himself from reaching across, tumbling her onto his lap and reminding her what he was capable of when roused. ‘Anyway, I had best tell you what I found out, which is precious little, I’m afraid. Sir Gregory showed a reaction to Conrad.’ She chuckled. ‘It is what caused him almost to fire an arrow into his own foot.’
Troy grinned. ‘That or your distracting presence. Frazer is aware of the codename but probably wonders how you came to know it, which would account for his poor aim, one imagines.’
‘I can’t see him thriving as a spy myself,’ she said pensively. ‘He doesn’t seem very intelligent. Rather better at obeying your orders than thinking on his feet. I have heard the manner in which his mother and sister speak to him. They both run rings around him and he is incapable of curbing their behaviour.’
‘I tend to agree with you, but we cannot exonerate him on the grounds of being slow-witted or dominated by the females in his family.’
‘I suppose not.’ She pouted. ‘How discouraging. Captain Craig seemed unaffected by the mention of the name. I really don’t think he’s the guilty party. If he is then he is the best actor never to have trodden the boards. Besides, I like him.’
‘Then it is definitely him!’
Brione smiled and waved the suggestion aside. ‘Not that my liking a person should sway your judgement.’ Her smile faded quickly. ‘I liked, more than liked Evan, but I obviously judged him completely wrongly.’
‘You were speaking with Vaughan again for a long time,’ Troy said briskly, thinking it better not to dwell upon her feelings for her late husband. She needed to come to terms with his deception in her own time and without his interference. ‘What did he have to say for himself?’
‘Now him, I do suspect.’ Brione sat forward. ‘One of the first subjects he raised was Ana deSouza.’
‘How very insensitive of him.’
‘Perhaps, but I didn’t really mind. Naturally, I am curious about her. He told me that she is currently in London.’
Troy’s lifted brows reflected his suspicions. ‘Is she? I was not aware, but then there is no reason why I should be.’
‘I asked him what had brought her to England. He implied that he couldn’t say very much, other than that they had interests in common. I suggested those interests were based in Whitehall and he didn’t deny it.’ She paused to send Troy a speculative look from beneath lowered lashes. ‘He also said that Ana wants to meet me.’
Troy scowled. ‘How the devil does he know that?’
‘Apparently they are friends.’
‘If it is true, I don’t think it a very good idea. What purpose would it serve?’
‘I don’t suppose she intends to cause me physical harm. Besides, I’m curious about her. I really do want to know why Evan was so fixated upon her.’
‘In your situation, I would probably feel the same way,’ he conceded. ‘But have you paused to consider that Gilliard may have been the traitor and that they were in it together?’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Goodness, the possibility hadn’t occurred to me.’
He chuckled at her fit of pique. ‘Sarcasm does not become you.’
‘Oh, I disagree. I find sarcasm a very satisfying means of communication, especially since the majority of people whom I direct it at haven’t the wits to realise that I am being facetious.’
‘Minx!’ Troy eased himself into a more comfortable position, enjoying his verbal exchange with Brione enormously. ‘What shall you do if you hear from Ana?’
‘I shall meet her. Naturally, I am intrigued.’
‘Very well, I can understand your desire for answers, but please, don’t meet her alone.’
‘Do stop being so protective.’ Brione waved his concerns impatiently aside. ‘Anyway, if she does write to me, I shall receive her either in my house, which has a full complement of servants, or in a public place. There, will that satisfy you?’
‘Not nearly, but it will have to suffice. Where you are concerned, I can’t seem to help being protective.’ Troy took a deep breath as he struggled to contemplate the events of the afternoon with his customary single-minded clarity. It was a difficult ambition to achieve with such a challenging distraction seated across from him, but since her safety was becoming increasingly important to him he made a concerted effort. ‘However, with regard to your suspicions about my adjutant, unless he runs off or does something out of character, then we are no further forward.’
‘I could drop a mild suggestion into conversation about the papers Evan left behind. I have been too distraught to go through them but the business of Conrad is playing on my mind and I am sure he mentioned something about committing his suspicions to paper.’
‘No!’
‘No?’ Her eyes blazed with renewed anger. ‘What do you mean no? I shall say whatever I please. I have a vested interest in getting to the bottom of this business.’
‘Not if it costs you your life,’ he replied, his own anger ignited by her stubborn determination to have her own way. ‘The traitor is ruthless. He would not have gone undetected for so long if he was not. He backed the wrong side by choosing to spy for Napoleon, so now he has an added interest in covering his tracks. He will not allow even a suspicion of his guilt to become public, you must see that.’
‘Yes, but that doesn’t help me with my problems.’
‘I had hoped that knowing about Ana would make you less c
oncerned about Gilliard’s reputation.’
‘It is not just his reputation that suffers. I am being ostracised all the time that rumours continue to abound. Feelings are running very high, as well you know, and even a whisper of disloyalty is enough to see a person cut. Not that I care about society; I am not sufficiently well born to be included within its ranks anyway, but I do take exception to walking down the street and having fingers pointed at me.’
‘Is that what you have had to endure?’ he asked, his anger evaporating as quickly as it had arrived. Ordinarily, Troy knew his own mind and seldom lost his temper. Only this gloriously diverse creature seemed capable of engendering such swift changes in his mood.
‘Yes, to a degree. Whoever blackened Evan’s name did a very thorough job of it, and I have borne the brunt.’ She leaned her elbow on the arm of her chair and absently plucked at her lower lip; a distracting gesture that stirred Troy’s passions in the time-honoured fashion.
‘It has to be someone who understands the workings of the gossip machine.’ She lifted a shoulder in a delicate shrug which did nothing to dispel the lingering anger that swirled in the depths of her eyes. ‘One word in the right ear, as you must realise, and by the end of the night all of society is aware that the unfortunate person being unjustly accused is not to be trusted, and his name will be dropped from every matron’s guest list.’
‘Very true,’ Troy conceded. ‘Frazer doesn’t go to town but both Craig and Vaughan are popular with hostesses, being eligible gentlemen.’
‘You speak from experience, one assumes.’
Troy offered up a wry smile. ‘One of the disadvantages of rank.’
‘Well then, I assume you understand my need to meet Ana and also to reveal the identity of the traitor.’
‘I have always understood that need,’ he responded, with a softly intimate smile.
‘Lieutenant Vaughan warned me off you,’ she said after a short pause.
‘The devil he did!’ Troy grunted. ‘Damned impertinence.’
Brione laughed. ‘He obviously knows you well.’
‘Not as well as he thinks he does.’ Troy quelled his annoyance and returned her smile. ‘What precisely did he warn you to be on your guard against?’
Her cheeks turned a delightful shade of pink. ‘I think you answered your own question when we first entered this room.’ She looked down at her fingers, laced in her lap. ‘Mind you, I wasn’t exactly the epitome of decorum myself—but that was only because you took me by surprise.’
‘Of course I did. The fault is entirely mine.’
‘No it isn’t.’ She flashed another of her enticing smiles. ‘But thank you for being so gallant.’
‘This time yesterday you were still deeply in love with your husband’s memory, with no thoughts of turning elsewhere for solace. Now that you know what he was hiding from you, it’s natural that you will want to assuage your damaged pride. That, I think, is why I was so worried when I saw you with Craig. I wondered if you would be tempted—’
‘You tempt me,’ she said, still staring at her fingers, but Troy could sense that she had surprised herself by making the admission, ‘and I wish that you did not. It’s confusing. I am not ordinarily so free with my affections.’
‘Which is why I should not have allowed jealousy to get the better of me to the extent that I felt the need to prove a point.’
She finally lifted her head and looked directly at him, unable to hide her shock. ‘Jealousy?’
‘It is not an attractive trait, as I am rapidly discovering for the first time.’
She blinked up at him, examining his features as though searching them for signs of a lie. Appearing satisfied by the rich ardency of his expression, she seemed to garner a modicum of satisfaction from it. ‘I felt momentarily jealous too, when Lieutenant Vaughan first told me about Ana, but it lasted for less time, far less than I had imagined would be the case. It was soon replaced by anger, then I felt foolish for being duped, and now I almost feel liberated. It’s as though…I don’t know, it’s hard to explain.’ She spread her hands, struggling to articulate her feelings. ‘I cannot mourn what never existed, so it seems acceptable not to continue grieving for a man whom I didn’t really know and who deliberately set out to deceive me.’
‘Then I am glad that something worthwhile has come out of this whole sorry affair,’ Troy replied softly. ‘And just so that you are aware, I think Gilliard was an idiot.’
‘Thank you.’
‘You are entirely welcome,’ he replied, matching her sombre expression.
‘What now?’ she asked after a momentary pause.
‘About the suspects?’
She set him a mischievous little grin. ‘What else?’
He shook his head, provoked by her manner almost beyond endurance. ‘I would advise against tempting me, my sweet,’ he said in a low voice. ‘You may not enjoy the consequences.’
‘Is that what I was doing?’ she asked innocently.
Troy, knowing when he was beaten, wisely said nothing more on that particular subject. ‘Just continue to mix with the guests,’ he said instead, ‘and I will keep a careful watch over Vaughan and Craig.’
‘Did you know that Lieutenant Vaughan went out on horseback early this morning? Rachel and I saw him returning when we ourselves were coming back from our walk. He didn’t seem especially pleased to see us and barely paused to offer a greeting.’
‘There could be a perfectly innocent explanation, but I will instigate enquiries.’
‘Very well.’ Brione stood and collected her scattered possessions, ready to leave him again. He didn’t want her to go, but also knew it would be unwise to detain her. She might be capable of behaving herself but he was unsure if the same could be said for him, for which he held Brione entirely responsible. She had no business being quite such an enigma, such a mixture of experience and naiveté; mischief and stubborn determination. ‘I shall go up now and see you later at dinner.’
‘I look forward to it.’
She fondled Shadow’s ears and then straightened up again, deliberately appearing to avoid his eye. Troy would have given a great deal to know what thoughts were occupying her mind, since he didn’t entirely trust her to do as he asked. He took her hand, turned it over and placed his lips on the inside of her wrist, watching her reaction as he did so. Her cheeks coloured and her own lips parted temptingly in momentary surprise. He saw a combination of confusion and expectation in her eyes, which brought him to his senses.
‘Go!’ he said, opening the door and all but pushing her through it.
He closed it behind her and leaned against it, conscious of her light, floral fragrance lingering in the air. ‘Ye gods,’ he muttered aloud, reaching for the whisky decanter. ‘What the devil have I got myself into?’
Chapter Sixteen
Brione made her way back to her room, feeling flustered after her confrontation, assignation, liaison—she was unsure what name to give the interlude with Troy. What he had been attempting to prove with his forceful and dogmatic possessiveness was even less clear to her. She recalled the fervent gleam in his eye, so intense that she had almost been afraid of the power of his passionate, persuasive ways. Not that much persuasion had been necessary, but that was not the point.
It was wrong—and furthermore it was not what she wanted. She might feel cheated and humiliated by Evan’s duplicity, but that did not make her a powerful aristocrat’s plaything. She ought to have made that clear to him, instead of falling into his arms like a wilting violet. Ye gods, had she really groaned when he broke the kiss? She wanted to bang her head against the wall in mortification.
The flippant comments that she ought to have voiced at the time in an effort to defuse the situation and make light of things now sprang spontaneously to mind. It was easy, she was fast discovering, to think of pithy retorts when she wasn’t in the same room as the infuriatingly elegant duke. It was quite another to voice them when he loomed over her—dark, predatory and oh so
very dangerously attractive—filling her with feelings of giddy anticipation, tempting her to revenge herself on Evan from beyond the grave.
Shaking her head, Brione glanced down into the keep as she walked along the upper corridor and noticed that it was now devoid of guests. All bar Lieutenant Vaughan, who leaned one shoulder against a wall and looked directly up at her position, almost as though he had been waiting to see her. He raised a hand in salute but she pretended not to notice and carried on walking.
A small army of servants was efficiently clearing away all signs of the afternoon’s activities, whilst others were doubtless toiling away below stairs, preparing another grand banquet. She must have been with Troy for longer than she realised. Had the lieutenant followed her into the house and seen Troy drag her into his lair? She felt an unsettling chill run down her spine at the possibility. It seemed sinister and perhaps over-dramatic to suppose that he had turned the tables and was now spying on her.
She entered her room and flopped down in a chair.
‘What just happened between us?’ she asked aloud.
Part of her had welcomed the delicious distraction supplied by the disturbingly poised master of this house. If that had been Troy’s intention—to distract her from her determination to expose the traitor—then he had succeeded better than he could have realised. His deep, probing looks, to say nothing of his equally probing kisses, had caused all other thoughts to flee from her head. He genuinely liked her. That much was evident, since she was perfectly sure that he didn’t make a habit of kissing his female guests or showing so much concern for their wellbeing. But to admit to jealousy? It hardly seemed feasible.
She leaned the side of her face on her cupped hand as she considered the possibility, shaking her head after a second or two in decisive rejection of it. She had almost fallen for the potency of his charm and it simply wouldn’t serve to be drawn in by him and have her heart broken.
Again.
A heart that he could very easily own, had she not already had her fingers so comprehensively burned. Evan had totally deceived her and she would not make the same mistake twice.
To Desire a Duke: Dangerous Dukes Vol 8 Page 20