A Gentleman's Curse: Avenging Lords - Book 4

by Clee, Adele

  “Have I?” Claudia arched a coy brow.

  “You’re without your coverlet?”

  “So I am.” She cast an admiring glance at his manhood, and yet she wanted to gasp in shock. He was so large … so … so utterly masculine. “And you are without your clothes.”

  “Oddly, it does not seem to bother you now.” He stood strong and proud as if wearing a fine garment, expertly tailored, pleasing to the eye.

  “I’m a good actress.” Claudia shrugged, though realised that was a mistake when the action drew his attention to her breasts. “And it suddenly occurred to me that I have seen statues in books and museums, that I have seen many versions of the male form.”

  Though none so impressive. If one were judging purely on proportions, Mr Lockhart would attract a crowd.

  “Then call Lissette and have her draw you a bath.” A playful twinkle sparkled in his eyes. “I have seen the female form many times, too, once more won’t make a difference.”

  Heavens, she was drowning beneath the depths of her inadequacy. She’d have to fight against the current if she hoped to unsettle this gentleman.

  “Very well.” The words left her lips without conscious thought. It was too late to retract them. Hudson Lockhart had offered a challenge, and she had accepted.

  Pushing nerves aside, Claudia rang for the maid.

  Mr Lockhart slipped back into bed. He remained propped upright on a mound of pillows as he watched the sudden flurry of activity.

  The maid lit the fire. Two footmen carried the tub and made numerous trips upstairs with steaming buckets. Lissette added drops of rosewater to the bath and tied Claudia’s hair in a simple chignon.

  “Shall I fetch the screen, madame?” Lissette asked.

  Claudia stole a glance at Mr Lockhart. Oh, the devil looked thoroughly pleased with the turn of events. He arched an arrogant brow, lounged back and placed his hands behind his head. “Do you need a screen when bathing in front of your husband?”

  Claudia’s knees trembled at the thought of Hudson Lockhart seeing her naked. Part of her wanted to insist upon a means to protect her modesty. The larger part longed to see the same flash of vulnerability in his eyes she’d seen thirty minutes before.

  “I don’t need a screen, Lissette.” This cat-and-mouse game they played had nothing to do with him hiring her to play his wife. It felt like a courtship, a wild, illicit courtship that broke all of society’s rigid rules. “You may leave me now. I shall ring should I need your assistance.”

  How strange that she did not feel vulnerable. For the first time in her life, the power that came with knowing a man desired her gave her strength beyond her height and slender frame. And her foolish pride insisted on proving she was more than capable of dealing with any test he threw her way.

  Lissette left the room and closed the door.

  Claudia remained rooted to the spot next to the bathtub.

  Hudson Lockhart’s sinful grin taunted and seduced both at the same time.

  “Your bath will be cold if you linger.” His velvet voice reached across the room. “If you’re quick, I may have time to slip into your water.”

  Her pulse quickened.

  Do it.

  Do it now.

  Do it before you change your mind and prove you were the second choice.

  “Then I’ll be quick.” She lacked the skill to undress in the titillating way he might like. And so she gathered the hem of the silk nightgown and raised it to her thighs.

  Hudson Lockhart’s breath hissed between his teeth. “You’re not going paddling, my darling. Take it off.”

  “No, I’m not going paddling.” Before nerves consumed her, she drew the garment over her head, tossed it onto the chair and slipped into the warm water without looking at him once.

  “Dariell was right,” he said when she found the courage to look at him. His satisfied smile had turned dark and positively wicked.

  Claudia swallowed deeply as she bent her knees and swished water over her shoulders. “Right about what?” That she would make an excellent second choice?

  “You’re perfect, perfect for me.”

  Her heart leapt and skipped a joyful dance.

  Did he mean it? Or was it part of the act?

  “Perfect to play the wife of a scandalous rogue,” he added.

  Claudia pursed her lips. Could he not have stopped when he said the word me?

  Disappointment came in the form of a hard lump in her throat. Tears welled to prove she was a fraud. She scooped water into her cupped hands and wet her face to wash away any evidence of her sudden distress. Confusion clouded her mind. Oh, she was a jumbled mess of contradictions.

  Was this a game? Did it mean more to her than that?

  Think of Emily.

  Think of paying the debt.

  Don’t think about him.

  “Passion burns just beneath the surface,” he continued, though she wished he would stop talking. “And yet the innocent woman from Falaura Glen appeals to me just as much as the determined temptress. Why is that?”

  “You’re asking me?” She clambered to raise her defences. “Sir, are you not taking your role as husband too seriously?”

  “Marriage is a serious affair.”

  “Indeed, it is.” Had she not said a similar thing to Mr Thorncroft? “Can you fetch me the towel?” She wiggled her fingers at the chair.

  “I can’t. I’m not in any fit state to move from this bed.”

  “Oh.” She wasn’t entirely sure what he meant, but she needed to get dressed, needed to leave this room and focus on the job he’d hired her to do.

  “I doubt you have ever seen a statue in a state of semi-arousal.”

  “No.”

  “Would you like to?”

  “No!” She shot out of the tub, reached for the robe and wrapped it around her wet body. “Have you sent a note to your parents informing them you’re alive?” she asked, banishing all romantic thoughts of this man.

  “There’s no need. Terence will have called, eager to play the doting son. One must pander to my parents if they hope to receive their inheritance.”

  “Then at least they’ll have time to deal with the shock.” Normal conversation helped to settle her ragged emotions. “Other than to update them on the news, what is the purpose of our visit?”

  “The purpose?” He frowned. “Madam, you know how to dampen a man’s ardour.”

  She dismissed all prospect of discussing anything sinful. “I must ask you an unpleasant question.” She paused, gave him time to object.

  “Then ask what you will.” He threw back the bedsheets and strolled over to the bathtub. “We agreed to speak plainly.”

  Claudia moved to the window and stared at the garden below. She heard the splash as he entered the water.

  “Do you believe your parents are innocent of any wrongdoing or do you suspect they played a part in what happened on that fateful night?”

  He took a few seconds to answer. “Who wants to believe one’s parents want them dead?”

  “And what if the motive was simply to get rid of you?” The villain had committed murder and blamed Mr Lockhart. Perhaps threatening him with the gallows was simply a means to keep him abroad. “Do you not think you should tell me what happened that night?”

  Silence fell as sharp and as swiftly as the guillotine.

  Claudia swung around to find him lounging in the bathtub, knees bent and head back, staring at the ceiling. He looked lost, lonely, a boy in need of a loving smile and a tender embrace.

  Against her better judgement, she padded over and knelt beside him. Her body ached to bring him the peace he desired. Her heart ached for the broken man who hid beneath an arrogant facade.

  “You must tell me what you remember about that night.” She spoke in soothing tones hoping to draw him out of his melancholy. “Fate has brought us together. Perhaps I am here to play more than one role, Hudson. Let me be your friend, let me help you solve this problem so you might put the past
behind you.”

  His body remained rigid but his gaze flicked in her direction. “Your words suggest that being my friend is all part of the act. How can a man trust someone paid to be his wife, paid to be his companion?”

  Claudia could not argue with his assessment. Were it not for Emily and her agreement with Mr Thorncroft she would tell Hudson Lockhart she didn’t want his money. She would stay because she liked him, cared for him a little and wanted to help.

  “You’re right. You have no reason to trust me. But if you examine your heart, you know I’ll not fail you. Let me be your friend. Heavens, I need a friend more than you do.”

  His chestnut-brown eyes scanned her face for so long she thought he might never speak. “Destiny has bound us together for a time. We would be foolish not to embrace the opportunity to further our acquaintance.”

  A faint chuckle escaped her. “Now you sound like Dariell.”

  “I have spent five years with the fellow.” His weak smile faded.

  “Then something lasting and worthwhile came from your banishment.”

  “Yes, it did.” After a lengthy pause, he said, “Are you sure you want to hear the details of that night?”

  Claudia nodded. “Without them, I cannot help you find the person responsible.”

  “Then I shall try to keep it brief.” He pushed a wet hand through his hair and sighed. Thirty seconds passed before he spoke. “I always assumed I’d marry Selina. We began an affair, met a few times at a coaching inn on one of the quieter roads some seven miles south of town.”

  “By affair you mean you had … physical relations.”

  He responded with a curt nod. “Someone followed us there that night. Selina was adamant we’d been followed before, had grown fretful at the prospect of her father discovering our affair when there’d been no announcement of a formal engagement.”

  “Did it not occur to you to propose before you began these illicit interludes?”

  Lord, she sounded like a hypocrite. Here she was, an unmarried woman, in a bedchamber with a naked man in a bathtub.

  “Selina can be persuasive.” He shrugged one shoulder. “I was a virile young man. It’s a pathetic excuse, but what can I say?”

  Did Selina still love him? She had appeared distraught upon hearing of his marriage. What would she do now that Hudson Lockhart had returned? That thought led to other important questions.

  “Then I shall ask you again. Did you love Selina? Do you still love her?” An unexpected stab to her heart forced her to catch her breath.

  He hesitated. “Will you despise me if I say no? Will you think ill of me if I say that I liked her enough to marry her, but that love never played a part?”

  “Liked her? You don’t believe that marriage exists for those in love to make a lifelong commitment?”

  “Why would I when I was taught that marriage exists only to enhance one’s wealth and status?”

  Mr Thorncroft was of a similar mind, too. In agreeing to his contract, Claudia had joined the ranks of the cold-hearted cynics.

  “Selina’s father has wealth and connections,” he continued. “It was good enough for my parents and was doubtless good enough for my brother.”

  “How sad.”

  “How sad, indeed.”

  They were straying from the point. This conversation was not about peeling back the layers of his character and hoping she wouldn’t cry.

  “So you were at the inn, and someone followed you,” she reminded him.

  “A hulk of a man with a thick neck and bulging eyes. He saw me staring out of an upper window and gestured to the small wood behind the inn.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I left Selina in the room and trailed after the fiend. He seemed just as eager to avoid the few guests using the inn. We stopped near an old oak tree, and he demanded I hand over the money, demanded I repay the debt.”

  Claudia frowned. “A gambling debt?”

  “I have no notion. Clearly he had mistaken me for someone else. Every time I pleaded ignorance, the brute punched me in the gut.” Hudson clenched his teeth. “I was too weak, too foolish. Now, I’d rip his throat out with my bare hands.”

  “Is that the man you supposedly murdered?” Claudia swallowed past the lump in her throat. During a violent rage, a person’s memory might be foggy. Did people not speak of seeing nothing but darkness, of having no recollection of the atrocities committed by their hand?

  Hudson nodded. “Selina appeared, weaving through the trees. Fear choked the breath from my lungs. If the blackguard could beat an innocent man, what would he do to a woman?” Anger darkened Lockhart’s voice. “The fiend pulled a blade from his boot, threatened to chase her down and slice her throat unless I brought him the money he was promised.”

  “And so you knew you must protect her.”

  A deep frown marred his brow as his head shot in Claudia’s direction. “I did not kill him if that’s what you’re implying.”

  “Of course not. Tell me what happened.”

  “I don’t know what happened. I lurched at the rogue, tried to kick the blade from his hand, but someone hit me hard on the head from behind. The next time I opened my eyes, I was sprawled on the ground clutching the knife.”

  “And what of the man who came to claim payment of the debt?”

  Hudson closed his eyes. His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat.

  “There was so much blood,” he said, opening his eyes and staring at the water. “Blood on my hands. Blood smeared on the blade. Blood oozing through his shirt and waistcoat from two wounds in his chest.”

  Claudia took a moment to gather her wits. Hudson Lockhart was not a killer. The fact a man had crept out of the shadows and bludgeoned him proved her point.

  “But it’s not the blood that revisits me in my nightmares.” Hudson gripped the edge of the tub so tightly his knuckles were white. “It’s the cold, glazed eyes. During the fight, I saw the darkness in his soul, the anger. And yet as he lay motionless at my side, it was as if a door had closed and I saw nothing.”

  Claudia covered his hand with hers and rubbed back and forth until his fingers relaxed. One question sprang to mind.

  “Where was Selina? Surely she can identify the man who attacked you from behind.”

  “When the scuffle broke out, I shouted for her to run. I didn’t see her again until I regained consciousness. She’d taken the carriage back to London and returned with my brother.”

  Selina ran away and left him?

  Anger bubbled in Claudia’s stomach.

  “Why on earth did she waste time riding back to London?” Even at breakneck speed, the round trip must have taken more than an hour. “Why did she not run to the coaching inn and alert the proprietor?” If not the proprietor, she might have returned with the coachman. After all, the trustworthy servant ferried her to her illicit liaisons without alerting her parents.

  “She said she heard the rogue’s bloodcurdling scream and feared I’d killed him. She couldn’t risk her father discovering the truth about our clandestine meetings. Terence was the only person she felt she could turn to for help.”

  Claudia considered the information. An uneasy feeling settled in her chest. Had Selina cared more about saving her reputation than saving the life of her lover? Or had her actions stemmed from wanting to protect the man she loved from being hauled to the magistrate?

  “What did Terence do?”

  “He sent Selina to wait in the carriage. The coachman came and carried me to the vehicle. To this day, Terence refuses to tell me what he did with the body. Apparently, the less I know the better, should I ever find myself dragged before a judge and jury.”

  Or perhaps Terence wanted to use the information as blackmail. Time would tell.

  “And what about the man who hit you?”

  Hudson shrugged. “Terence searched the woods and found no sign of the other man. He fears I may have been confused and hurt my head during the scuffle.”

  “I see.” Ever
y ounce of sense she possessed—which had diminished since deciding to sleep in a bed with a strange man for money—said that Hudson Lockhart was a victim of the worst kind of betrayal. “And how did you end up on a ship bound for India?”

  “Would you mind handing me the towel?” He gestured to the chair.

  Claudia did as he asked and then returned to stare out of the window while he climbed out of the bathtub.

  “Terence commanded the use of Selina’s carriage, and we drove directly to Portsmouth,” he said as he dried his naked body. Claudia gaped at his faint reflection in the glass. “You can turn around now.”

  The same nervous excitement she always felt when gazing upon his masculine form rendered her rigid for a moment. “So you have not seen your parents since that night?”

  She turned casually to face him, suppressing the sudden flurry of desire. His bronzed skin was damp, the sheen drawing attention to every bulging muscle. His mussed hair made her want to grasp the ends as she succumbed to another one of his salacious kisses.

  “No.” The small towel covered his modesty as he sat on the edge of the bed. “Terence brought a change of clothes and a few basic items in a valise. He gave me money and bought the ticket.”

  “And he warned you never to return home else you might swing from the gallows.” Terence was either the most considerate brother in the world, or the most devious.

  “Indeed.”

  Claudia tried to focus while noting the rippling muscles in his abdomen and the tantalising trail of dark hair leading down beyond the edge of the towel.

  “How did Selina explain her absence to her parents?”

  It was almost eighty miles to Portsmouth. They must have been gone for more than a day.

  “I assume she couldn’t. No doubt that’s why she married Terence.” Hudson’s mouth curled in disdain. “I invited her to come with me, but she hates the heat and hasn’t the stomach for such a dangerous crossing.”

  For love, Claudia would climb mountains, cross vast oceans. Selina’s actions told her all she needed to know.

  “And so she chose your brother instead.”