Later that day, the Duke of Guysborough was announced and entered the drawing room. After a short time, Mrs. Gunther mentioned that she needed to speak to her maid about something, and left Clara alone with him.
As soon as her chaperone was gone, the duke stood up and moved closer to the fireplace. “You’ve had a chance to consider my proposal?” he asked, looking down at Clara where she sat on the sofa. He appeared confident. She supposed it was natural, considering his status. Clara was not looking forward to rejecting him.
“I have, Your Grace, and I am very flattered.”
He smiled and moved closer to sit down next to her. A cold knot tightened in Clara’s belly. She hated this.
“I am honored by your offer,” she continued, “but...I’m afraid I must decline.”
The duke’s head drew back in surprise. “I beg your pardon?”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Is there a reason? There must be a reason.”
“I do apologize. This is most difficult. I...I am simply not in love with you.”
His eyebrows drew together in a frown. “Not in love with me?” He rolled his shoulders as if he were struggling to keep his anger in check. “Perhaps I should have taken more time for a courtship. I’ve heard that you American girls have certain expectations in that regard.”
“First of all, I am not a girl,” Clara replied. “I am a woman. But yes, your proposal did come rather quickly.”
“Because I was certain that if I did not make an offer, someone else would. The competition for you is intense, Miss Wilson. You are the talk of the town, so to speak.”
Clara was no fool. She knew she was popular because she was a wealthy heiress and it was a well-known fact that her father would furnish her husband-to-be with a very generous marriage settlement. Her own sister, Sophia, had made James one of the richest men in England. Sophia’s dowry, if one included the railroad stock, had been the largest in English history. Clara’s would most certainly match that.
“Thank you for the compliment, Your Grace,” she said.
But he was not satisfied. “May I indulge in some hope that you might reconsider if I give you more time?”
She didn’t know what to say. She hated rejecting the duke, and there was of course a chance that Lord Rawdon would break her heart in the coming weeks. The possibility that she might be burning her bridges loomed over her.
“I really don’t know, Your Grace. I don’t wish to give you any false hopes.”
He stared into her eyes for a moment, and his darkened. “Is there someone else?”
Clara swallowed nervously. “I cannot say.”
“Cannot say?” His voice revealed agitation, and an uncomfortable tension moved through Clara’s neck and shoulders. “You’re making a foolish mistake, Miss Wilson. You know that, don’t you?”
The duke’s harsh tone cleared her of any regret about rejecting him. She was now certain that she had done the right thing.
When she did not reply, he grabbed hold of her hand and pressed it against his cold lips. He began to drop hard kisses up her arm. “Maybe this is what a woman like you wants.”
All the hairs on the back of her neck stood up in disgust. Heart racing, she quickly wrenched her arm out of his grasp.
The duke’s petulant gaze shot to her face. Recognizing her revulsion, he sat up straighter. “I was right. Your interests do lie elsewhere. But I will have you know that I am still willing to marry you, and I would treat you with the respect that you deserve. You would not find that to be the case with the Marquess of Rawdon.”
Clara stared at him, dumbfounded. What did the duke know? No one had seen her leave the house the night before. The marquess had come to call on her properly once, but surely that wasn’t enough to suggest....
“I beg your pardon, Your Grace?”
“It is your choice, Miss Wilson. You can be a duchess, or you can be a slut.”
Clara sucked in a breath. She had never been spoken to in such a manner. She certainly had not expected this from the duke, who had always appeared to be the epitome of proper, gentlemanly behavior.
Fury began to rage inside her and she stood. “Please leave.”
She made a move to walk around the sofa and open the drawing room door for him, but he seized her arm.
“I will leave,” he said, “when you have realized your folly. You’ve attended two Cakras Balls and you have become besotted with a notorious rake. I saw the two of you together here in this very room at your sister’s assembly. Others did as well. I assure you, there were whispers. You do not emit purity, Miss Wilson. There is something unchaste about you, and you have associated yourself with the marquess—a known degenerate. I am willing to overlook that fact because the damage is still reparable at this point. I can offer you a respectable escape.”
“A respectable escape?” Clara jerked her arm from his grasp. “I asked you to leave.”
“I don’t believe you want me to do that.”
“Why ever not?”
“Because I have the power to destroy you, Miss Wilson. To put it in plainer terms, if you do not accept my offer, I most certainly will.”
“He said what?” Sophia asked, her voice brimming with indignation as she rose to her feet.
Clara sat numbly on the sofa, still in shock. “He told me that it was my choice. I could be a duchess or a slut. Needless to say, I didn’t tell Mrs. Gunther any of that. She is very curious about what happened.”
Sophia walked to the mantel. “I’m so angry I could spit. The Duke of Guysborough of all people. I always took him for a gentleman.”
“So did I. I was stunned.”
“As you had every right to be! He behaved deplorably!”
“Yes.” Clara gazed around the room. “But I, too, behaved foolishly, and I must accept some responsibility for this unpleasant state of affairs. If I had not lost my head with the marquess, none of this would be happening.” She stood up and paced the room. “If you must bar your door to me, Sophia, I will understand. Perhaps I should leave now and go back to America before this situation spins out of control. I don’t want you and James to be sullied by it.”
“Don’t say such things. We would never bar our door to you.”
“James might wish to, and he would have every right. He might want to protect Liam and John.”
“James will not wish it. You are a member of this family, and as far as he is concerned, you are under his protection.” Sophia crossed to the sofa and sat down. “Besides, this is as much my fault as it is yours. I should never have taken you back to that Cakras Ball. I’ve been a terrible chaperone.”
“No. If you hadn’t taken me, I would have found some other way to see the marquess again, and things could have been much worse. Or maybe I would have accepted the duke’s proposal and paid for such naïveté later.”
For a long time, neither of them said anything. The mantel clock ticked and Clara felt a heavy weight upon her shoulders—the uncomfortable, cumbersome weight of her precarious future.
“Sometimes,” she said softly, gazing up at the flowers on the mantel, “when I think about the marquess, I feel possessed. I don’t know if it is love or something darker...something purely hedonistic. But I can’t suppress my desire to give myself to him in the physical sense. Completely.”
She turned her eyes to her sister, expecting shock and condemnation. Instead, she saw compassion.
“I understand how you feel,” Sophia said. “I remember...with James.” Sophia stood again and took both Clara’s hands in hers. “Do not be distressed. You are a normal, healthy young woman with very human desires, and I agree with you on one point—that the marquess acted honorably, having spared your virtue when clearly you could have been easily persuaded. Compared to Guysborough, he is a gentleman through and through.”
“I agree.”
“It appears,” Sophia continued, “that the marquess and the duke are very different from how they are perceived. Things are not always as they seem, are they? I’ve always believed there was more to a person than what is visible on the surface. That’s why I despise the gossip mill.”
Clara sighed. “I’m afraid I might be dragged through the gossip mill very soon, if the duke doesn’t get what he wants—which is undoubtedly a mammoth settlement from Father.”
Pursing her lips, Sophia turned away from Clara. “It is nothing short of blackmail. I will not stand for it. James will not stand for it. We must tell him. He will know what to do.”
A wave of apprehension moved through Clara. It was colored with shame and remorse. She hated causing problems for the two people she respected most in the world, and she did not want her sister’s husband to think poorly of her. “Please don’t tell him about how I snuck out in the dead of night. Everything else, but not that.”
Gazing uncertainly at Clara, Sophia spoke softly. “Don’t worry, it will not change how he feels about you. James is a man of the world. Besides that, he must know, because we cannot allow him to take steps without knowing all the facts.”
Clara sat back down. “He won’t go to the marquess, will he? I would die if he did.”
“I’ll ask him not to. Either way, it will not be his first priority. The marquess will not be the one to face the heat of his wrath today.”
In the end, Clara told James everything that had occurred between her and the marquess over the past few weeks. She even confessed to the letters and the scandalous rendezvous in the carriage, though she spared him the more intimate details.
Standing by the window in his study, James gave her a responsible speech about the importance of propriety, then made her promise never to do anything like that again. Clara agreed without hesitation.
James glanced out the window briefly before turning his attention back to Clara, who sat in a small chair.
“You’re certain that the duke knows nothing about the rendezvous in the coach?” he asked.
Clara nodded. “He would have used it against me if he knew. He only mentioned the Cakras Balls and the way the marquess and I behaved at the assembly.”
James nodded. “The duke should have known better than to reveal his knowledge of a Cakras Ball and use it to threaten anyone’s reputation. He’ll pay for that mistake, I assure you. You have nothing to worry about, Clara.”
She gazed up at her brother-in-law. “You’re sure?”
“I’m positive.”
“But what about Mrs. Gunther? She has no idea why I refused the duke and she is pressing me to explain.”
“I will speak to her,” James replied, “and tell her that you simply did not favor the man.”
All Clara’s fears drained away in that instant but were quickly replaced by another cause for concern. “You won’t intimidate the marquess, will you? As I told you before, he has behaved honorably toward me. Well, with the exception of certain things he said in the letters…and inviting me out in the middle of the night, but even then, he did not take advantage when he could have. Will you think of that, James?” When you are face-to-face with him, as I’m sure you will be later today.
Her brother-in-law stepped away from the window and came around the desk. “I will indeed endeavor to think of it. Now, do not spend another moment troubling yourself with this disturbance. Guysborough will back down, and you can be certain that he will behave in the future. Go to the nursery now and try to smile, Clara. I believe Sophia is waiting for you to play peek-a-boo with Liam.”
She rose from her chair and allowed James to escort her out of his study.
Sickening dread poured through her, however, when she stood at the top of the stairs a few minutes later, watching her brother-in-law slip into his long, black greatcoat and place his top hat on his head, and inform the butler that he was going out to take care of a thing or two.
Chapter 11
Adele,
I have fallen hopelessly in love with Lord Rawdon, and everything is in a terrible, terrible mess...
Clara
Seated at the desk in his study, Seger glanced up from the newspaper when his butler entered and informed him that the Duke of Wentworth wished to see him.
Seger laid his newspaper aside and let out a sigh. “Send him in, Cartwright.”
As soon as the butler disappeared, Seger stood up, went to the sideboard, and poured himself a brandy. “Here we go.”
A moment later, the duke entered the room. Hands at his sides, he said simply, “Rawdon.”
Seger poured another glass of brandy and approached the duke with it. He held it out, and without a word, the duke removed his gloves and accepted it.
Seger noticed the duke’s right knuckle was bloodied. “Were you practicing on a tree outside in the garden?”
Wentworth glanced absently at his hand, then took a deep swig of the amber liquid. “It wasn’t practice.”
For a moment, the two men regarded each other warily, then Seger gestured toward the chairs in front of the fireplace. The duke sat down and waited for Seger to sit before he spoke. “Shall we dispense with small talk, then?” the duke asked.
“By all means.”
Wentworth nodded. “You’re no fool, Rawdon. I’m sure you know the motive behind my call.”
Seger swirled the brandy around in his glass and took a sip. “I can hazard a guess. You want me to stay away from your sister-in-law.”
Wentworth’s shrewd eyes narrowed with scrutiny, as if he were attempting to determine what to make of Seger. “To be frank with you, I’m not certain. I’d like clarification from you first.”
“Concerning what, in particular?”
“I will come straight to the point. Clara informs me that she is still in possession of her virtue. Is that true? I will have the truth, Rawdon.”
Seger considered the material facts. Images of his encounter with Clara in the privacy of his coach the night before flashed like fireworks in his mind. He remembered sliding his hand into her drawers. He remembered what she tasted like and sounded like when he’d brought her to a climax. Then he recalled Clara sitting on his lap, straddling him.
If anyone had peered in at them, it would have appeared they were making love.
When one looked at it that way, he had certainly helped himself to her so-called virtues the night before, but for all practical purposes, he’d left her with the most important thing—her maidenhead. He’d ensured she would still have choices.
“It’s true,” he replied, then downed the rest of his brandy in one gulp. “She is still a virgin. You have my word on that. Most of the time, we just talked.” That, too, was the truth.
The duke continued to scrutinize him.
“Do you believe me?”
At last, Wentworth nodded. “Yes, unless some evidence in the future points to the contrary, in which case you would regret our conversation today.”
Seger understood. The duke would not be lied to.
“So, I take it,” Seger said, “that you are not here to muscle a marriage proposal out of me?”
“Not today.”
“But you want me to keep away from her.”
Because that’s what male relations of Seger’s paramours always wanted.
For a long time, Wentworth appeared as if he were considering the question. Then he set down his glass. “Clara is my wife’s sister. She is a kindhearted, intelligent young woman and her happiness is my primary concern. From what I can discern, she has an affection for you, and I will not be the one to tell her that her affections are misguided. I do not know one way or another if they are. I will, however, watch carefully over the coming weeks to ensure that she is not treated in a cavalier fashion. You will see her only in respectable situations, and you will not continue to encourage her if there
is no future in it. If you do, there will be consequences. Do you understand?”
“Perfectly.”
“I must also inform you,” the duke added, “that you are very close to the center of another scandal, a scandal I attempted to avert just over an hour ago.”
Seger glanced down at Wentworth’s bloody hand and felt the muscles of his forearm tighten as he clenched his own hand into a fist. “What scandal? It doesn’t involve Clara, does it?”
“Your concern for my sister-in-law does you credit. Yes, it involves her. The two of you were seen together at two separate Cakras Balls, and a certain gentleman who covets Clara’s marriage settlement has threatened to reveal it. Under other circumstances I would have words for you in that regard, but from what I understand, Clara’s attendance at the ball was accidental, at least the first time, and you steered her away and suggested that she leave. You did the same the second time, when it was not accidental.”
Was Seger receiving a commendation? he wondered, staring at Wentworth’s dark expression. Why was he telling him all this?
“You said just now that you attempted to avert the scandal,” Seger mentioned. “Were you successful?”
“I made an impression,” the duke replied, “but it wouldn’t hurt for you to make an impression as well. I believe we should present a united front.”
Seger tried to keep his anger in check. “Who, may I ask, is the gentleman in question?”
“Guysborough.”
“The duke? Bloody hypocrite. He, of all people, should know the rules of the Cakras Society. He’d tried something like this once before, didn’t he?”
“Yes, two years ago he was suspended for speaking about a particular lady who had rejected his attentions at one of the balls, but I think in this case, Clara’s value financially was worth the risk of being suspended again.”
“Society won’t take kindly to a second misdemeanor. A suspension would be the least of his punishments.”
“I reminded him of that,” Wentworth said. “Perhaps you should, too. Tell him that we spoke.”
Falling for the Marquess (American Heiress Trilogy Book 2) Page 12