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He strode past his butler angrily and was met with the confused stares of his in-laws.

“Scarlett is not here,” he told them angrily. “She left just earlier.”

“Left?” The Dowager Countess paled. “Left where?”

He looked at the pair of them. They did not seem to be lying. They were just as confounded as he was.

“I assumed she was going back to Southford Estate,” he said slowly.

“I do not understand.” Lady Southford shook her head. “We received this note from her just this afternoon, begging us to come here.”

The Earl looked at Hudson somberly. “After what happened at the Park, we feared?—”

“I would never harm her,” Hudson growled fiercely. “I would cut off my arm before I laid a hand on her.”

Lady Southford heaved a sigh of relief and patted her chest. “Thank you so much, Your Grace. That is a great reassurance for a mother.”

“But where is Scarlett?” Alexander was bewildered.

Hudson narrowed his eyes as he looked at the door. “That is something I intend to find out.”

Scarlett eyed the Marquess warily like one might eye a wild beast about to pounce. Indeed, there was something unusual about him. His eyes glinted with some strange light that set off alarm bells in her head. It was as if he was possessed by some wild spirit. Or a demon from the depths of hell.

“So charming,” he crooned. “So magnificent.”

“So improper of you,” she fired back. “And without your coat at that. What do you think you are doing inmyhome?”

He smiled slyly at her. “Oh, I think you know, my dear Scarlett.”

“Far be it from me to decipher what goes on in your head, Lord Colton—not that I care much for your thoughts in the first place.”

She could feel the anger radiating from him in waves at her defiance. Men like Lord Colton did not like it when women spoke back to them.

Hudson, on the other hand, might find her belligerence extremely vexing, but he had never tried to subdue her or dampen her spirits.

At that thought, she felt a sudden pang in her chest. She had left without letting him know. He must be so furious right now that he would not even bother to look for her.

“Are you thinking of him again?” she heard the Marquess snarl. “That beastly man?”

“That beastly man ismy husband,” she reminded him frostily. “TheDukeof Wolverton.”

The tension in the air was so thick that she could cut it with a knife. The atmosphere was so cold that she might as well have been standing in the middle of a blizzard.

“I told you that I would forgive youalmostanything, did I not?” he told her softly.

“You did have a rather tedious habit of reminding me of that precisely.”

“Do you know what I will never forgive you for, my dear Scarlett?” He stalked towards her again.

She took another step back but was met with the wall at her back. Her eyes widened when she realized that she had very stupidly allowed him to maneuver her into a corner.

“I will never forgive you for rejecting me for another man!” he snarled, reaching for the hair at the nape of her neck. “You aremine, do you understand?Mine!”

It was so very different from the sheer possessiveness with which Hudson claimed her. Lord Colton was watching her with the deranged obsession of a madman.

“Lord Colton, you are hurting me!” she protested.

Still, he did not loosen his grip on her.