Page 37 of A Virgin for the Rakish Duke (Romancing a Rake #3)

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

“ W ho's there?” Jeremy barked at the sound of footsteps on the gravel path.

“It is probably only a gardener,” Florence assuaged.

But Jeremy could hear the sound of running footsteps. A gardener would not run. Nor would a servant on a legitimate errand.

“Do not concern yourself,” Florence said, touching Jeremy's arm.

Without thinking, he drew away from contact with her, leaving her standing with open mouth and outstretched hand. A part of him had reacted in a visceral way to her touch. An instinct told him that he knew who was running away from him.

It cannot be… Why would she come here unannounced?

He broke into a run, heading in the direction of the fleeing footsteps.

Rounding the yew hedge, he saw the disturbance in the carefully raked gravel from a hasty footfall.

Where the path turned to skirt the trees on the edge of the estate, he caught sight of a broken branch, swinging still in the wake of whoever had roughly pushed it aside.

Jeremy ran in that direction, bullishly pushing through the trees and looking in all directions for more signs of his quarry.

He saw branches swaying, earth churned, and even a fragment of lace on a bramble, as though torn from a woman's dress.

He redoubled his speed and was rewarded by the sight of a flitting white shape ahead.

The copse was too thickly treed to see clearly, but he didn't need to in order to know who it was.

“Harriet!” he shouted.

The response was a whimper and an increase in the speed of the frantic flight.

Guessing her direction, Jeremy forced his way through thicker undergrowth and reached an old poacher's trail, almost indistinguishable from the undisturbed woodland.

He recalled it from his boyhood days, where he had once spent many weeks sketching away.

Relatively unhindered, he sped on until he reached a clearing formed by a long-fallen beech.

Harriet emerged on the other side, looking back over her shoulder.

She cannoned into him and screamed. Jeremy staggered back under the impetus of her flight and tripped over an outstretched branch of the fallen tree.

Air rushed from him as Harriet crashed down atop him.

For a moment, both of them lay, limbs entangled, breathing hard.

Then Harriet was fighting to be free of him.

“Let go of me!” she demanded.

“I have!”

“Why did you chase me?”

“Why were you spying on me?”

“I had the right. You have ignored me. The last I knew, we were to dine with the Winchesters. Then I discover...”

Harriet was animated with anger, but at this last, her eyes filled with tears, and her voice became choked.

“That I have a son. Yes,” Jeremy said wearily.

Tears flowed silently down Harriet's red-tinged cheeks. Her eyes were wide and accusing.

“I have been torn between obeying my brother and pursuing my own happiness. Whether to put duty above my own desire. And all the time you were...”

“Facing the same dilemma,” he murmured.

“I had decided to choose my desire.”

“I cannot choose anything but duty.”

Harriet sniffed and nodded. “Just when I would like you to behave like a rascal, you become noble. I suppose you will marry her. It is Florence, is it not?”

Jeremy nodded tiredly, sitting on the fallen log. Weariness beyond his recent exertions pulled at his limbs, lowered his chin to his chest. He closed his eyes.

“ Florence Courcy . Sister of the Earl of Pembroke. Cut off by him without a penny for her association with me. Destroyed by the reputation I have carelessly fostered.”

Harriet looked away, face twisting in anger.

“I do not wish to know. I really do not.”

“Well, what about you?” Jeremy said, accusingly.

“What about me?” Harriet challenged back, eyes shining with defiance.

“You are promised to Henri de Rouvroy!” Jeremy barked, “I did not see you reject him or identify me as your betrothed. And you have openly said that you had to debate with yourself which of us you would choose. I am glad that I made such an impression that the choice was not an easy one.”

Jeremy knew that his words were thick with derision and sarcasm. It came from bitterness at the events fate had spun out for the pair of them. He was lashing out, and she did not deserve it. But he could not lash out at anyone else. Harriet's eyes widened.

“How could I do anything but what I have done?” she gasped. “I have openly defied my brother, and who knows what he will do in retaliation! I expect to be locked up until the wedding at the very least.”

“You could have come to me and I would have—”

“What? Sheltered me? Introduced me to your wife? Perhaps employ me as nurse to your son so I could see your happy, perfect family from close proximity?!”

They were both shouting now, birds long since frightened out of the trees around them. Jeremy did not care. He stared into Harriet's ferocious eyes. They challenged him, defied him. He felt an almost overwhelming urge to tame them, to conquer her…

But it was too late. She was promised to another, and so was he.

Fate had decided against their finding each other.

And she takes me to task over doing my duty? What choice did I have? There is only one choice when a man fathers a child out of wedlock. I am finally behaving responsibly, but receive no credit or recognition.

He fumed, looking away to disguise the anger on his face.

“What happened between Florence and I occurred before we met, before all of this began. I had no way of knowing it would lead to this, and no other choice now that it has happened. Honor sets my path!”

“How convenient that honor sets your path now but did not at the Chelmsfords’ ball,” Harriet muttered, her voice a mixture of weariness and anger. Her weariness was contagious, it seeped into him, taking the heat from his anger and leaving him cold.

It is a terrible shame that it has come to this. We are on diverging paths where once I hoped we were converging.

“Isn’t it just?” he said, icily.

Harriet was quiet for a moment, watching his face. She gave a sharp nod.

“It did not end well, did it? At the beginning, I did not see how it could, but I allowed myself to be persuaded. I was the more foolish. Farewell, then.”

She turned and walked away. Jeremy felt an irrational urge to go after her. To stop her, take her in his arms. But he stamped on the feeling brutally. That was not an option that was open to him any longer. She wanted him out of her life and to marry another. He would let her.