Page 3 of A Virgin for the Ton’s Wolf (Ton’s Wolves #4)

CHAPTER THREE

W ell, I’ve gone and done it now!

She had gone and landed herself in even more of a mess than she initially intended—all because her mama had decided to choose this particular moment to find her heretofore buried courage.

If her mother had quailed at the prospect of demanding that the Duke of Wolverton take responsibility for her lost innocence as she had been wont to do, Scarlett could have happily lived with the scandal for a few more weeks. Months, even.

Instead, she was now bargaining with the Wolf himself, with assets that she might not even afford.

For the first time in her entire life, Scarlett was at a complete loss before a man. Not only that, she found herself completely subdued by his displeasure alone.

It was a most disconcerting feeling.

“Well?” she prodded, peering at his rather closed-off look. “There must be something I can offer in return?—”

“There is hardly anything, My Lady.”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Everybody wants something, I assure you.”

“And you want to get out of this betrothal your family has arranged for you?”

She nodded avidly. “More than anything, Your Grace.” She sighed, and her shoulders dropped the slightest bit. “I… I do not want to waste my life away. I love my mother—I truly do. I just do not believe that this is the life for me.”

Her heart sank when he continued to glare frostily at her. He truly was as unrelenting as a stony facade. Or a craggy peak far beyond the reach of mere mortals such as herself.

But then she saw it—the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.

Was it what she thought it was? Scarlett held her breath and her jubilation at bay. It was a smile!

Even stony facades must have a crack somewhere!

“Have you ever felt trapped, Your Grace?” she asked him softly, glancing up at him prettily.

“Yes,” he snapped testily. “I have. By a little lady who falsely claimed before her entire family that I ruined her!”

Almost immediately, that crack sealed shut, and she found herself once more staring at the granite of a man before her. She really should have known better than to try to appeal to the Wolf.

“I see,” she murmured. She bit her trembling lower lip and blinked away the tears of frustration that scalded her eyes.

She was not going to cry in front of him. That would be the worst thing she could do, and it would hardly move the man at all.

“Well, you do have the right to be angry,” she told him. “And I can understand that you would not be inclined to help me when I heaped false accusations on your head.”

She sighed and straightened her drooping shoulders, smiling bitterly as she looked away from him.

He had been her last shot, but she did not blame him for not wanting to help her at all. It was simply her great misfortune to be betrothed to a man she regarded with the same warmth as she did a toothache.

“I shall go to my mother and explain to her,” she muttered. “We shall not bother you anymore, Your Grace. Thank you for at least hearing me out.”

I will not cry. I will not cry. I will not cry.

Outside, she could hear the thunder rumbling, but it was not quite as loud as the sound of her world starting to crumble all around her.

Maybe when she was back home and confined to her chambers, she could let loose all the tears she had to cry—but not in Wolverton Estate. Not in front of the Wolf.

Scarlett moved to the door when she felt a gentle hand tilt her chin up, and she could scarcely control her irritation. What now? Did he want to see just how much his refusal had crushed her?

Even if she had used softness to appeal to other gentlemen in the past, the man before her deserved none of it.

“You should not look so dejected, My Lady,” he told her, his low voice almost a purr that soothed her frayed emotions despite herself. “It does not match your spirit.”

Scarlett thankfully managed to keep herself from rolling her eyes.

“Well, at least there is something you find admirable about me,” she groused.

He let out a slight huff that sounded like stifled laughter.

“You caused me a lot of trouble, but I understand your resolve…” he trailed off when a knock sounded at the door. “What now?”

Scarlett cringed inwardly. It must be her mama. After all, it had been well past the ten minutes she had allotted them. Perhaps she had come after them.

However, the woman who pushed the door open was not her mama and was not the slightest bit incensed.

In fact, she looked ridiculously elated .

“Well, where is she?” she demanded. “Where is my new daughter-in-law?”

Of all the times his mother chose to cross the lines he’d established—both physical and emotional—it had to be now .

Hudson fought the urge to express his deepest frustration as Diana Margaret Barrow, the Dowager Duchess of Wolverton, glanced up at him expectantly. When her eyes landed on Scarlett, they flashed with the light of a thousand suns.

Hudson wished it had the force to incinerate him on the spot as well. Perhaps then he would not have to deal with this debacle further.

“Mother, you are mistaken,” he growled at her just as Scarlett blushed in horror and shook her head.

“Oh no, Your Grace!” she gasped. “His Grace and I are—well, we are not getting married!”

The Dowager Duchess deflated faster than a punctured balloon. “You are not?”

The redhead laughed, the sound strangely hollow despite the brightness of her features. She shook her head gently and smiled. “No, Your Grace. We are not getting married.”

The Dowager Duchess planted her hands on her hips and glared at Hudson. “Is it his fault? It’s his fault, isn’t it? Hudson, I told you?—”

“No, no, it is not His Grace’s fault at all!” Scarlett exclaimed. “It is just a misunderstanding, you see, and… well, we have resolved it, His Grace and I.”

The Dowager Duchess looked at Hudson suspiciously, her gaze softening when she looked back at Scarlett. “You are certain, my dear? Well, even if it was a misunderstanding , as you say, it could still be a fortuitous?—”

But Scarlett firmly shook her head. “His Grace and I… well, we are not a good match, I’m afraid.”

Hudson narrowed his eyes at the redhead. Just what game was she playing now?

Earlier, she could not have been more eager to jump into a fake betrothal with him, and now she was taking it upon herself to dissuade his mother? The most stubborn creature on God’s green earth?

He should be pleased. In fact, he should be ecstatic that the impudent creature had apparently changed her mind—and so quickly at that—but how could she so easily dismiss him? Him, with his wealth and his rank? All the not-so-innocent ladies he’d actually ‘ruined’ would never even dream of dismissing him. If anything, they chased after him.

“Oh.” His mother—the very woman who gave birth to him—proceeded to ignore him and took Scarlett’s hands in her own, patting them affectionately. “In any case, I shall still have the delight of your company, my dear.”

“What the hell do you mean by that, Mother?” Hudson growled.

His mother simply waved him off. “Have you looked out the window, Hudson? There is a storm out there. Poor Lady Scarlett will be drenched to the bone if you insist on sending her off in this weather!” She narrowed her eyes shrewdly at him. “You will not refuse, will you?”

As if to underscore her point, thunder boomed across the estate. If Wolverton Estate had not been built as solidly as it had been, it would have quaked .

Hudson took a deep breath. Clenched and unclenched his fists.

“One night,” he bit out. “And not a moment more.”

“Splendid!” His mother happily clapped her hands. “You and I are going to have such a fantastic time together, dear Scarlett—you do not mind me calling you that, do you?”

Scarlett flashed him a look. Was that gloating in her eyes?

Maybe if he had not been so busy trying to swim his way out of their vivid blue, he might have been more certain.

“Not at all, Your Grace.” Once again, she was the very picture of the charming young lady. The darling of the ton. The Diamond of every Season for three years in a row now.

“Splendid!” The Dowager Duchess beamed at her and linked their arms. “I shall now relieve you of my son’s dreary company and show you the rest of the manor…”

The women had scarcely taken five steps when Hudson’s hand shot out and wrapped around Scarlett’s arm. She looked at him in alarm.

“Is something amiss, Your Grace?” she asked, her eyes wide.

Damn those eyes. He felt like drowning in them every single time he looked into them.

“We did not finish our conversation yet,” he reminded her tersely. He nodded towards his mother. “There will be plenty of time for a tour about the manor later, Mother.”

He watched as his mother bristled. For a moment, he feared she was going to refuse, but then she softened and relinquished her grip on Scarlett.

“Very well then,” she sighed. She patted Scarlett’s hands once more and leaned in to whisper, “If my brute of a son cannot recognize a rare jewel when he sees one, I can help you find another match. I assure you, I know a lot of upstanding young gentlemen with a better eye and even better manners .”

“Mother.”

“All right, all right.” She rolled her eyes at him. “I shall leave you two to whatever important matters you young people concern yourselves with. It’s not definite that you are not going to marry each other after all, so I can chaperone you from right outside the door.”

Hudson eyed her suspiciously when she finally walked out of the study, her head held high—but not without a parting wink in Scarlett’s direction.

He could swear he saw her mouth, “Good luck,” to the redhead just before she closed the door behind her. He narrowed his eyes at the closed door.

Oh, she will need it, all right.

The impertinent, little cat was going to need all the luck in this world.