Page 37 of A Virgin for the Ton’s Wolf (Ton’s Wolves #4)
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
T he lights of Southford Estate were out when Scarlett arrived. Frowning, she threw her hood off her head as she rushed towards the door. No one, not even the butler, greeted her.
Icy dread settled in the pit of her stomach. The entire manor was quiet. Much too quiet that it was unsettling.
Where is everyone?
She crossed the foyer, her footfalls echoing almost thunderously in the oppressive silence.
“Oh, Scarlett! There you are!”
She whirled around to find Lord Colton striding towards her with an affable smile on his face. He had dispensed with his coat and was in the act of loosening his cravat when he saw her. He looked too at ease for someone who was not in his residence.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, eyeing him with suspicion. “Where is Alexander?”
“He went out to find a physician for the dear Dowager Countess. We were all so worried when she fainted this afternoon.”
He was much too calm for his supposed concern.
“And my mother?” she queried, instinctively stepping away from him.
He smiled silkily at her. “Oh, you will see her soon.”
Her heart thundered in her chest. There was something very, very wrong. She could feel it.
“But enough talk about trivial matters.” He stalked towards her. “How have you been? How has your husband been treating you?” His eyes narrowed, frost glinting in their depths. “Such a violent beast should never have been allowed in your presence. I only wish to protect you from him.”
He reached out as if to caress her cheek, but she hastily stepped away from him.
“I do not need protection from my own husband , My Lord,” she snapped. “I would suggest that you stop involving yourself in my business. And I will thank you to refer to me as ‘Your Grace’ in the future.”
His entire frame stiffened, and his eyes narrowed. “Oh, really?”
Scarlett felt her panic clawing up her throat.
I need to get away . But I also need to make sure that Mama is unharmed.
Hopefully, Alexander would return soon, because she did not want to remain longer in his friend’s company.
She is gone.
Hudson chipped away at the marble, his brow furrowed. He hammered at the chisel, vaguely aware that he was close to battering the tool.
“Your Grace.”
“What?” he snarled.
“Your Grace, the Earl of Southford and the Dowager Countess are here,” the poor butler informed him. “They are looking for Her Grace.”
She is gone! Why are you looking for her here?
He threw the tools onto the worktable and stiffened.
Why, indeed, were they looking for her here when he had assumed she would have been back at Southford Estate by now?
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 in my home?”
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 is my husband ,” she reminded him frostily. “The Duke of 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 you almost anything, 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 are mine , 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.
“It was rather entertaining to watch you at first,” he told her. “You were like a brilliant fire, like the sun on a dreary day. Like a bird, you would flit from suitor to suitor, never quite in anyone’s grasp.”
“I did not want any of you,” she spat, glaring venomously at him.
“I should have known that a woman like you would never choose well,” he snarled. “I watched you for years . You were mine. But then you had to go and marry that damned Wolf.”
Hudson is ten times the man you will ever be!
Scarlett bit back the retort hovering on the tip of her tongue. He still had her in his grasp. It would not be wise to taunt him further. Heaven only knew what it would take to tip him over the edge of sanity.
“That maid of yours—how fortunate that she talks too much.” He smiled sinisterly. “Imagine my delight when I discovered that she was related to a servant of mine—and that you had yet to consummate your marriage to that animal. Perhaps,” his voice dropped to a whisper, “there is still a chance to rectify this situation.”
“We are past all that now,” she told him. Her neck ached from being held at such an angle, but she would never give him the satisfaction of getting the best of her. “And my maid, for as much as she talks, does not know everything.”
“What do you mean?” His pallid face turned three shades paler.
She smiled at him. “The Duke of Wolverton is my husband in truth,” she told him. “Our marriage was consummated very recently, and I have you and Alexander to thank for that.”
“You lying harlot!” he yelled. “That beast would never dare lay his filthy hands on you.”
“And why wouldn’t he? He is my husband, and you will never have me!”
She winced as he tightened his grip on her hair. Her scalp felt on fire.
“You!” he snarled. “You filthy?—”
Scarlett could swear she saw stars. She struggled against his grip, but he was too strong for her. If she could reach out, she might be able to claw at his face. She might?—
There was a loud explosion, followed by a roar that seemed to shake the entire manor to its rafters.
“Take your filthy hands off my wife or lose them!”
She smiled and sobbed in relief.
He was here. Her Wolf. Her husband.
And he was furious as hell.