Page 89 of Dukes All Night Long

He tugged at his cravat. It was bloody hot in this room.

In fact, the interior decor seemed ripe for a seduction.

A massive four-poster chaise lounge sat at the center of the room, clearly designed for lingering conversations, whispered confessions, and temptation.

Scents of jasmine and brandy brought up way too many ideas of what he’d wish to do to Arabella in a room such as this.

Dark velvet drapes covered the windows. The fire in the hearth shed a sensual hue over everything, including Arabella’s creamy skin.

He could recall exactly how it felt under his fingertips. The way his touch could make her shiver and sigh with need. God, he’d wanted her so badly back then. It had taken everything in him not to take her to bed before he wed her. Then, he’d gotten sick.

“Shall we open it?” Lucian asked softly.

“The sooner we solve whatever this is, the sooner I can leave, so yes.” She tugged off her velvet gloves and tossed them onto a coffee table, then removed a card from the envelope. For a second or two, she simply stared at it. “Here.” She thrust it at him. “Read it.”

He looked at the tidy script, written in Lady’s Bellamy’s hand. The wicked woman.

O time, thou must untangle this, not I.

It is too hard a knot for me t’untie.

(Twelfth Night, Viola, Act 2 Scene 2)

“What the bloody hell does this mean?”

“How should I know?” Arabella glared at him. “But I suggest we find out as soon as possible so we can get out of this room. This is the most outrageous idea. Even for Lady Bellamy.”

“Let’s think, then, shall we? But first I will have a drink. Would you care for one?”

“I’ll have a brandy,” Arabella said. “And don’t go light on the pour.”

He crossed the decadent room to a drink cart with various decanters filled with liquors and filled two sipping glasses. When he returned to sit across from her, she stared down at the card, her brow scrunched as she tried to decipher the meaning of the cryptic note.

“Do you think it has anything to do with time?” Lucian asked his unhappy partner.

“As in, time that’s passed between us since last we spoke? Or, should I say, the last time I heard from you.”

He winced at the obvious jab. “Or how long it took for you to replace me?” He knew he shouldn’t poke her because he was in the wrong, but seeing her reminded him of how hurt he’d been when he heard she’d married so soon after he’d left.

“What did you say?” Her brown eyes hardened.

“Nothing. Forgive me,” he mumbled.

“What did you expect? That I was to sit around, pining for you? When you left without so much as an explanation?”

“No, of course not.”

There was so much he wanted to tell her but he couldn’t. Not like this.

“Shall we figure this out, then, and get out of here?” Lucian asked.

“What if it’s about a knot? Something in this room we have to untie?”

“Brilliant.” He immediately got up and started pacing about, looking for something that needed untying.

She followed suit and seconds later called, “Could this be it?”

He turned to see her by a bookshelf, holding a box tied with a ribbon. “It certainly could be.”

“Let’s see, shall we?” She tied both ends of the knot, letting it fall to the floor, then lifted the lid from the box. “For heaven’s sake. This is utterly ridiculous.” She handed it to him.

You locked this door long before tonight. It is not the walls that hold you here, but the chains of the past. Only by unearthing what was buried—by speaking what was never said—will you find your way forward. Or perhaps, you’d rather stay exactly where you are?

“Damn the woman,” Lucian said.

“What does she know about us?” Arabella returned to sit by the fire, taking her drink in hand. Her cheeks were no longer flushed with anger but had paled.

“She knows I loved you,” Lucian said carefully. “And she knows why I left.”

“Ah, well, lucky her. It must be nice.” She tipped back her glass, downing the entire drink.

He sat across from her, watching her carefully to see if she were truly ready to hear what he had to say. “Are we to believe that Lady Bellamy wants me to tell you why I left?”

“It would seem so. I’d like to know that too.

” She continued to glare at him, but her demeanor had softened slightly.

“I was waiting at home, expecting a marriage proposal. Which, by the way, I didn’t make up, as some women might in a similar situation.

You’d said the words to me not a week before.

Then you left town for what was supposed to be a short trip and I never saw you again.

All I had received was your cowardly note. ”

“It’s hard to explain succinctly.”

“You better try or I’ll break down the damn door myself.”

He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly before starting.

“As you might remember, I’d had business to attend to up north that couldn’t wait.

I should preface this to say, I’d had an irritation in my throat and a dry cough that wouldn’t go away.

But I’d ignored it, figuring it was only something in the air that disagreed with me.

I finished up what I needed to do for my father and planned on coming home to you the next day.

But that night, I woke up drenched in sweat and feeling as if I could not breathe.

My entire body ached. The cough had grown exponentially worse—raw and painful.

I was staying at an inn with my valet in the adjoining room, but I didn’t have the strength to call for him.

I went in and out of consciousness until he found me in the morning.

He fetched the doctor right away, who diagnosed me. Consumption.”

Her complexion had turned from pale to flushed. “Why are you lying to me? My God, haven’t you hurt me enough?”

He chose to ignore that, so that he could finish his story. “I am not lying. Please, allow me to continue.”

“Fine.”

“My mother had died of consumption the year before I met you.”

She leaned back against the cushions on the chair, crossing her arms over her chest. “Yes, I remember.”

“I watched her suffer a long, painful death. I couldn’t do that to you.”

Her mouth twisted bitterly. “But you’re not dead. You’re very much alive. How do you expect me to believe any of this?”

“My father suggested I go to Italy, hoping the warm climate would help me. Something he wished he’d tried with my mother.

I gathered enough strength to write to you and then gave up all control of my care to my father and a nurse.

While there, I grew sicker and nearly died.

However, after a few months, I started recovering, little by little.

I was informed that I had a lung infection but it was not consumption.

The warm climate cured me. After six months, I was declared cured and allowed to return to England.

But by then, I knew you’d already married. ”

She didn’t say anything, growing so still she almost resembled a statue.

“Arabella, you have to understand. I am a proud man and I was deliriously in love with you. I could not let you watch me grow weaker and weaker, coughing up blood and unable to walk across the room. I was like a baby. That’s how helpless I was.

And I knew what was coming because I’d watched my dear mother go through it. ”

“You left because you were sick.” Her voice sounded hollow and faint. “You stupid, stupid man. How could you make that decision without asking me? I’d have taken care of you until your last breath, grateful for any time at all.”

“But that’s not what I wanted. I couldn’t stand the thought. It was pride. I can see that now. But then, it seemed like another level of hell to have you watch me die. To see me in my most vulnerable state as my life faded away. It was worse than the thought of dying itself.”

“Where have you been all these years? I’ve never seen you at any social functions and I am quite active.”

“Yes, so I’ve heard.” His thoughts darkened, remembering the rumors about her numerous lovers. He’d like to choke each and every one of them.

“Heard what?” Her eyes glittered dangerously.

“You’ve not wanted for company.”

“I am a woman of means. I can do as I please. And whomever I please.”

“So it would seem.”

“You haven’t answered my question,” Arabella said. “Where have you been all these years?”

“I remained in Italy. The doctors there told me it would be good for my health to stay out of the English weather during cold months and advised me to live there for half of the year. However, I liked it so much that I decided to stay. It meant that I wouldn’t have to see you with your husband. That honestly might have killed me.”

She flinched, as if someone had slapped her cheek. “I see. And why are you here now?”

“My father has given me an ultimatum. I am to be engaged by tomorrow or he cuts me off financially.”

“Why now?”

“He’s in poor health and wants me to marry and produce an heir. It’s not an uncommon story.”

She splayed her hands over her skirt and nodded. “This party is for you, then? To help you find a wife?”

He nodded, unable to lie to her. “She suggested it as a way for me to meet eligible young ladies in need of a husband.”

“But why am I here?”

“Firstly, I didn’t know you would be. But you’re an intelligent woman. Surely you can see that Lady Bellamy has a touch of the matchmaker in her. She knows I’ve never loved anyone but you.”

*

His voice was like velvet and silk combined, covering her in warmth. It was hard for her to believe that five years later, he still appeared to care for her. But then again, she had never fallen out of love with him either. Even though she’d hated him, she’d never stopped loving him.

“Oh, Lucian, this is all so confusing.”

“It is rather unexpected.” He smiled, tilting his head to the left. “But being with you now, it feels that no time has passed.”