Page 18 of The Duke of Diamonds (The Highwaymen #1)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

WHEN PATIENCE ARRIVED at her brother’s house, he seemed a bit put out that she’d imposed on his hospitality, which she’d expected. He made some comment about how she seemed to have done all right for herself, hadn’t she? Hadn’t they both?

After all, he’d been able to make use of the money that Balley had given him to get out of debt, and she had her dowager house and her dowry, and neither of them had to put up with Balley himself anymore.

Then he said, “Dreadful business, what happened to him, of course. Quite dreadful.” He looked over her clothing. “You’re still in mourning, aren’t you? Should you even be out visiting people?”

“Visiting my family?” she said, all innocence. “I am so happy to have your support in this sad time.”

The household, however, was a bit of a bachelor bacchanal, she had to admit. Her brother was there, along with the Earl of Penbrake and three other unmarried titled men, and they seemed to be engaged primarily in talking about going hunting, but really spending all their time playing cards and drinking.

The first day she arrived, there was a formal dinner, and she dressed for it. The men all left after dinner for cigars and drinks and she, the lone female, was sent off to the sitting room to wait for them. Just when she’d decided she’d go to her room and read, they all appeared and expected her to entertain them.

She had some skill with the piano-forte. All women of her upbringing did, or with some instrument or other, and she had a passable singing voice. So, she sat down and played and sang, and they sang along, already drunk. As the evening wore on, they began to leer at her and make comments about her that made her brother fume and point out, over and over, that his sister was in mourning .

When she finally got back to her room, she exploded to Charlotte about all of this, who listened patiently for some time as she helped her to undress.

Finally, however, Charlotte paused, hands unlacing her stays and said, “My lady, why have we come here?”

Patience groaned. She was caught, now, and she must explain. “It’s a favor for the Duke of Nothshire.”

Charlotte let go of her stays and took two steps backward.

Patience turned around. “I know. I should have told you before. I didn’t know how to say it. I’m a bit ashamed of myself, truly.”

“When did he get you doing favors for him? I thought you were holding your knowledge of him over his head and forcing him to do things for you? ”

“I was,” said Patience. “I am. It’s only that everything is complicated now, because he said he didn’t want things to be bargains between us, just both of us willing, and it seemed like such a high-minded thing to say in the moment, but I was still reeling from his fingers and his kisses, and I suppose I—”

“Kisses? So, he spoke to you about this in that inn, when you threw yourself at him after you’d had too much port?”

“Well, no. It was a different time.”

Charlotte took a deep breath. “You… my lady… for all your words about not trusting men, I don’t think you’re particularly good at protecting yourself.”

Patience’s face fell. It was true.

“What is this favor? Why?”

“I don’t know. He wouldn’t tell me that.”

“You agreed to it without knowing what it was? ”

Patience was quiet.

“When did you even kiss him? When have you even seen him since that trip to get the infant?”

“He snuck into my bedchamber,” said Patience.

“Oh,” said Charlotte. “Oh, I see. So, you’ve entirely lost your head, in other words. And I suppose no more from him about marrying you.”

“Well, he actually did propose.” Patience furrowed her brow. “It was more of a command, really. It was affecting in that way. He was lying on my pillows and he has such shoulders and his voice is so deep and he said, ‘Marry me.’ And I said, ‘You have not just said that,’ and he said that I was his now and that it must mean something, that we should get married, but I…”

“Get him to marry you, by all means,” said Charlotte. “If you are going to be acting like an utter idiot for a titled playboy of a man, get him to take responsibility. If he tries to sneak into your bedchamber again, my lady, bar the door. Tell him not again, not until he marries you.”

“But… he’s…” Patience threw up her hands. “He doesn’t seem like the sort of man who would make a very good husband, does he?”

“Well, I don’t know,” said Charlotte. “But he seems like an even worse paramour, if you ask me.”

“He’s not the least bit trustworthy,” said Patience. “He lied to me, seemed willing to say anything and everything to get what he wanted from me.”

“So, you let him kiss you, then?”

“Well, I found that out after the kisses.”

“But then you still agreed to do him this favor!”

“Yes?”

“You agree that’s mad, do you not?”

Patience sighed heavily.

Charlotte moved closer to her, gesturing for her to turn back around. She started yanking on Patience’s stays. “Is there a chance you’re carrying his child?”

“No,” said Patience.

“Only kisses, then.”

“Well…” Patience’s face felt very hot. “He, erm, outside of my body, into his smallclothes.”

“Oh, my lady, that’s no guarantee of anything at all. People think that’s going to work, and it doesn’t, not always.”

“It doesn’t?”

“No,” snapped Charlotte. “No, definitely not. Anyway, you have to get him to marry you.”

“Well, but I don’t , even if I am with child,” she said. “I can still enact my other plan.”

“This was the one where you and I are taking care of the entire household in the north, all alone, while you are heavily pregnant? That one?”

“I suppose I didn’t ask if that was something you wished to do,” muttered Patience.

“You did not,” said Charlotte.

“It’s a terrible plan, then.”

“No one will ever believe it, my lady. If you dismiss all your servants and then get new ones and claim that infant is a foundling, everyone will know exactly what is what. It will be obvious.”

“Yes, but no one really pays any attention to me, so I don’t suppose they’ll care.”

“It’s ludicrous is what it is,” said Charlotte. “You have a duke, a damnable duke , who seems perfectly willing to marry you, and you claim you don’t trust him, but you let him have you, completely have you, and then you go off and do his bidding if he asks you for favors, so you don’t act as if you don’t trust him. Why don’t you wish to marry him?”

Patience wasn’t entirely sure about that.

“Arms up, my lady,” said Charlotte.

Patience put her arms up.

Charlotte yanked her stays off. She huffed.

“Thinking of being married again, it makes me feel as if I can’t breathe,” said Patience, in a very tiny voice. “I don’t know if I can bear it. I can’t simply consign myself to that, to being some man’s property again.”

“You are already behaving like his property,” snapped Charlotte.

Was that true?