Page 5

THREE

Briar

“Markham. The Duke of Markham—the disgraced duke. I should have known.”

I spoke as harshly as I could. I just had to hope the handsome gentleman with the lazy, lopsided grin that broadened as he saw me couldn’t hear my heart thumping so wildly in my chest, I thought it was going to push past my ribcage.

He—I couldn’t—how dare he!

Trouble was, the words echoed around my mind as I stood there, hands on my hips like an idiot, in his building’s lobby.

He stole from me. He stole from me? Who did that?

Worst of all, he was a duke—a member of Georgiana’s Gambling Dukes. How could I have been so stupid?

“Ah,” said the Duke of Markham, his smile only slightly fading. “Hello.”

“Hello?” I said, taking a few steps closer to him and immediately regretting it. “How can you just say hello to me?”

Try as I might, I couldn’t quite stop myself from shaking.

I’d never been robbed before. You’d think, someone like me, it would have happened before. A jewelry robbery sounds like the sort of thing a pathetic heiress would experience all the time.

But in the words of one of my advisors, I usually have people for that. People to guard my possessions, man the boundaries, ensure that nothing happens.

I was the idiot who actually invited the burglar in.

And given him my innocence.

And I hadn’t even realized that he was my best friend’s co-conspirator. That was going to be awkward. Georgiana had mentioned several of her friends but she liked to keep her adventures with the Gambling Dukes private from her friends. The Gambling Dukes was business. Friends was fun.

Not any longer.

Oh, what had I done?

But that wasn’t the point right now. I couldn’t get angry at myself. I had to get angry at him.

“You realized my true name, then,” said the bastard.

He knew that he looked handsome smiling like that, didn’t he? He was doing it on purpose to distract me. And it wasn’t going to work.

Probably.

“It wasn’t too hard,” I said lightly.

And it wasn’t. I was only furious I hadn’t done so before. What woman in this day and age takes a gentleman back to their townhouse without even knowing their full name?

In a way, I had it coming.

“You don’t look anything like your friend, by the way. I would never have known you were part of the same club.”

That got his attention. The Duke of Markham’s face immediately fell. “My friend? You know?—”

“Georgiana, the Dowager Duchess of Cartice, yes,” I said wearily, trying to prevent my shoulders from drooping. “I was with her last night at Almack’s, actually.”

“And she had never mentioned me?”

It was a strange thing to focus on. I brushed it aside immediately.

This gentleman had to pay for what he’d done to me.

“A quick search in the books on the peerage and nobility—Markham is hardly that common a name,” I said as airily as I could manage. “I should have known a man who would invite himself back to my townhouse?—”

“From what I remember, you were the one inviting me to your townhouse,” said the Duke of Markham, his smile slipping slightly. The intensity in his eyes and his sheer presence, however, only increased the man’s allure. “That’s what I remembered, Lady Briar Weatherford.”

I flinched.

Well, it looked like I hadn’t been the only one reading up on nobility. It was ridiculous, really. It had been incredible to be anonymous with him for just one night. I shouldn’t care that?—

“I knew who you were the minute you stepped into Ferncombe’s,” the Duke of Markham said easily, shoving a hand in a pocket. “Lady Briar Weatherford, the heiress.”

I blanched, despite myself.

Oh, God. He knew me the whole time?

I hadn’t thought last night could be tainted. I thought it was the perfect meeting of two people who found each other attractive, and took their pleasure.

What had I said?

“No full names, no expectations, no hearts getting involved—definitely not broken.”

And here I was, standing before a man who had not only known who I was the entire time, but had stolen from me. He was a knave.

“It doesn’t matter how we ended up in my bed,” I said in a rush, hating how my cheeks burned at my own words. “The point is?—”

“I stole from you. Yes,” he admitted, tilting his head to one side and making himself completely adorable.

Adorable? Infuriating, he was infuriating!

“Is this what happens now you’ve been thrown out of the Gambling Dukes’ club—for stealing?

” I pointed out, trying to make my voice as harsh as I could manage.

“There was quite the scandal, from what I remember reading. Georgiana wouldn’t talk about it with me, she was too upset.

Hundreds of pounds, when you were already drawing an income.

And you’re a duke, did you not already have a substantial income? ”

My heart was racing and for some reason I didn’t know what to do with my hands. What did people do with their hands, anyway? Just allow them to hang down by their sides, like an idiot?

“Yes, substantial,” said the Duke of Markham quietly.

My lips parted, but I halted my words as someone walked along the pavement and strode past us. I may not like the fact that I had raced over here to find him, but of the two of us, it was the Duke of Markham who had committed the bigger crime.

Only when the footsteps had faded away did I speak. “You are a duke with your own income—and you were stealing money from your friends?”

“Look, I’ll give you back your possessions, all right?”

If I wasn’t mistaken, I’d said something to truly offend the man. Strange, considering all I’d done was repeat the truth back to him.

He was a thief—and he was a duke. It didn’t make any sense. Why would a man who had a position at the very height of Society ruin everything, just for a few thousand pounds?

“Here,” said the Duke of Markham roughly, not quite meeting my eye.

He thrust his hands out, a glint of gold between his fingers. Almost too late, I realized what he was doing.

“Oh—thank you,” I said awkwardly, holding out my own hands.

My fountain pen and the rings I’d been wearing last night cascaded into my hands. Only worth about five hundred pounds in total, but still. It was the principle.

That’s what I told myself as his fingers slipped past mine and a warm tingling heat rushed through my palm.

The principle. Yes. I was furious. I couldn’t forget that.

“You really thought I didn’t know who you were?”

All my fury melted away into awkwardness as I stood there, holding my belongings. I glanced down at my reticule and fumbled with the fastening as I poured in my belongings.

Perhaps I wouldn’t have struggled with the clasp so much if I didn’t need a few seconds looking away from the Duke of Markham’s bold expression.

How dare he look at me like that! Like I was a fool to think…well. Perhaps I was.

When I straightened up, I had an icy glare carefully prepared for him. It melted immediately in the face of a man that handsome.

Damnit.

“You said you didn’t know who I was,” I pointed out, trying not to allow my irritation to seep into my voice. “Why would I distrust you?”

“I don’t know, because I was a random gentleman you met at Ferncombe’s?”

I flinched. Well, Lady Briar Weatherford does it again. Another dim witted, idiot way to behave. No wonder my advisors constantly told me I had to leave all the decision making to them. If this was the way my decision making went…perhaps I was better off just letting them.

“I read that profile one of the newspapers wrote about you,” the Duke of Markham said with a wolfish grin. “More beauty than brains. Wasn’t that the tagline?”

I glared. “You think that offends me? I hear it all the time, Lord Markham, I know what the world things of me.”

“And you’re trying to convince me that description is wrong?”

“You should have told me who you were,” I said, desperate to score a point.

The Duke of Markham’s face darkened. “What, because you would never have allowed yourself to be bedded by a duke?”

“I wouldn’t have allowed myself to be bedded by you!” I shot back before I could stop myself. “Lord Markham, you’re practically a byword for untrustworthy, you must know that!”

The words echoed around the garden, my words repeating over and over again just in case there was the slightest chance that the Duke of Markham hadn’t heard me the first time.

“Lord Markham, you’re practically a byword for untrustworthy…practically a byword for untrustworthy…byword for untrustworthy…untrustworthy…”

I swallowed. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

My coachman had known the building where the disgraced duke lived and had been able to get me there in record time.

I’d been certain, however, that the Duke of Markham had already been here.

I’d confront him, get back my belongings, and leave. All in the privacy of his home.

I hadn’t intended this.

“Well, that’s put me in my place,” the Duke of Markham said. He spoke lightly, but even he couldn’t hide the pain in his eyes. “And if that’s all, my lady?—”

“Don’t call me that,” I snapped as he moved toward me. He was now only a few feet away, and his sheer proximity was doing something strange to my lungs.

Constricting them. Making it difficult to breathe. The bastard.

“Look, I gave you back your belongings, didn’t I?” said the Duke of Markham, stepping forward again.

For a moment, I thought he was going to kiss me. It was wild, stupid, idiotic—he didn’t even get that close to me.

But he got close enough to breathe him in. That scent, that warmth that was pure Markham. That closeness we had shared only hours ago relived in my senses.

And then just as his lips were approaching mine, he turned away and walked straight past me to the front door. “We’re done here.”

I blinked, half dazed by what I had thought was going to happen. Not that I wanted it to happen.

Turning on my heels, I glared at the man as he lifted a hand to open the door. “Oh, we’re not done here, Lord Markham. I'm going to make you pay.”

Markham

“Oh, we’re not done here, Lord Markham. I'm going to make you pay.”