Page 19 of The Duke’s Replacement Bride (The Wild Brides #6)

“ D id you enjoy the ball?” Levi asked as the two of them rode home.

Caroline was looking away from him, staring out the window of the carriage. “Did Gregory truly say that he hadn’t found anything out? You weren’t just waiting to tell me more once we got into the carriage?”

“I wish I had better news for you,” Levi said. “I was hoping every bit as much as you were that I would be able to tell you something.”

“But Gregory has never met her,” Caroline said. “He couldn’t give a fitting description of her to the people he asked if they had seen her. Couldn’t that be the reason? Maybe he described her poorly, and that’s why we didn’t get any answers.”

“It’s possible,” Levi had to admit. “But also, I do think Gregory was able to give a fairly apt description. He has met you , after all, and even seen you in the sort of clothing she liked to wear. I’m sorry, Caroline.

I know you and I both hoped for a better outcome.

I wish I had different news I could give you right now.

But no one has seen any trace of your sister. ”

“You’re not just giving up.”

“Of course not. We simply have to come up with another plan. We have to decide on what we should do next—who we should speak to, where we should look. Asking the men who frequent the London pubs does not seem to have paid dividends. But she’s out there somewhere, and we are going to find her. I pledge that to you.”

Caroline didn’t respond. She turned and looked out the window again. Levi frowned, wondering what was on her mind. He wanted to ask her—but it was clear that she was distraught.

When he had come back from talking to Gregory, she hadn’t been where he had left her.

He suspected she had been looking for him.

He’d taken her back to the dance floor, but the dancing had lost its luster for both of them.

The news that Gregory’s search had come up empty had put a damper on the evening, and they had quickly decided to give it up and return home.

The carriage now pulled to a stop in front of Mowbray Manor. Levi helped Caroline out, but she didn’t wait for him—she hurried to the door and went inside. By the time he had recovered from that surprise and reached the foyer, she was nowhere to be seen.

I wonder if something happened at the ball? She certainly seems unhappy.

He decided he would let her have the night to recover her composure, and he hoped their paths would cross tomorrow at breakfast. Then he would ask her what had occurred to leave her so distraught.

And if he found that someone had been in any way unkind to her…

well, that person would learn the meaning of the world consequences , he thought darkly as he made his way to his study for a late-night drink.

As it turned out, though, their confrontation did not have to wait until morning.

He had left his study door slightly cracked, and it was just good fortune that he happened to be looking up at the right moment. A shadow passed in front of the door. Movement. One of the servants?

He couldn’t say how, but he had a feeling it wasn’t.

He rose to his feet, doing his best to make as little noise as possible, and crossed to the door, lingering behind it for just a moment. Then he grabbed the knob and pulled it abruptly open.

There she was, standing frozen in a patch of candlelight, staring at him with a guilty look on her face.

Caroline.

She had dressed in the clothes he had told her to burn—the men’s things. She had her hair pinned up and tucked under a hat. And he understood at once what she was doing, and why.

“No,” he said firmly. “Absolutely not.”

“Levi—”

“You thought I wasn’t going to catch you? Or that I wouldn’t find out about this?”

“I have to?—”

“You don’t have to do anything. Get in here and sit down.”

He turned around and walked back into his study, unable, for a moment, to even look at her.

He knew there was a chance she would disregard his instructions and try to leave anyway, but he knew the best way to compel her obedience was to act as if he knew he would be obeyed—as if he simply took it for granted.

It worked. He heard her footsteps behind him as he returned to his desk. “Shut the door,” he instructed, and he heard it close and felt a sense of satisfaction. She was hard to control, but in the end, he was still the master of the house, and she wouldn’t forget it.

He took his seat. Caroline was standing near the door with her hands knitted together.

“Take that ridiculous hat off,” he told her. “Take your hair down. I’m not going to sit here and feel as if I’m talking to a pageboy.”

She did as he’d asked.

It had made him feel uncomfortable when they had been in the club to see her dressed like this with her hair down around her shoulders, revealing her true identity.

But in the privacy of the study, there was something almost alluring about seeing her this way.

The clothes she wore threw her delicate femininity into sharp contrast, so much so that he found he couldn’t understand how she had ever managed to sneak out of the house without being recognized as a woman.

He had spotted her from the very start. How was it possible that everyone she saw didn’t see it as clearly as he did?

“Sit down,” he told her.

She did so. She wasn’t looking at him, and for a moment, he believed she was ashamed at having been caught.

“I trusted you not to do this again,” he told her. “I thought we had come to an understanding.

Now she looked up. Her eyes were blazing, and he saw clearly that she wasn’t abashed at all.

She was angry with him. “How can you expect me to sit around the house and wait while other people try— fail —to find my sister?” she demanded.

“We did have an understanding, and it was that you were not going to ask this of me. And now you want to chastise me for going out to look for her when your man was unsuccessful at finding her?”

“I told you we weren’t going to give up,” Levi said.

“But you’re not out looking for her.”

“I’m not going to be out looking every minute of every day, Caroline. You can’t reasonably expect that of me. We will find her, but it may take some time. I thought we were in agreement that this is not an emergency?”

“You didn’t hear the way people were speaking of her at the ball!”

Ah. Now the pieces were beginning to fall into place. “What was said?”

“It’s just…the most vile rumors. We don’t know where she is, but I know my sister. I know the kind of person she is. None of those terrible things are true about her. And the sooner she comes home, the sooner she can defend herself and set the record straight.”

“I understand your concern,” Levi said slowly. “But Prudence is pretty smart, isn’t she?”

“Well, yes, of course she is.”

“Don’t you think it occurred to her that there would be gossip if she disappeared like this? Don’t you think she knew what she was risking?”

“That doesn’t make it all right,” Caroline said.

“Even if she did know, what kind of sister would I be if I sat back and allowed it to happen? Prudence is my younger sister. Arabella always looked out for the two of us, but I also looked out for Prudence. I always cared for her. I cannot be at peace while harm is coming to her reputation, even if she did anticipate that it might happen. I cannot accept cruel words spoken about my sister. Not for anything!”

Levi was quiet for a moment, regarding his wife.

Her cheeks were flushed, her breathing rapid, and he could see just how distressed she truly was.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “As you know, I have no brothers or sisters. Seeing the way you defend Prudence…it’s something I’ve never encountered before.

I have never felt this way about anyone, to tell you the truth.

I’ve never felt as though I needed to go to such lengths to protect someone.

I’ve always been able to keep my distance, to tell myself that other people’s problems were theirs and that my problems were mine. ”

“That’s all well and good, but it’s not the way things are between my sisters and myself,” Caroline said. “They would do anything for me, and I would do anything for them. I know you think it’s foolish.”

“I don’t think that,” Levi countered. “I can’t allow you to dress yourself in this fashion and to go out on your own—that’s beyond foolish.

But I don’t think your feelings are foolish.

I have a lot of respect for your desire to protect your sister.

I hope you believe me when I tell you it’s my intention to help you in that aim, whatever it takes. We’ll bring her back.”

“I want to believe you,” Caroline sighed.

“You don’t, though?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know how to let go of all the rumors about you—the rumors that you’re a rake who cares only for himself. I don’t want to think those things are true.”

“Have you seen any sign of it from me?”

“I haven’t,” she confessed.

“Because it isn’t the truth. It’s all rumor and speculation, and none of it is real,” he said. “You know how things are among the ton. People will make up all kinds of things, but you know better than to believe a rumor.”

“I also know that I have to be careful,” she said quietly. “I can’t allow myself to be taken by surprise, Levi.”

Levi rose to his feet. Caroline stood too.

“You’re my wife,” he told her.

“But that doesn’t mean the same thing to you that it does to some.”

“It means that I respect you. I honor you. I would never do anything that would cause you harm or shame,” he said. “You placed your trust in me when we married, and I am a gentleman. Whatever there may or may not be between us, I don’t take that trust lightly, Caroline.”

She sighed. “I should return to my room.”

“Do you mean that?”

“Yes, there’s no need to post a guard at my door. I won’t try to sneak out again, I promise.” She turned toward the door.

He reached out and caught her by the arm.

She tensed, looking back at him, her breathing erratic.

Levi hadn’t known he was going to do that. He didn’t know what he meant by it. “Wait,” he managed.

“Yes?” She was breathless, her gaze searching his.

He didn’t know what to say. He could hardly think. All he could do was look at her and wonder what it would be like to have her in his arms—what it would be like to kiss her.

She’s my wife. I could kiss her. I don’t have to remain wondering.

But if he did—if he allowed himself to take her in his arms, to press his lips to hers and finally get a taste of what, up until now, he had only allowed himself to look at—it would change everything.

It was too dangerous. It wasn’t what he had married her for. And if she ended up resenting him forever, the way his mother had his father, they would both be miserable for the rest of their lives.

Though it made him half mad to do it, he forced himself, once more, to let her go.