Page 29 of The Duke’s Replacement Bride (The Wild Brides #6)

“ Y our suspicions are true,” Bradley said.

“What do you mean, they’re true?” Levi leaned across the desk and steepled his fingers. “Are you saying that someone is deliberately spreading rumors about myself and my wife?”

“That’s right,” Bradley said. “I’ve spoken to many of your tenants, and they’ve confirmed that they see you as a terrible rake, a scoundrel and a cad.

And when I asked them why they thought these things—did it reflect some behavior they had seen in you, for example—all of them gave me the same answer. ”

“What answer?” Levi’s heart raced.

“They all said they had been told this was the way you were.”

“So, you mean to say—you’re saying that these aren’t opinions they’ve formed about me on their own. Someone is saying it.”

“That’s right. And that tells me there’s someone who has a vested interest in people believing the worst about you, Your Grace.”

“But who could want such a thing? And why? I don’t understand it.”

“I don’t either,” Bradley admitted. “All I know is that we have more questions that need answering now. We need to find out who is saying these things so that we can put a stop to it—that’s all there is to it.”

“I agree,” Levi said. “Will you continue to investigate, Bradley? I need this resolved as quickly as possible, and with as little attention drawn to me as we can manage. And none at all to my wife, if that’s possible.

But I’ll say this—it’s one thing if their aim is to do me harm; if they are trying to do her harm, though…

well, they have very little chance at receiving my forgiveness. That’s all I can say about that.”

“I quite understand,” Bradley said grimly. “I will try to find out more. My hope is that I can find a tenant who is willing to give a description of the person spreading the rumors.”

“But even if you do find that person, they might not be the one truly to blame,” Levi pointed out. “It’s very likely to be someone else altogether, someone who is merely using a third party to do the dirty work for them.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve thought of it. If we can find the person spreading the rumors, it will be a good first step, and we’ll take things from there.”

Levi nodded. “Very well, then,” he said.

“Please return to me when you’ve found out more.

And do try to be quick about it. Every day that goes by allows these rumors to take root more deeply.

I am not the kind of man who would ever betray my wife like that, and I need that to be known.

” He thought of the way Caroline had so recently expressed doubt in him and in their relationship.

Surely she couldn’t believe there was anything real about these rumors, could she?

If she did—if someone had caused her to think this way about him—his revenge would be something to behold. He pledged that to himself right there and then.

They would not get away with it.

He returned home after his meeting with Bradley to find the house in an uproar.

Lady Highgate ran up to him the moment he was in the door. “Your Grace,” she gasped. “Where is she? Is she with you?”

“What do you mean?” Levi’s first thought was that Prudence must have run away again, but he looked around and saw her huddled with Bridget in the corner. His heart sank. There was only one other person they could be referring to.

“It’s Caroline,” Lady Highgate said. “I haven’t seen her all day—none of us has. We told ourselves she must have gone out with you, and we just didn’t realize. But she isn’t with you either.”

“No, she isn’t,” Levi murmured, feeling decidedly nervous. “You haven’t seen her at all today?”

“Not at all,” Prudence spoke up. She was a little steadier than her mother, but Levi could see that she was shaken as well.

“I thought…well…you know that I used to go…out sometimes.” She flushed, but she didn’t break eye contact with him, and in that moment, she looked so much like her sister that Levi’s heart broke.

He had come to care so passionately for Caroline.

He couldn’t lose her. Not like this. Where could she be?

He was about to turn around, go right back out, and search for her himself when a familiar voice queried, “What’s going on?”

He turned. She stood in the doorway, clearly having just arrived home. He was on her in an instant, hand around her wrist so that she couldn’t run off again. “What were you doing?” he demanded. “Where have you been?”

“Levi—I was just out! Why are you so angry?”

“Tell me where you were.”

Her eyes cut to her mother. “Privately.”

“You don’t set terms with me right now, Caroline. How could you have left like that without telling me where you were going? After everything we’ve been through…”

“But that’s always been a part of our arrangement,” she told him. “We don’t have to tell one another everything we do—everywhere we go. That was your term for us. You can’t change everything now just because you’re curious about what I’ve been doing.”

He was beyond curious. The feeling that had poured through him at the realization that she was missing was unlike anything he’d ever experienced.

He was horrified that a chasm like that one could be opened within him.

That he could hurt so badly. He was furious with her for being the cause of it.

There was curiosity, yes, but that was the very least of what he was feeling.

He pulled her into the ballroom. The spacious emptiness made him feel as if his voice was uncommonly loud when he spoke.

“I can’t have you doing that,” he said. “Disappearing like that, not telling me where you’re going…

I don’t care what I said back in the early days of our marriage.

Surely you can see that things are different between the two of us now.

After everything that happened with Prudence, I just need to know where you are at all times. ”

“I’m not Prudence,” she snapped. “You shouldn’t need anything different from me because of anything that’s happened with her.

And besides, I was only with my father. He asked me to come and visit him, to speak to him about my mother.

You know I couldn’t meet him here, so I really had no choice but to do as he asked me. ”

Levi sighed. “You should have told me.”

“I’m telling you now. Levi, what difference does it make? You can’t possibly be upset that I went to see my father.”

“Of course I’m not. But you know how strange you’ve been acting lately, don’t you?

” he countered. “It can’t have escaped your notice, Caroline.

You haven’t been yourself at all. You’ve been nearly hostile toward me.

So, when you do something like this, disappear out of nowhere, can you blame me for thinking you’ve followed in your sister’s footsteps? ”

“You can be blamed for thinking that, because you know how much I worried about her. It ought to be obvious to you that I would never put my loved ones through that same worry. I shouldn’t have to tell you,” she said hotly.

She had called him her loved one —that hadn’t eluded him. It didn’t feel like the right time to call attention to that fact, but he did file it away for later.

“Tell me why you’ve been acting differently,” he demanded.

“I haven’t!”

“Yes, you have. Ever since your family arrived, I’ve had the feeling that something was off, and I can’t understand it.

I’ve allowed them to stay here for your sake, because that was what you wanted.

I’ve grown used to their presence, of course.

I like having them here. But do you not like it? What is it that’s changed in you?”

She sighed and turned away from him.

He took her gently by her shoulders and turned her back toward him.

“Don’t do that,” he said. “Just…whatever this is about, just tell me. Tell me what’s on your mind.”

“It’s about Prudence.” She still wasn’t looking at him.

“About Prudence?”

“About the way you and she talk to one another. The chemistry between you. You get along so well. It’s so easy.”

“Caroline…you know that I’m not interested in Prudence like that. Didn’t I tell you that I didn’t have any feelings of that nature for her, and that I was glad to be married to you? That you were my first choice?”

“You did.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“I do .” Her voice was desperate. “But don’t you wish I was more like her? More charming? Easier to get along with?”

“Of course I don’t wish that. I’ve never wished for you to be anything but what you are.”

“I know she’s more fun than I am. She’s what gentlemen want. I’m not. Everyone has always made sure to tell me that.”

“Well, they were wrong,” Levi said fiercely. “I want you. You’re the one I choose, all right, Caroline?”

“You didn’t choose.”

“If I had the choice to make, you are who I would want. I would marry you over Prudence every single time, with no disrespect to her. You haunt my dreams and my waking thoughts, Caroline. You have a quiet brilliance that leaves me breathless and always longing for more of you. You astound me every single day. I don’t know how you can truly believe that I wouldn’t choose you—you don’t see yourself very clearly at all, not the way I do.

I wish you did. I wish you saw everything I see.

I hope that someday you will. But in the meantime—you mustn’t ever believe that I look at you and wish that you were in any way your sister.

Prudence is lovely, but you are my Caroline. ”

Her eyes were as wide as saucers by the time he had finished delivering that speech.

To tell the truth, Levi was startled too. He hadn’t known that he’d had that in him.

But now the words were out, and only one thing remained to do.

He caught her in his arms, waiting a moment to see whether she would try to pull away. After all, he couldn’t forget how distant she had been lately.

But she came to him willingly, formed her body to the shape of his. Levi’s heart beat madly at the thought of what was to come, at the sight of her supple lips so near to his.

He kissed her, wishing that he could drown himself in the scent and the taste, that he could forget all about the worries of the gossip and rumors of the ton. That he could just be hers and have her for his, and that it didn’t matter at all what anybody else thought about it.

Someday , he told himself, it will be that way.

Someday, maybe. But for now, it was going to have to be enough that they had each other. It would have to be enough to hold her and to kiss her and to trust that he had her heart.

He would put a stop to the rumors as soon as he was able to do so. He would make sure they were brought to heel.

Even though the ton might take his good name, they would never be able to take his wife.

Caroline was his, and he’d never let her go.