Page 12 of The Duke’s Second Bride (Regency Second Chances #4)

Her blood ran cold at the familiar voice. “Leave me,” she said, as fiercely as she could, though her attempt at strength was undermined immediately by the tremble of tears in her voice.

There were footsteps as Brandon walked closer towards her, and she turned to face him, wiping her tears quickly and standing up straighter.

“A gentleman can hardly leave a lady in distress,” he said, affecting a concerned tone, though the smug, self-satisfied look on his face told a different story.

“Come, now. It would be such a shame to mar that beautiful face with a frown.

You would be much more pleasing to the eye if you were to smile.

“Leave me,” she repeated. “Do not make me ask again. Please. I just want a moment to myself.”

“You can ask as many times as you’d like,” he said, “but surely by now you’ve realized that your words mean nothing to me?

Or … well. Perhaps not nothing.” His eyes dragged across her form, raking up and down every inch of her dress, to the parts of her neck and décolletage that remained uncovered.

“Your fire and passion are quite appealing. But doubtlessly, you know that already.”

Ava’s eyes flared. She took a step backward. “I have nothing more to say to you,” she said, keeping her voice firm.

She swiped again at the tears on her cheeks, which had now dried due to sheer terror.

“Ah. But that isn’t quite true, is it? After all, that dress you’re wearing was paid for by me.

The houses where you live are paid for by me.

The staff that tends to your every whim, you are allowed to keep only at my generosity.

Your entire life is lived at my whim, dear Ava.

” He stepped closer, until she was forced to step directly into a column, the length of marble preventing her from backing up any further.

“I think it is long past time you treated me with the kindness and the respect and the gratitude I deserve.” His voice began to fill with bitterness.

Ava shook her head, suddenly acutely aware of the fact that she had nowhere to go. He had her cornered.

“I am most grateful to you, Brandon. Grateful to you as the wife of your brother.”

“But you weren’t a very good wife to him, were you? Poor William.” He tutted, stepping in closer still. “Not giving him children. What other duty does a wife have? And, to hear tell the whispers in that ballroom, you were doing much, much worse.”

Tears began to well up once more in her eyes. “It isn’t true,” she whispered, shaking her head more fervently. “ None of it is true. I was faithful to William from the beginning of our marriage to the end. I have been faithful to his memory.”

“But that isn’t what people believe. Not from what I’ve heard. Or from the rumors I have started myself.”

Her gaze snapped open.

He only chuckled. “You know, I don’t blame you, Ava, for everything that went wrong in that marriage between you and William. My older brother was too pigheaded to see that some women simply are not cut out to be wives. You, for instance, I think you’d be much more at home as a mistress.”

“Stay back,” she warned him, “or I will scream, I swear it.”

“That will hardly help your reputation,” he observed.

“Come now, Ava. If people are going to believe you and I are living in sin, then don’t you think we might as well reap the benefits?

And if not, then I’m certain you won’t mind if I were to take away your house and your allowance.

Without a mistress, I would have need of the money elsewhere. ”

“You are vile,” she spat.

He was right, she knew. If she screamed, and people were to find them, then the rumors would increase tenfold, and with proof this time. More so, without her home and her allowance, she would be out on the streets, with nowhere to go.

She could not defy Brandon, and yet she could not bear to acquiesce to his demands, either.

So, she did the only thing she could think to do: she ran.

She had scarcely made it two steps when he caught her by the wrist, pulling her toward him and pushing her back into the column.

She cried out at the twin pains of her nails digging into her wrist and her head slamming against the marble.

Despite her struggles, Brandon managed to pin her. “Come now,” he said, gritting his teeth with the effort it took to keep her held in one place across the marble. “If you are sweet enough to give me just a taste, I might even consider rewarding you with a bonus to your next upcoming allowance.”

“Let me go!” Ava hissed and continued to kick and pull against him, turning her face this way and that so that he could not kiss her.

Brandon managed to get both of her wrists in one of his hands.

Oh God , her mind screamed, no no no no !

As she pulled and bucked, he reached the other hand down to her ankle, feeling at the hem of her skirts.

“Such soft skin,” he said, smirking as his hand grazed her leg, “I bet you’re even softer between these lovely legs.”

Just as he was about to lift his hand upward?—

He was suddenly pulled off of her.

It took Ava a few blinks to recognize her rescuer. That dark hair, those sharp features, and the clear, impassioned eyes now filled with rage.

The Duke of Richmond.

Brandon seemed to be having the same moment of recognition. “Richmond?” he asked.

A split-second later, the Duke socked him in the jaw.

Ava’s hands flew to her mouth, though she was frozen in place. She made no move to help either Brandon or the Duke.

“Stay away from her,” growled the Duke.

Brandon, having stumbled backwards with a hand pressed to his cheek, looked at him in awe and terror.

“Have you gone mad, man?” He stepped forward, hands raised as though to indicate he meant no harm. “There is no reason for you to be here, I assure you! This is a matter between the lady and me.”

The Duke stepped forward, blocking Brandon’s efforts to approach Ava.

“Stay away from her,” he repeated, more firmly than before.

Brandon looked back and forth between Ava and the Duke.

“Ava,” he said, his voice low. “Kindly ask His Grace to leave, so that you and I can finish our private discussion. This is not a matter for the public. We don’t want to make a scene, do we?”

Ava was shaking too badly to respond.

Brandon, displeased with her silence, took another step forward. “Ava?—”

Only to be met with the Duke’s fist once more.

Brandon let out an anguished cry as the duke struck the part of his face that must have already been sensitive from his previous blow. When he looked up again, his fearful expression had been transformed into one of outrage and indignation.

“How dare you?” he hissed. “Ava! Tell him to leave this instant.”

When Ava said nothing, he tipped his head back and laughed.

“Fine,” he finally spat, backing away from her and the duke, and walking towards the exit of the estate. “You have made your choice. You are going to regret this deeply, mark my words. You’ll have plenty of time to think over your decision from your new home in the gutters.”

“Leave. Now,” the Duke said, his voice deadly quiet, somehow even more intimidating than when he growled.

Brandon’s face contorted. “You impertinent—” he snapped, taking a step forward.

But he immediately froze when the duke matched his step inwards.

“Very well,” he hissed. “So be it.”

And with that, he stormed off.

They let a few moments of silence pass over once he had gone. When the air had been free of his footsteps for a moment, the Duke turned to Ava.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

Ava had to fight to catch her breath. Finally, she nodded, though she was still trembling.

“What did he mean by saying your new home would be in the gutters?” the Duke asked.

“Nothing,” she muttered. “It was nothing.”

“It was most certainly not,” he persisted. “I ought to have struck him again. What did he mean?”

Ava bit her lower lip. “He is my brother-in-law,” she said, “and the new Lord Dunfair, since my husband died. As expected, he has taken full control of the inheritance and organized our finances so that I live on his generosity alone. As of late, his behavior has been …”

“Barbaric,” the duke growled, his gaze darkening.

Ava swallowed. “Yes,” she said. “Erratic. And then the last time he sent my allowance …”

She hesitated.

“What?” the Duke pressed.

She sighed, “He … he sent barely enough for me to run the household. And then tonight … if I didn’t give in to his …

whims…” Here, her voice nearly broke. She cleared her throat, fighting back tears.

“He has the power to take it all away, you understand. The house where I live. The money I live on.”

The duke went deadly silent for a moment.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.

Ava furrowed her brow. “What?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

A laugh escaped her, unbidden; a shocked, half-outraged noise. “Why on earth would I do that?” she asked. “We are strangers.”

“You have been kind to my son,” he said. “Helped him, even, on a few occasions.”

Ava couldn’t help but scoff at that. “Now is when you choose to recognize that? Now? At the absolute worst possible time!”

His brows knit together more tightly still. “Would you rather I have done nothing?” he asked lowly. “Would you rather I have stood back and led that vile man?—”

He cut off, much to Ava’s relief. Still, her relief did not outweigh her anger.

Just who did the Duke of Richmond think he was, to be acting so?

“I would have been able to calm him,” she said, stepping closer towards him.

Though he was much taller than she and stronger, she felt no fear even in the presence of his anger.

“I wouldn’t have pushed him, stoked the fire of his anger the way you did.

Before, his threat to push me out on the streets was just that—a threat. Now it is all but a certainty.”

The truth of it rushed over her. She had no other prospects.

Certainly not with her reputation the way it was at present.

Edith would offer to take her in for a while, to be sure, but she could not burden Edith like that.

Such an imposition would drain Edith of her inheritance, as well, not to mention lowering her social stock.

“Out on the streets,” she murmured to herself. “Oh, God … what have I done?”

“I’ll marry you.”

She looked up, certain she had misheard him. “What?”

The Duke was staring at her, those blue eyes piercing through to her very soul. “I will marry you.”