Page 52 of A Virgin for the Duke of Thorns

“Grandmother is right,” he said, shaking his head. “I should go look for them.”

Without another word, or even a glance her way, he strode out of the room, leaving her gaping after him.

“We… should help him,” Ethan muttered with a sheepish grin. “In case we do need to make sure Evie and Daniel do not hurt each other.”

With that, he and the Duke of Wolverton both stood up to follow after Colin. Their sudden departure had all three remaining young ladies looking at each other in confusion.

“What was all that about?” Scarlett asked, raising an eyebrow as she glanced from Phoebe to Alice.

“Heaven only knows.” Phoebe shrugged. “Gentlemen are rather odd creatures if I may say so.”

“Indeed,” Alice agreed with a nod of her head. “One lives on tenterhooks, wondering what they will do next.”

“Ha! That is nothing more than a retreat if I do say so myself!” the Dowager Countess exclaimed, thumping her cane on the carpeted floor with a sly glint in her eyes. “The first thing you need to know about men is that, unlike us women, they tend to run away from their emotions.”

Phoebe leaned in, eyes wide with curiosity. “They do?”

“Why, of course, my dear. You can take my word for it!”

Alice glanced back at the door that Colin had just walked through. Was Lady Wellington correct in her assumptions? Was he actually running away from his emotions?

And if so, what sort of emotions was he fleeing from?

She felt a gentle hand rest on her own, and she turned to find the Dowager Countess regarding her with a kindly smile.

“Do not worry too much about that display, my dear,” she reassured her. “He will be back—if he possesses half the intelligence a barnacle does.”

Alice let out a nervous laugh. “I suppose so, Lady Wellington.”

Still, she could not help but glance back and wish he would walk through that door again. Why must men be such exasperatingly confusing creatures?

And then, they had the audacity to accuse women of the same!

CHAPTER 21

“Colin, wait up!”

Colin did not even bother to turn around when Ethan called out for him. He continued to walk quickly back to his study and then paused before turning on his heel and heading back to the dining hall.

They had reached the now empty room when he felt a hand on his shoulder spinning him on his feet. He glowered at Ethan, who was looking at him like he had lost his mind.

In truth, he just might have.

“What the hell are you doing?” Ethan demanded, a look of exasperation clear on his face. “Why are you running away like a bloody dog with its tail tucked between its legs?”

Colin shrugged his hand off his shoulder. “What dog?” he bit back bitterly. “Am I not a Wolf, as most of the ton’s impressionable young debutantes have dubbed me?”

“You are hardly acting like a Wolf now,” a deep voice remarked. Hudson was standing just behind Ethan, eyeing Colin coldly. “And you know that very well.”

“It is just a fake betrothal, anyway,” Colin groused, looking away from their piercing gazes.

His two friends knew him all too well. They would know why he ran away—and why he was acting the way he had been for the past week.

Hudson folded his arms over his chest. “If it is a fake betrothal, then why are you acting the way you are now? If it makes you that uncomfortable, then why not make it real?”

“You do not understand!” Colin bellowed in frustration, running his hand through his hair as he paced nervously. “You know very well why I cannot. For her own sake, I cannot…”

The Duke of Wolverton stared him down, his dark gaze implacable and containing a touch of something he had never before seen—pity. Hudson was actually looking at him in pity.

---