Page 80 of Trapped with her Cruel Duke

“I will promise no such thing.”

Louise huffed. “I do not want you to come to blows. My father is a formidable man, and he has threatened to ruin you.”

Christian’s eyes hardened at that. “And how, pray tell, is an already ruined man planning to ruinme?”

“This is exactly what I mean,” she said briskly. “You have a rivalry that goes back years. It will never be settled if you continue to provoke each other.”

“Ha!” Christian scoffed incredulously. “Then the Earl wishes tosettlethings, doesn’t he? And how did he propose to do so? Alone, with just his daughter to speak to?”

Louise wrung her hands in front of her, dreading his reaction but knowing she would have to confess all the same.

“He told me that he wanted the deed to our townhouse. Is it true that you have it?”

Christian’s eyes widened in surprise. “Yes, it is true, although I am astonished that he revealed as much to you. He must be truly desperate.”

“I do not think he has anything left to lose,” she confessed. “He was agitated, speaking about the power you hold over him while you are in possession of the deed.”

“I intend to keep it forever,” Christian replied grimly. “Would you honestly trust him with it more than me? He also holds your mother’s life in his hands, and I imagine he values that as highly as he values yours.”

Louise’s stomach churned at the thought of her father harming her mother in other ways besides using his fists.

Would Christian really protect us?

Her father’s words were still ringing in her ears. Although she did not trust him, she knew there was a grain of truth in what he had said about her husband.

“I am grateful that you would protect my mother and my future,” she said, “but that is not all he wanted.”

“What else?”

“He told me to ask you for money. Well, he told me to take money from you and give it to him. I do not know where he expects me to find it, but he asked me all the same.”

“This is preposterous,” Christian snapped. “I will deal with it.”

Louise blinked at him. “You will deal with it? How will you deal with it?”

“In my own way. He is not the first man to wrong me, although he wasoneof the first. It is depressingly predictable that he has neither changed nor improved over the years.” Christian pulled out his fob watch and grunted as he checked the hour. “I shall deal with this,” he muttered, almost to himself.

To her dismay, he opened the door and left the room.

Louise was forced to follow him at a light trot to keep up. Christian’s shoulders were pulled back and tense, his stance altogether confrontational, and she dreaded what was to come.

He walked into his study, leaving the door open behind him, apparently anticipating that she would follow him. He moved to his desk and began gathering some papers, looking over a few things before placing them into a leather-bound binder.

“Are you leaving?” Louise asked helplessly.

Have I just made everything worse? Should I have held my tongue?

“Yes,” he said curtly. “I expect to find the Earl at his preciousclub. I will make sure that he understands his position once and for all.”

“You will not hurt him.” Louise meant it as a question, but it came out as a demand.

Christian paused, looking up at her. “Do you honestly think I would intend to harm anyone? I didn’t think you thought so little of me.”

“You have banished him from your house,” Louise hissed, “and I know there is no goodwill between you.”

“I will do as a gentleman does and put him in his place withwords.”

He deposited one last piece of parchment in the binder and rounded the desk as though to walk straight past her and out of the room. Louise grabbed his arm before he could do so.

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