Page 94 of Enslaved
Diana laughed. “Peter is a boy. I have known a great passion since the last time I saw your brother. I am not the naive child that I was, allowing myself to be trapped over a few kisses. Since then I have experienced the love of a man, a real man.”
Mark Hardwick came back toward the bed. “Peter left for London this morning, in spite of the snow. He’s gone to tell your aunt and uncle of your return. Naturally, they will come back with him. I expect them tomorrow night unless the roads are bad.”
“Ugh! Prudence!” Diana said with a shudder. “I suppose she must be faced.”
“Are you afraid of her?”
Diana considered for a moment. “I was. She kept me on a very short leash. She dominated me, and when that didn’t work, she manipulated me with guilt, playing on my sympathies by pretending to be an invalid. She will soon learn I am no longer a biddable girl, but a woman.”
“The gossip your disappearance caused wasn’t pleasant for her.”
An impish look of delight crossed Diana’s face. “Her god is respectability. Oh, how I wish I could have witnessed her discomfort.”
“Your aunt and uncle are still your legal guardians,” he cautioned.
A look of dismay replaced her delight.
“I thought you weren’t afraid.”
“Prudence will punish me dreadfully for this, but after the fear I’ve experienced, Prudence will be no more than an irritation.”
He raised an eyebrow of inquiry as dark as a raven’s wing.
A lump came into her throat and she began to tremble. “Don’t ask,” she whispered. “I cannot speak of it … not yet.”
“Get some rest,” he said brusquely. He closed the door quietly.What the devil is she hiding?he asked himself. She fascinated him much more now than she had in the past. Now, an air of mystery surrounded her, and coupled with the unconventional things she said, he was drawn to her like a lodestone.
Apparently she intended to withdraw from the engagement, which wouldn’t sit very well with Peter, who had dashed off to London, probably to inform her guardians that plans for the wedding could proceed. Mark Hardwick felt relieved that she had not given her heart to his brother, and not only for personal reasons. An exquisite woman like Diana deserved better than a profligate young hellraiser like Peter.
As he had expected, when Peter Hardwick got halfway to London, the snow turned to rain. In spite of the weather, he was in good spirits. He had fallen so deeply in debt from his gambling, he had begun to feel like a hunted man. His markers were piling up at every gentleman’s club in London and he knew the only reason they hadn’t been called was because his brother was the Earl of Bath.
More pressing debts had had to be paid, however. His losses at cockfights and pit bull fights were staggering, and those men would have broken his legs, at the very least, if he had not paid up. As a result, he had fallen into the hands of the moneylenders. This had postponed his troubles, but by no means had it solved them. Fleet Prison loomed very real on Peter’s horizon, and his only hope to avoid it was to throw himself on his brother’s mercy and confess all. This was an indication of just how desperate he was, for he hated Mark with a vengeance, and would do anything to avoid that arrogant son-of-a-bitch’s contempt.
Then at his darkest hour he had been saved by Diana Davenport. She had reappeared as suddenly as she had mysteriously disappeared. He didn’t give a tinker’s damn where she had been. All that mattered to Peter was that his wedding to the heiress could now go forward.
It had been eight months since he’d spoken to Richard and Prudence Davenport. They had remained in Bath for a month while a lengthy search had been carried out, but eventually had no choice but to return to London.
The hour was late when he arrived in Grosvenor Square, and he found Richard Davenport and his wife at home. When the majordomo took his caped greatcoat and ushered him into the drawing room, Peter said, “I know you will forgive the lateness of the hour when I tell you the news. Diana has been found!”
No joy registered on either face. They looked as if he had dropped a bombshell.
“Found alive?” Richard demanded.
“Mercifully, yes. She’s quite safe at Hardwick Hall.”
“But we assumed she was dead,” Prudence blurted out. She and Richard exchanged what could only be described as a look of guilt.
A red flag went up in Peter’s mind. Being a devious bastard himself, and human nature being what it was, he suspected them of chicanery. With his face a mask, his voice bland, he said, “Plans for the marriage can go forward immediately.”
“Not so fast,” Richard interjected. “Our precious agreement is no longer in effect.” Richard’s mind darted about like quicksilver. Diana was presumed dead and he had proceeded accordingly. Naturally, without a body, a number of years must pass before the courts declared her legally dead, but Richard was in complete charge of Diana’s money, and by clever manipulation and maneuvering, he had managed to transfer the bulk of her fortune into his own accounts.
Peter Hardwick’s mind easily kept apace with Richard’s, especially when money was involved. The only reason this pair of vultures would declare their arrangement of 60–40 null and void was if they had high expectations of keeping it all.
Peter smiled. If Richard Davenport had done something illegal, he had him by the short hairs. “As Diana’s fiance, I believe I will advise her to look into how her estate has been managed while under your guardianship. My brother, the earl, enjoys the services of London’s finest barristers.”
“I shall inform Diana you are only interested in her money,” Prudence threatened. “She will call off your engagement immediately!”
Peter’s smile reached all the way to his eyes. “Regardless of whether she marries me or not, your time is running out. In two short months she will come of age and inherit. Will that be sufficient time to restore the money that is missing?”
