Page 42 of The Spinster and Her Rakish Duke
“Duchess, stop.” He called from behind her, his tone a whip across her senses.
The command in his voice made her whirl around to face him, her eyes blazing with a mixture of anger and something far more dangerous.
“Don’t you dare order me about,” she said, her voice shaking with suppressed emotion.
“Then stop running away every time we have a conversation that grows the least bit heated.” He replied, still advancing towards her.
“Heated?” She laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. “Is that what you call that performance in there?”
“I call it honesty,” Ewan replied, moving closer until she could see the golden flecks in his green eyes. “Something you seem determined to avoid at all costs.”
“I avoid nothing.”
“No? Then why do you flinch every time I come near you? Why do you flee every room I enter? Why do you act as though I’m some sort of threat to your virtue when we both know what happened between us the other night?”
Samantha’s cheeks flamed at the reference to their kiss. “That… That was a mistake.” She could not let herself be swayed by carnal passions when she knew that he had no intention of giving her anything more.
Of course, theirs was a marriage born out of scandal, but she was not going to subject herself to one being viewed as nothing but a body to her husband. He would not even let her bear a child!
“Was it?” His voice had dropped to that low, intimate tone that made her knees weak. “Because you didn’t seem to think so at the time.”
“Men like you leave nothing but ruin in their wake,” she said desperately, backing away from him until she felt the wall against her spine. “I won’t be another casualty of your appetites.”
He went completely still at her words, his face draining of color as something dark and painful flickered in his eyes.
The silence stretched between them, heavy with unspoken fears and misunderstandings. Samantha watched as her husband seemed to retreat somewhere inside himself, his expression becoming carefully blank.
“Your Grace?” she whispered, suddenly uncertain.
But whatever vulnerability she’d glimpsed was gone, replaced by the cold distance she’d grown to dread.
Unable to bear the weight of that silence, she gathered her skirts and fled up the stairs, leaving him standing alone in the hallway with the echoes of her accusations ringing in the air.
CHAPTER 12
“Percy, I swear, if you recite even one line of poetry tonight, I will personally ensure you spend the remainder of the season locked in your chambers,” Ewan’s voice carried the sharp edge of authority as their carriage rolled toward Lord and Lady Kirkleigh’s soirée.
“Uncle, surely you cannot expect me to remain completely silent about the arts,” Percy protested, adjusting his cravat with theatrical precision. “What if someone asks my opinion on literature?”
“Then you will discuss the weather,” Ewan replied curtly, his green eyes flashing with warning. “At length, if necessary.”
Samantha smoothed her emerald silk gloves, watching the interplay between uncle and nephew with careful attention.
The tension from their dinner argument several nights past still lingered between her and Ewan like a barely contained storm, making every shared moment fraught with unspoken words.
“The weather is a perfectly respectable topic,” she offered diplomatically, though she caught the slight softening in Ewan’s expression at her attempt to mediate.
“Oh. Is it?” Percy tilted his head to the side. “Though I must say, Uncle, your concern seems rather excessive. I’ve been practicing restraint most admirably.”
“Your version of restraint,” Ewan said dryly, “still involves comparing ladies’ eyes to celestial bodies.”
“Only once! And Lady Pemberton seemed quite flattered by the comparison to Venus.”
“Venus is a planet, Percy.” Ewan said drily, his expression irked.
“Well, yes, but it’s also the goddess of love and beauty, which was clearly the more relevant?—”
“Percy,” Samantha interrupted gently, “perhaps tonight you might focus on asking questions rather than making proclamations? People do enjoy talking about themselves.”
