Page 30 of Rules for Heiresses
Whowashe?
Her gaze spanned the polished slats of the deck and the shiny, well-made railings that ran the length of the hull. This ship itself was worth a small fortune. Howdidher husband make his money? The old Duke of Ashvale had been by no means poor, but this kind of wealth was beyond what most of the peerage enjoyed.
Ravenna’s stomach sank. Was Courtland truly involved with a man like Sommers?
“Is this your first time to England?” she asked.
Sommers grinned. “No, but it’s my first time as the honored guest of a duke.” An insolent gaze scanned her. “Duchess as well.”
Oh no. Surely, he did not intend to stay with them. She would retire to Huntley House in London with her mother if that was the case. At least on this massive ship, she had enough room to thwart him. In a London town house, that would be impossible. And every instinct screamed that she would not want to be cornered by this man. As a matter of fact, he reminded her very much of the Marquess of Dalwood. They shared the same sense of entitlement and viewed people as things to own.
“Ashvale did not mention it.”
“A man doesn’t have to tell his spouse everything,” Sommers said, voice lowering to a cadence he probably thought was seductive. All it did was make her skin crawl. “We all have secrets, darlin’.”
Ravenna came to a sharp stop and tilted her chin. “Mr. Sommers, you are overstepping,” she said coldly. “I am happily married and do not keep secrets from my husband.”
“Is there a problem here?” They both turned to see the Duke of Ashvale striding toward them.
Ravenna caught her breath, her heart tripping over itself at the welcome sight of him. Despite her lie to Sommers about being happily married, heaven knew Ashvale didn’t feel that way. The only reason he’d put her in his bed the night before was because he didn’t want her falling overboard and dying on his ship during his watch.
She didn’t make him happy. She made him angry.
They wereunhappilymarried.
Even now, his lips were a hard line, his eyes dark with a tornado of volatile emotion rolling through them. He was ever the storm around her, it seemed. Though it was the middle of the afternoon, he wasn’t wearing a coat and his shirtsleeves were rolled up to expose tanned, muscular forearms. His inky hair was windblown, his cheeks ruddy, as if he’d been doing some form of manual labor. Ravenna liked that he wasn’t indolent like other gentlemen and was willing to use his hands.
He’d used them well enough on her.
Goodness, where hadthatthought come from?
“All is well,” Sommers drawled, annoyance flashing in his gaze. “Just accompanying the duchess for a turn about the deck. It’s a lovely afternoon.”
It hadbeena lovely afternoon until he’d interrupted it. Ravenna shook her head. “I was just about to go in. I fear I might’ve had a bit too much sun.”
The duke’s inscrutable gaze panned from her to Sommers. “Shall I escort you?”
“You look busy,” she said, not wanting her neediness to show. “I can find my own way.”
“Please, I insist.”
She did not argue, resting her gloved fingers on the crook of her husband’s elbow. Feeling the weight of Sommers’s displeased stare, she was grateful to the duke for his timely arrival. Given his state of dishevelment, she wondered if a servant had fetched him in a hurry. She hadn’t seen anyone on deck besides Lord and Lady Waterstone, and they had been much too preoccupied with each other to have noticed Sommers’s persistent attentions to her. But someone must have.
“Be seeing you, Duchess.” Sommers drawled the address in the same way he’d called herdarlin’, and that made her flesh crawl. Ravenna could not hide the way her fingers jerked on Courtland’s arm, but she could have sworn every muscle in her husband’s body went rigid. She didn’t have to look at him to know that he was furious when he led her indoors.
Was he upset with her? Did he thinksheencouraged the odious man?
“Your Grace, I—” He silenced her with his body as he blanketed her against the wainscoting of the inside passageway.
“Did he touch you? Hurt you?”
She shook her head with a frown. “No.”
Tension bled from him, even as his eyes searched hers. “Keep away from him.”
“He’s a friend of yours, is he not?”
“Far from it.” Still looming in the empty corridor, the duke inhaled a deep breath and then exhaled raggedly as if the scent of her was too much to bear. His nose grazed the hollow beneath her ear as one muscled male thigh wedged between the skirts of her dress, making her gasp. “You smell of sunshine and the ocean.”
