Page 74 of Rules for Heiresses
“Come with me.” A slender hand grasped his, and all he could do was follow.
Twenty
Once they were out on the small upper balcony tucked away above the main terrace, Ravenna thrust a tumbler of whisky that she’d grabbed on the way out of the ballroom into her husband’s trembling palms. She had no idea what had shaken him so badly. Had it been the dance with his sister? What on earth had she said? From her own covert glances, after studiously ignoring the warm twinge in her heart, their dance hadn’t seemed contentious, and Courtland had introduced his sister to Embry, which he wouldn’t have done if Lady Bronwyn had been horrid.
Something wasn’t adding up.
Ravenna watched as he took a bracing gulp of the whisky, leaning heavily onto his elbows atop the stone balustrade. The crisp night air was cool, but not uncomfortable. She missed the balmy breezes and the fragrant air of Antigua, though not the sweltering ballrooms. Every place had its appeal, she supposed. Even London with its tainted Thames and glittering charm.
Moving over to stand beside the duke, she stared down at the guests milling out onto the terrace, smiling as one of two shadows disappearing into the arbor caught her eyes.
“This was my secret place,” she said softly. “I used to come up here as a child to watch the parties. I always wondered why some of those people would leave the beautiful ballroom to go into the creepy old gardens.”
“Did you find out?”
The rasp was low, barely audible, but Ravenna felt encouraged. “Hardly.” She huffed a self-deprecating laugh. “I was much too busy thwarting suitors to be seduced by a midnight stroll. And besides, that would have been a sure way to ruination.” She swallowed, her memory tainted by the thought of another here in this very house. “Darkness, whether in arbors or in deserted rooms, tends to bring out the predators.”
“You speak of Dalwood.”
The name sent a shudder through her. “Yes.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Did she? Ravenna had never told anyone, not counting the sardonic confession in Courtland’s office an eternity ago. Not even Rhystan. Perhaps it would help with the coiling nausea in her stomach. She reached for her husband’s half-full tumbler and took a sip. The whisky burned a blistering path down her throat. Blowing out a breath, she stared into the fathomless depths of the night sky.
“It happened here, the night before I ran away on Rhystan’s ship. Dalwood wanted my hand in marriage. I didn’t want to give it. He approached my brother and was refused. But he wouldn’t take no for an answer.” Her voice softened. “No…it’s such a small word, so easy to ignore, isn’t it?”
“It should not be. It means no.”
“I’m glad you think so, but for a man like Dalwood, it was not. He saw it as a challenge. I suppose I made it so by being so adamant in my refusal to marry.”
Ravenna was shocked by the savage curse that flew from Courtland’s lips. “Don’t you ever think it was your fault, do you hear me? You did not do anything to make him so. Nothing you could have done would ever excuse his actions.Nothing. That’s on him, not you.”
Something loosened inside of her at his words—guilt, perhaps, that she had somehow incited Dalwood to behave as he had. On the ship to the West Indies, she had mulled it over in her head, wondering if she was to blame. Her husband’s stalwart defense washed over her.
“One evening, he followed me from the retiring room and ushered me into the music room, saying he wished to apologize. I was worried, but not really afraid. I mean, what could he do to me in the midst of a ball at my own home with my brother, the powerful Duke of Embry, in attendance?” A harsh laugh tore from her throat. “I was so naive. What could a man do? Anything he wants, apparently.” Ravenna took another sip of whisky. “He said his piece. I accepted the apology and made to move past him. I sensed the threat a heartbeat before his hand went over my mouth. To stop me from screaming for help, I suppose.”
“That craven bastard.”
She bit her lip hard. “When you’re powerful and privileged, you think nothing can touch you, but depravity doesn’t discriminate. I can still feel his hot breath in my ear and his sickening arousal against my back. ‘You think you’re such a prize,’ he whispered. ‘How dare you refuse me? A marquess?’”
Panting, Ravenna cut off, reliving the horrible moment. The tension in Courtland’s body rivaled hers, his fingers flexing on the stone as though they were wrapped around Dalwood’s neck.
“He asked whether I would accept him then. It was that or suffocate. I could only nod.Yeswas my path to survival. Then he unclipped my earbobs and necklace, and said they were to be a token of my esteem. You see, he could ruin me, compromise me, but I’d already refused him publicly. The jewelry was his insurance. He told me I had to announce my change of heart and our engagement later that evening, or he would expose what happened in the music room with my jewels as proof. I agreed, only to save my own skin, and then I ran.”
She swallowed. “I went upstairs, emptied my jewel case, changed, packed, and headed for the docks. Dalwood must have suspected I would run because he almost caught me, but I stabbed him in the ballocks with a hairpin. The rest you know.”
“I’m going to fucking dismember him,” Courtland swore and then gawked at her as her words registered. “Youstabbedhim? I thought you kneed him.”
“Credit me with some compassion, Duke. I didn’t want poor Lady Holding to have a fit of the vapors.” She sighed. “He put his hands on me. He intended to force me. It was the least of what he deserved. Who knew that a lady’s hairpin held between one’s fingers in a fist is more lethal than brass knuckles?”
“Remind me never to cross you.” He glanced at her short-coiffed hair. “And maybe to give thanks that you’ve no need of hairpins.”
Ravenna laughed softly. They stood in silence, leaning on the cool stone, the faint notes of the music in the ballroom reaching them. She peered up at him through her lashes. Some color had returned to his sallow cheeks, but his jaw still remained tight with strain.
“Your turn,” she said. “What happened down there?”
At first, she thought he wasn’t going to speak after she’d bared her deepest, darkest secret, but then he cleared his throat. “I did not expect to esteem my sister…or be esteemed in return. She said my stepmother did attempt to poison her against me, but she wanted to make up her own mind.” He paused. “She was close to my grandfather before he passed. She said he…spoke of me. With affection.”
