Page 58 of If the Duke Dares
“I left the following morning, only I took the wrong coach and ended up in Worcester. And someone stole my valise. It was an absolute disaster.”
Gaping, Pandora leaned forward. “How did you manage?”
“Thankfully, my money was on my person. I had to spend it very cautiously after that. I returned to Gloucester and, if you can believe it, I ran into Wellesbourne on the street. He’d come back to Gloucester to look for me after going home to Loxley Court and learning from Mama and Papa that I was ill at home.”
Pandora held up her hand. “Wait. I want to make sure I understand. The duke went home, met Mama and Papa, learned you were supposedly ill, and then came looking for you? Were Mama and Papa with him?”
“They were not,” Persephone responded with a note of rancor. “After I departed their company, they continued on to Loxley Court and tried to negotiate the marriage contract without me even meeting the duke and deciding whether I would want to wed him.”
Eyes narrowing, Pandora shook her head. “They are awful. I honestly didn’t think they could be so thoughtless.”
“I think they have plenty of thoughts,” Persephone said. “They’re just entirely about themselves.”
“Did they send Wellesbourne after you so that you might be compromised too?” Pandora made another disgusted noise. “I wouldn’t put it past them at this point.”
“Actually, Wellesbourne didn’t even tell them he’d met me. They’d showed him a miniature of me, and he knew immediately who I was and that I needed saving.”
Pandora rolled her eyes. “Of course he did. I hope you disabused him of that notion.”
“Oh, I tried. Repeatedly.” Persephone smiled as she thought back to all the ways she’d tried to push him away. “I wasn’t remotely interested in his help, especially because of whom he is friends with.”
“You are a loyal sister,” Pandora said as she gave Persephone’s hand a pat.
“He was most persistent, however, and as it happened, I did require his help. He purchased that blue gown I was wearing and paid for me to have a bath.” Persephone looked directly at her sister. “It was the single greatest bath I’ve ever had. Still, I tried very hard to refuse. In the end, it made no sense. And I decided he could both afford to pay for those things and deserved to after all the pain and suffering men like him cause.”
“Amen.” Pandora wrinkled her pert nose. “I can only imagine what he demanded in return. How did you avoid his advances?”
Persephone coughed. “He didn’t ask for anything in exchange.” And she hadn’t avoided his advances entirely. In fact, she was rather hoping he might advance again.
No, she couldn’t want that. They had no future together.Never trust a rogue to changeechoed in her brain. Pandora needed her, and until she was settled and this nightmare in the past, Persephone wouldn’t abandon her.
“Absolutely remarkable,” Pandora said with considerable awe. “How did you get here, to Bath?”
“I had to accept Wellesbourne’s help. He hired a private coach to drive us here.”
Pandora appeared aghast. “Was he with you last night?”
“He was in the coach when I arrived, yes. Then he went on to his mother’s house.”
“So, you were alone together for quite some time. At an inn, and again in a coach. You broke the first rogue rule. Did you break any others?”
Inwardly, Persephone cringed. Pandora had got right to the heart of things, that Acton had stolen right through Persephone’s defenses. “I’m trying not to. But, he is not as roguish as I expected him to be. And the ways in which he is, he is trying to change.”
Pandora studied her a moment. “You know him fairly well.”
Persephone shrugged, though she felt uncomfortable. She wasn’t sure what her sister might suspect, and she didn’t want to reveal anything else—not the brigand’s attack, or sharing a room with Acton overnight, and definitely not passionately kissing him. “Well enough, I suppose. As I said, he was fairly insistent that I accept his help because I was alone. As my potential husband, he felt responsible.”
“Except he isn’t your potential husband.” Pandora’s voice dropped to a near whisper. “Is he?”
“Absolutely not. When we parted last night, I thought I’d seen the last of him. Then he found out about what happened with you and Bane, and he came this morning to again offer his assistance.”
“Not for you, but for me?”
“Yes.” Persephone wondered if he would have come if he’d known from the start that Pandora had been the one his friend had compromised. Perhaps that didn’t matter since he’d continued to offer his support once he’d learned the truth.
“Everything you told Aunt Lucinda is nonsense, then? He didn’t come here to court you.”
Persephone shook her head. “That’s correct. He also told Aunt Lucinda that he went to Radstock Hall in search of me, but he didn’t. Hopefully, that deception won’t come to light.”
