Page 32 of Fit for a Duke
She looked away from him, confused. ‘What shall we do now?’
‘What a delightful question,’ he replied with a chuckle.
‘Behave yourself! I care about keeping you alive even if you seem to think of your survival as yet another game.’
‘Quite the reverse, I do assure you.’ Ezra paused, rubbing his chin as he stared off into the distance, probably not noticing the chaffinch that was sitting on a low bough, singing its heart out. ‘I think it a very real possibility that Salford has been commissioned to bump me off, given our difference of opinion over his ungentlemanly conduct as an officer. Particulars of the argument will have reached our assassin’s ears, if he has been keeping track of me. As you yourself have just discovered, Salford has a high opinion of himself and does not take kindly to having his conduct called into question. Add to that the fact that he is likely short of funds and I think our assassin has shown himself to be an astute judge of character.’
‘He has offered Salford the opportunity to achieve two objectives,’ Clio said. ‘If he is successful then he will enjoy a decent payday and exact the ultimate form of revenge upon you.’ She glanced up at Ezra. ‘Do you think he is really that arrogant, or that reckless?’
‘I do,’ Ezra replied, firming his jaw.
They strolled on in momentary silence. Clio became increasingly aware of the duke’s proximity as her skirts brushed against his legs. Surely he shouldn’t be walking so close that she could feel the heat from his body percolating through layers of petticoats and muslin? There again, perhaps that heat was the result of a burning need that seemed to well up inside of her, quite without her permission, whenever he was anywhere near.
Dear God, she needed to keep a firmer grip on reality!
‘Are you quite yourself?’ Ezra asked with a whimsical smile that implied he knew precisely what he was doing to her. Clio wasn’t about to fall for his unconventional methods and took a deliberate sidestep away from him. If he required adulation, he had only to return to his bevy of admirers on the croquet lawn. Clio was not so easily impressed by his admittedly glorious male splendour and would not pander to his vanity.
‘Perfectly so, I thank you, your grace.’
‘It’s still Ezra,’ he replied in a softly persuasive drawl. ‘Now, what are we to do about Salford?’
‘Find out what it is that he really wants from me, one supposes,’ she replied with a casual shrug. ‘It is not difficult to assume that my fortune is the attraction. But if that is the case and he was reasonably sure that he would meet with success—which he was since he is too arrogant to assume that any female could resist his questionable charms—it begs the question, why agree to murder you, a duke no less?’ She glanced up at Ezra, frowning.
‘Because I have offended him by calling his honour into question. He will know that rumours abound in that respect and that the majority will take my side.’
Clio waved the suggestion aside. ‘He might bear you a grudge, but I have never supposed him to be stupid. He knows there would be the most thorough of investigations if something happens to you here, and that the public nature of your dispute will point the finger of suspicion firmly in his direction. Nor would the authorities require much proof of his guilt,’ she added, warming to her theme. ‘They will be under pressure to bring your murderer to justice, and Salford will do as well as anyone.’
‘I am so very glad that you can remain so analytical in the face of my impending demise.’
‘Oh, do be serious!’ She swatted playfully at his arm. ‘I am trying to keep you alive, you wretched ingrate.’
‘For my part, I am trying very hard to take the matter seriously, I do assure you. If it appears otherwise then you are entirely to blame for my whimsy.’
‘Me?’ She pointed her index finger at her own chest for emphasis. ‘What have I done?’
‘You distract me in the nicest possible way,’ he replied. ‘There is something about you, something rare in one so young that makes you stand out.’ His brow creased, implying that he was as bemused by his admission as Clio was to hear it.
‘Don’t be ridiculous! There is absolutely nothing out of the ordinary about me. Now stop being so disobliging. You are here to select a wife from the candidates who have presented themselves, not amuse yourself at my expense.’
Ezra smiled that slow, seductive smile of his that Clio reacted to despite her best efforts to ignore it.
‘I think,’ she said, feeling compelled to fill the charged silence between them, ‘that we should find a way to draw Salford out and make him admit to his true purpose, if only so that we can eliminate him as a possible assassin.’
‘Well, that’s obvious—his purpose, that is.’ Ezra scowled into the distance. ‘He is here to win your hand in marriage. You have made it clear to him that he will not succeed, but that will not prevent him from continuing to pursue you.’
‘That is his official reason. Lady Fletcher is a romantic, so she agreed immediately, just as he must have known that she would.’
Ezra raised a brow. ‘He is acquainted with her ladyship?’
‘In passing, but I suspect that whoever sent him here, if indeedanyone did, would have known that she would acquiesce, and that the romantic intentions he has made no effort to disguise would remove suspicion from him.’
‘I agree, my fierce little sleuth, but how we prove he has an alternative reason for being here eludes me.’
‘Nothing could be easier,’ Clio replied with asperity. ‘Must I do all the thinking?’ she added when Ezra sent her a mild look of enquiry. ‘You will need to set yourself up as a target, obviously.’
‘Ah.’ He chuckled. ‘I am not sure that idea appeals.’
‘You will be well-protected,’ she said impatiently. ‘Think about it logically. If Salford has been sent here to do away with you then he will not want to become a suspect, so he cannot risk committing the crime on this estate. That will reduce the field far too drastically. But there is nothing to prevent you from being set upon in the village when you go to—’
