Page 8 of A Virgin to Tame the Duke
“And disappoint the brother she adores?”
“Better that thanthis.” He ran a hand through his hair and paced the room for a moment. “She could be anywhere, Aunt. She could have fallen foul of any number of people. A pretty, innocent girl like that wandering the streets—who knows who may have found her and what they might do to her.”
“Aaron, please,” Octavia begged.
He ran another hand through his hair and glanced at her. “My apologies. I’ll start looking at once.”
ChapterFour
Though the Hexham Ball had only been a week ago, already its implications were sinking into the Calore household. Marcella couldn’t stop talking about the Duke—how handsome he was, how very charming, howrich—and Sebastian had made his intentions plain.
“My dear Charlotte,” he said, catching her after she left the breakfast room. His hand tightened around her arm as though he would keep her there. “You’re looking exquisite today.”
“Thank you, Sebastian, but I look nothing out of the common way.” His gaze raked greedily over her face. She might have imagined the ball, but she could not have imagined this; he was pursuing her, and he fully intended to succeed. She understood that as plainly as she understood the possessive hand on her arm.
“Then the common way is an exceptional look on you,” he said, releasing her hand. “Would you walk with me later?”
“Thank you, but I promised Mama I would keep her company,” she said, fleeing to the drawing room where Marcella and her mother already waited. Getting involved in any form of prolonged conversation with Sebastian was a bad idea indeed.
If he had not been her cousin—if she had not known him since she was a child as she had—she might have been inclined to accept his advances. After all, she knew him to be a kind man, and he could be charming if a little awkward. There was nothing unappealing about his dark hair and hazel eyes, and they so often had a softness to them she could have convinced herself to love. If he hadn’t been… Sebastian.
“I wonder if the Duke has found Constance,” Marcella said, staring out of the window.
Charlotte sat, and Sebastian sat beside her, too close; she could have touched him if she hadn’t leaned away. “And you’re sure you know nothing about it?” she asked Marcella, taking the opportunity to sidle further away from Sebastian.
Marcella sent her a hard glance, her eyes flashing. “I should have told him if I did.” Charlotte reflected that Marcella probably would if it would have assured her the Duke’s favor.
“It’s very sad that the poor girl’s missing,” Anastasia, Charlotte’s mother, said. “The Duke is beside himself.”
“Iheard he employed the Runners to look for her,” Marcella said.
For a week now, Charlotte had been doing her best tonotthink about the Duke. She didn’t want to think about the way he had cornered her in the garden with that slightly wild, heated look in his eyes. She didn’t want to think about the fact he had kissed her. Sheespeciallydidn’t want to think about the fact that, for one dizzying moment, she had kissed him back.
Her mother glanced at Charlotte again, this time noticing the distance between her and Sebastian. “I’m certain he’s doing all he can.”
“I suspect the girl ran away,” Sebastian said. “Her brother is a tyrant.”
“Sebastian,” Marcella gasped, “how could you say such a thing?”
“He clearly cares little for his sister, or she would not have vanished without a trace.”
Anastasia frowned. “We don’t know what happened to her, Sebastian.”
“Everyone makes the assumption she was taken, but there is no evidence to say such a thing.” Considering how the Duke had treated Charlotte, she felt Constance running away was a perfect viable option. After all, if she had to live in a house with a man so domineering, she would have run away as well.
“He wouldn’t be so cruel,” Marcella flashed. “The Duke is a kind man.”
“Really?” Charlotte asked, an edge to her voice. She shouldn’t involve herself, but she couldn’t resist. “And what do you actually know of him aside from his occasional appearances at balls? Have you ever had a conversation with him? Have you any proof that he’s a kind man, or do you assume his character is fixed because of his title?”
“Well said,” Sebastian said approvingly. Charlotte rose, clenching her hands so she didn’t lash out at Sebastian. He was a kind man. He was housing her and clothing her and providing for her when there was little enough money. She would not abuse that kindness.
There was a hard cast to Marcella’s mouth. “You’re just jealous.”
“Of what?” Charlotte let her gaze trail from Marcella’s dark hair to her pinched mouth. Marcellawaspretty, it was true, but her expression aged her prematurely. “If you’re so keen to have the Duke, you may have him—and I wish you may both be as happy as you deserve.”
“Charlotte,” Anastasia called as Charlotte left the room, slamming the door behind her.
Oh, she should not have lost her temper. She would pay for it later. But right now—now, when she was still shaking with rage—she gloried in the look on Marcella’s face. Let her have the Duke if she could get him, but Charlotte had encountered men like the Duke before. The Calore girls were too poor to be of interest, and Marcella, for all her shallow charms, was no exception.
