“Yet it still was calm?”
“The storm broke right then. The factions declared themselves, with Agnes and Dolores leading each one. Old resentments flew along with accusations and insults. My family can be as contentious as any, but this was a rare display. Unfortunately, Nicholas thought he could quell it all and end the dispute. He only made it worse.”
“What did he do?”
“He assumed his most ducal demeanor and announced that if anyone challenged the will’s execution as it was written that person or persons would be cut off without a penny in his will.”
“Oh, dear.”
“It was injury upon injury. No hope for salvation. Poverty for life was how most of them saw it. Pandemonium erupted.”
“Surely in such a family they have other resources than legacies.”
“They do indeed. Each of my uncle’s brothers received a portion from their mother and a share of their father’s personal wealth. It was respectable enough, with careful tending, to keep gentlemen of their positions in style. Unfortunately, they could never, as younger sons, marry quite as well, so their own children would have much smaller portions in addition to dividing whatever survived of their father’s legacy. You can see the problem. In several generations, after several divisions, little would be left for each person. My uncles were not present because they understood nothing would be left to them by the duke. But my generation sees the future too clearly.”
“Which is increasingly diminished income.”
“Or, heaven forbid, employment.”
She considered him intently, as if his amiable tone had revealed too much. “Do you resent that? Were your own expectations thwarted more than you admit?”
“Are you still trying to build an argument that I killed my uncle?” The evidence that she was disappointed him, although his reaction could not be justified. Still, he rather wished . . . he was not sure what he wished, although right now kissing her kept tempting his mind. The night begged for it. He was not the only one who experienced that special magnetism that men and women feel when arousal altered the senses and delirium waited one kiss away. The way she met him already on her guard as much as announced she felt it too.
“Of course, I am still considering you a likely culprit. Better you than me. My question was more generous than that, however. I am truly curious how a man like you, the nephew of a duke, reconciles taking such a step. Gentlemen do not seek employment.”
He normally avoided the reflection that an honest answer would require. Right now, however, flattered by this deeper interest she showed, and beset by a desire that made his blood spark, he found himself looking inward. A hard cock can make a man do many foolish things.
“I am of two minds,” he admitted. “The gentleman tells himself he is no more in trade than a physician or a barrister, both acceptable endeavors. Even more acceptable, since I can claim my inquiries are favors to friends, or an avocation.”
“And the other mind?”
“The soldier is grateful for something to do other than gamble and drink. I suppose I could occupy my time investigating some obscure ruin and writing its history, as some do to fill their days, but I prefer more interesting searches.”
“I think your second mind is the one that matters most. You do not really need this employment, after all. You could cease it anytime you chose.”
“You sound sure of that, when possibly only my next inquiry will keep me from being out on the street.”
“Nonsense. You spoke of portions from your grandmother. Your father received one like the other uncles. And you do not have to share what is left with a brother or sister, since you have no siblings.”
“How do you know that?”
She laughed lightly. “Little about your family tree is not known to the servants who worked in that house the last few days. A bit here, a bit there, and a total picture comes together. I daresay that if I were willing to visit the others who left today as I did, I could have learned most of what transpired at that meeting without your visiting to tell me.”
He watched how the low fire sent golden patterns across her form. “Yet you had me visit anyway.”
That caught her up short with a smile half formed. He took the pause as an opportunity to move over to the divan and sit beside her, turned in so he could watch those patterns more closely.
She scooted away a few inches. “I allowed you to visit because learning about the meeting from you was more efficient.”
“Is that what this is? Efficiency? It is not a word I would use to describe the mood in this chamber tonight. Or the last time.”
Flustered now. Charmingly so, mostly because she never showed anything but self-possession. “I cannot trust you,” she murmured, to herself more than him.
“You do not have to trust me yet. You only have to kiss me.”
“You came to my house looking for evidence I killed the duke. I could never want to kiss you.”
“And yet I think you do.”
“You don’t even deny your dangerous suspicions.”
“I will explain all that in a moment.” He leaned in, noticing how deeply dark her eyes looked in the low light. “Later.” He touched his lips to hers, ignoring the inner voice warning of impossible complications.
She did not veer back, but allowed it. It entered his mind that she was too stunned to resist, but the softness of her lips and the warmth of their closeness diverted his attention from that idea. He lingered in the kiss, and when she still did not object, he gathered her toward him and into an embrace.
* * *
She waited for the sad, dull emotions that ruled her whenever she seriously considered intimacy with a man. They did not come. Instead his kiss enlivened her. She dared not move lest she ruin it. She wanted to both laugh and weep at the irony that this man could evoke excitement with his embrace instead of loathing.
It would not last, of course. It couldn’t. For a moment, however, she allowed herself to pretend that she did trust him. She ignored all the warnings her mind tried to shout, and permitted her body to respond if it could.
A quiet bedazzlement that she had known long ago sparkled in her blood, far better than what she experienced in those recent dreams. The girlhood she had lost in every way possible raised one hand above the dank waters that submerged it. Her spirit took hold of that hand and held tight so it would not disappear again.
That meant letting the kiss continue. She noted every second of it. Every warmth, every touch. How it changed to something deeper and the way his hands rested on her back and side. She relinquished confusion and just floated in the sensations, amazed.
He took her face in his hands and looked in her eyes. Not frowning, but with an intensity that made the beauty pause.
“You have not kissed me,” he said. “Do you not want to? If you don’t, if I misunderstood—”
She placed her lips on his to silence him. She must have done it right because he took over again and there were no more words.
It could not go on. Soon, it would be ruined. A corner of her mind waited for the moment that would happen while the rest of her relished the brief rejuvenation while she could.
True desire worked its ways with her, transforming her, starting a strange hunger that only seemed to grow. She lost hold of her thoughts, her judgment . . . herself. His hands moved in a caress that spoke of his own desire and rising passion.