“Oh, I have learned things that your little Miss Pembleton could not possibly know. I have the freedom to come and go as I please, and I do not need to worry about scandal. After all, I am just a widow.” She took a step closer to him, but not close enough to touch him. “Are you not curious to see what I know, dear Duke?”
“Not in the slightest.” He shook his head and did his best to sound as disinterested as possible.
“Why are you being so wilfully obstinate? You know that you want me, and I obviously want you. It was all arranged. If the old Duke had not died when he had, we would have already been married.” She closed the distance between them, gazing up at him imploringly. “This is what your father wanted.”
“You do not know me at all if you think that will make me come round. What my father arranged or wanted does not matter to me. I have no wish to marry you nor to be with you in any other way,” Blake scoffed and walked away, making a dismissive gesture as he did so. “Now, get out of my rooms.”
“Is it because you are hoping Miss Pembleton will come crawling back to you?” She rounded on him, still refusing to leave the room. “Do you think she loves you? Or are you foolish enough to mistake whatever passing curiosity you feel for something else.”
“It does not matter what I think. Jane has nothing to do with this.” Blake felt a tug in his chest as he said Jane’s name.
“Does she not? Then you do not care for her?” Blake could hear the smile in Lady Waterburry’s voice and knew she was goading him. “It would not pain you to know that she has left to go and find herself a fiancé?”
“What are you talking about?” Blake asked, refusing to turn around to face her.
Perhaps if I just ignore her, she will leave me be.
“Well, everyone knows that her father has been searching for a match for her. And at the first chance she got, Miss Pembleton has left, ready to find herself someone else.” He heard footsteps behind him but still did not turn to face her. “She does not care for you. She does not want you. But I do. I am here, where I have always been.”
A moment later, he felt her slip her arms around him, her breath tickling his neck.
“Come now, why not let me distract you from this silly, little affair? Let me soothe your aching heart.”
“No.” He pushed her away and turned to face her, cold anger in his eyes.
“What?” She took a step backward.
“Jane leaving will not drive me into your arms,” he said angrily. “You are wasting your time.”
She looked at him, and Blake could see the anger in her eyes. “Did you not hear me when I said she was going to marry another?”
“Oh, I heard you.” He grinned at her, his smile sharp as he moved towards her. “And she may well be on her way to London to be matched to another man. But that does not mean I will be yours for the taking.”
“You are mine,” Lady Waterburry said.
“I am not. And I never have been,” Blake said emphatically. “And I never will be.”
“Blake, you are being ridiculous.” Lady Waterburry waved a dismissive hand as she scoffed.
“Do not call me that. It’s ‘Your Grace’ to you.” Blake downed his whiskey and placed the glass back on the table. “You know nothing about me—you do not even care about me. I am just something that you think you are entitled to.”
“You sound like a woman,” Lady Waterburry shot back.
“I sound like a person,” Blake retorted, his irritation flaring.
She is desperate.
“You can try and manipulate me all you want, but it will not work. That night at the engagement ball was a mistake, and I should never have allowed it to happen.”
“You do not mean that.” Lady Waterburry did not sound so sure of herself.
“I do.” Blake grinned viciously at her. “I do not want you, Lady Waterburry. And whatever promises were made between our parents died with my father.Ihave promised you nothing.”
“You owe it to your father,” Lady Waterburry insisted, hope flickering in her eyes.
“I owe nothing to that man.” Blake laughed bitterly, the smell of stale alcohol and cheap perfume washing over him. “I will not live my life for a dead man.”
His mother’s words came back to him, crashing into him like a bullet.
