He is a good man, she thought to herself as she turned over to her side.He wants to stop villains, not be one. I don’t know how he earned his epithet, but it’s not true. He’s no beast.
And just as she began to drift off, she made a promise to herself: if Lord Redfield was half as bad as the man who had whipped the Duke so brutally, then she would do anything she could to bring him down.
Chapter Twelve
“Are you ready?” Nathan asked, glancing down at Rosalie. She had a very serious look on her face: her lips were pressed firmly together, her jaw was set, and her eyes were narrowed as she stared ahead of her at the house in front of them.
It was Gothic in style, dripping with ivy, and the drive was lined with statues of gargoyles and angels who appeared to be in torment. They spooked Nathan a little bit although he never would have admitted it.
Rosalie, meanwhile, had barely seemed to notice. Her entire being was focused on the task at hand, and he had to admire her single-mindedness.
“I’m ready,” she said, and she turned to look at him. “Are you? Don’t forget, you need to appear to be violently in love with me. That’s how I convinced you to follow in my father’s footsteps in the opium business.”
“I remember.”
She stared at him beadily. “Because the whole farce will prove pointless if you cannot sell that one piece,” she insisted. “I don’t know this Lord Redfield, but he may very well be clever, so don’t overdo it.”
“We’ve gone over it several times,” Nathan said, a little crossly.She can be bossy when she knows what she wants.
At last, she relented. “All right, I just wanted to make sure. Because this is our only chance. If he sees through our act now, we won’t get another opportunity to find out about the opium operation.”
“Perhaps you should worry more about your own performance,” Nathan said grumpily, but to his surprise, she gave him a rueful smile.
“Don’t you worry about me. This is just like the time Lizzy “Nobeard” Seacliff had to pretend to be a boy pretending to be a woman and pose as Captain Blackthorn’s wife in order to fool General Tartington into believing they were meant to be at the Black Cove Ball, so they could steal the treasure of the Black Cove Witch before it turned all of Jamaica into bats.”
“What’s your point?” Nathan asked. “That because a heroine in a novel did something, so can you?”
“Well, yes,” she said tartly. “I have been reading stories of women doing just this for many years, and I know what I’m doing.”
“Life isn’t a nov—” he began, but she cut him off.
“I know. But I was born to play this role.” She grinned at him then linked her arm with his. “Come, let’s go meet the dastardly Lord Redfield.”
Nathan shook his head as his wife led him towards the front of Lord Redfield’s manor house.
“I’m going to take away your books if you keep using words such asdastardly,” he muttered, but she only gave him the most winning smile he’d ever seen.
“You wouldn’t dare, husband dearest.”
“Oh, so we’re in character already?”
“Who knows who is watching from the windows.”
And indeed, as they stepped away from their carriage and toward the door, it swung open, revealing an elderly butler who squinted at them suspiciously.
“Is Lord Redfield expecting you?” the butler asked them in a shaky, aging voice.
“He is not,” Nathan replied in his most commanding ducal voice.
“The Marquess does not enjoy uninvited visitors,” the butler said at once, scowling at them. “I must ask you to write him and request a formal invitation.”
Nathan felt Rosalie fidget, but he remained firm.No marquess turns away a duke,he thought.Especially a duke such as the Beast of Carramere.
“He will want to see me,” he urged, and he removed a calling card from his breast pocket and handed it to the butler. “I have just returned to my ancestral home with my new bride after many years away, and we are visiting all the landed families in the parish to pay our respects.”
The butler’s eyes widened as he read the name on the card, and he bowed low.
“Of course, Your Grace,” he croaked. “You are most welcome. Follow me, I will show you into the parlor, and Lord Redfield will be with you shortly.”
