AllFreeNovel
Share Us
eace nodded, his expression grave. “You didn’t have to.”
“You never had to,” St. John concurred.
THAT NIGHT ARTEMIS lay nude in Maximus’s huge bed and watched as he shaved. She’d already had a lovely, hot bath and washed her hair twice. They’d dined in his rooms, a simple supper of chicken and gravy with carrots and peas and a cherry tart for dessert.
Nothing had ever tasted better.
“It’s rather a miracle that no one was killed,” she said. She’d been very glad of that news, even after spotting a very familiar set of broad shoulders among the crowd at the dock. “Do you think anything remains of Harte’s Folly?”
“Last I heard it was still smoldering,” Maximus replied without turning. He frowned at his reflection in his dresser mirror. “But I understand that the theater is completely gone as well as the musician’s colonnade. They might be able to save some of the plantings, but whether Harte will rebuild…” He shrugged. “The gardens are probably a lost cause.”
“It’s too bad,” she murmured. “Phoebe loved Harte’s Folly, and I rather liked it, too. It was such a magical place. Why do you think Lord Noakes set it alight in the first place?”
“Presumably to cover the fact that he’d just murdered his nephew,” Maximus replied.
“What?” She thought about the blood on Lord Noakes’s hands. “Poor man!”
“Well, he was trying to blackmail his uncle,” Maximus said drily. “If he’d just told me that he’d gotten the pendant from his uncle’s house in the first place, he’d be alive right now.”
“Mmm.” She picked at the coverlet. “Well, I suppose I wouldn’t have been going to Harte’s Folly again in any case.”
“Why not?” he asked absently. “Was the play not to your liking?”
“We didn’t get that far.” She sighed. “Penelope had rather a fit when we first arrived and caused a scene. I’m surprised no one told you.”
He turned slowly. “What?”
She looked at him. “She called me a whore.”
“Damn it.” He scowled at his hands. “That rather destroys my plans.”
“Plans for what?”
“When I was swimming through that foul water, I decided.” He went to his lockbox and opened it. “I was going to have it remade before I asked you. It seemed symbolic somehow.” He glared at her. “Now I’ll just have to do without.”
She raised her eyebrows. “I’m sorry?”
Then Maximus did something very strange: he went on one knee before her.
“This isn’t right at all,” he said, continuing to glare as if he found it all her fault.
She sat up. “What are you doing?”
“Artemis Greaves, will you do me the honor of—”
“Are you insane?” she demanded. “What of your father? Your conviction that you must marry for the dukedom?”
“My father is dead,” he said softly. “And I’ve decided the dukedom can go hang.”
“But—”
“Hush,” he snapped. “I’m trying to propose to you properly even without my mother’s necklace.”
“But why?” she asked. “You think my brother is mad.”
“He seemed sane enough to me the last time I saw him,” Maximus said kindly. “He tried to attack me.”
She goggled. “Most would take that as confirmation of his madness.”
