Page 44 of To Break the Rules

“He scares me to death,” Kitty admitted. “I would never have accepted but for the fact I knew it would put that odious creature in a pelter.”

“What had been going on, Kitty?” Lucia asked. “You’d all seemed to be getting on marvellously.”

“And so we had,” Kitty admitted, with a shrug. “I’d thought Miss Craven rather nice, until Mr Richards….”

She blushed a little and trailed off as Lucia grinned. “Until Mr Richards decided he liked you better than Miss Craven and flirted a little too openly?”

Kitty’s lips twitched and she shrugged a little. “Not quite that perhaps, but… well, yes,” she said, blushing and grinning all at once.

“He’s a very nice young man,” Lucia said, approving the match as Matilda nodded.

“Very eligible.”

Kitty shrugged and looked uncomfortable, and swiftly changed the subject. “Lord Cavendish seems very taken with you, Lucia.”

Lucia returned a noncommittal smile and moved away from her friends to inspect a painting a little further down the room. As if Kitty had conjured him by speaking his name, the men returned after finishing their port, and Lord Cavendish sought her out at once.

“My lord, you must stop this,” she said in an undertone, deciding she must be frank with him. “People are already talking about the marked attention you show me. You might have discovered a connection between me and the earl, but you do not know my plans and I have no intention of sharing them. I can tell you, however, once they become public, you will regret this association.”

He stared back at her with a smile of such placid assurance that her heart squeezed in her chest.

“I won’t,” he said simply.

Lucia took a breath. “Another man said that once.” She saw the flash of jealousy in his eyes and allowed herself to enjoy it, just for a moment. “He said his love could endure any hardship, any test, and that he would never let me down.”

“Who?” he asked, a rough note to his voice that made a shiver of pleasure run over her skin. He sounded as if he would track down any man that had hurt her and demand satisfaction of him.

“No one that matters now,” she said, smiling a little. “He dropped me like a hot brick the moment he knew the truth, and even he did not know of the scandal I am to bring down on Lord Ulceby.”

Even though they were in company and Lucia could feel the eyes of their fellow guests on them, he stepped closer to her, lowering his voice to match hers.

“Whatever fool made such promises only to break them was not a man who could ever be relied on. A callow youth, perhaps, with foolish dreams and half-baked ideas, but not a man. I would marry you now, Lucia, without even knowing your secrets. I have a licence ready for the moment you agree, just tell me yes. You can depend on me, no matter what, no matter how bad the scandal, no matter how utterly it ruins us both.”

“You’re a fool,” she whispered, staring at him in shock, too shaken to disguise her feelings or the way she trembled at his words. “Why would you do that?”

She turned and walked away from him, pretending to move along the wall to the next painting and trying to calm the tumult of her emotions. He followed close behind her, his words sliding under her skin, undermining her determination to do this all by herself, to trust no one other than Dharani ever again.

“You need me,” he said, so gently her throat grew tight. “I can see how lost you are. I can see it because I know how it feels. You are adrift and you need an anchor, someone to hold on to you and give you safe harbour. I can be that anchor, Lucia. I want to, so badly. I know you don’t love me, but… I think you could, if you let yourself.”

She turned to look at him, caught in those indigo eyes, in the promises he was making.

It’s dangerous, Aashini. Men make too many promises they can’t keep.

“You could love me,” he said again, not allowing her to look away, not allowing her any escape, any possibility of answering him with a lie.

“Yes,” she whispered, feeling the burn of tears prickling behind her eyes. “But I can’t trust you. I just… I can’t….” She hurried away then, moving back to Matilda before she made a scene in front of the entire room.

***

Silas watched her go, triumph exploding in his heart, even as he knew he was a long way from making her his. She had admitted there was something between them, though, that she could love him, if she let herself. For the moment that was victory enough to make him feel ten feet tall. Yet his fears quickly squashed the glorious sensation. What plans did she have for Ulceby? What was their connection?

Lucia thought it damning enough to ruin her and anyone associated with her, and he didn’t doubt that was true. She was an intelligent woman and he knew she resented his interference in her plans, yet he could not help himself. Every instinct told him that this woman was the one. She was the one he would regret for the rest of his days if he let her go. She was the one who would fill his heart until its last beat if he could only gain her trust and make her his.

He wouldn’t give up.

Kali’s trishul had led him to Ulceby and to India, and there was only one person he was aware of who really knew Lucia, who had known her all her life: her ayah, the Indian woman he had seen on Friday Street. No doubt Lucia would be furious with him, but he felt that time was running out. Whatever would happen, it would happen soon, and he had little time to gain Lucia’s trust.

***