Page 62 of Redemption of a Marquess

Grey stepped in front of her. “Your quarrel is with me, Gordon.”

He gave a vicious laugh. “You believe you are so superior to the rest of us.” His eyes glittered. “I was there, you know.”

“There?” Grey repeated as if they were discussing nothing more than afternoon tea.

“When they found your father.”

Jeanine’s attention caught on the flex of Grey’s hands into fists.

“His death should have finished you,” Gordon said with such spite that Jeanine wished she had another poker so that she could brain him again. This time, she would kill him. His mouth twisted upward in a malicious smile. “How does it feel being guilty of the same crime your father’s murderer was guilty of? He is a murderer, you know. When Lord Graves won your father’s fortune, he might as well have pulled the trigger of the pistol your father used to shoot himself. Did the man whose fortune you won shoot himself, as well?” Lord Gordon stepped toward them. “You’ve guarded that secret jealously. Who was he?”

“A Frenchman,” Grey replied. “You wouldn’t know him.”

Cold fingers inched up Jeanine’s spine. She had the strangest feeling he was lying.

“What do you want?” Grey asked.

“I plan to marry her.” He motioned with the pistol in Jeanine’s direction.

“I won’t marry you,” Jeanine exclaimed.

“I imagine you intend to shoot me first,” Grey said in a level voice.

He kept the pistol pointed at Grey. “Come here, Miss Matheson, or I will shoot him.”

“Stay where you are, Jeanine,” Grey said. “I am sorry, Gordon, but I cannot allow you to take her.”

“How will you stop me? You don’t keep a pistol in your house. Can’t stomach the sight of them, I understand. The night you climbed into Lady Victoria’s bedchambers, you didn’t put up even the slightest bit of a fight. The pistols her brother and I pointed at you rendered you helpless as a little girl.”

“You won,” Grey said. “That isn’t enough?”

“She never stopped talking of you,” he snarled. “Her brother had to send her away.”

“She was fifteen,” Grey said. “Girls that age are prone to lovesickness. She married a viscount and has three children.”

“She should have been mine,” Lord Gordon snapped. “She would have been, but you ruined her.”

“I never touched her,” Grey said.

“Liar,” he hissed. Eyes on Grey, he said, “Come here, Miss Matheson. Defy me, and I’ll shoot him.”

“You can’t possibly get away with this,” Grey said.

“On the contrary. You put it about that Miss Matheson rejected me, but when they learn that we married, they’ll know that was just spiteful gossip spun by you. Society will have to acknowledge that a simple country girl preferred me to The Morning Star.”

“I will tell everyone the truth,” Jeanine spat.

He gave her a harsh smile. “When we return from France with you heavy with my child, you will be glad for my protection. Unless you really are carrying his child already.”

Jeanine lifted her chin. “Grey has been nothing but a gentleman.”

“How noble.”

Movement in the hallway caught her attention.

Grey took a step toward Gordon.

“Nae,” Jeanine cried. “He will shoot you.”