Page 4 of Never Love a Duke

“I-I don’t know.” Her ruby lips were coated in dust. “I think there was an explosion?”

Damn right there was an explosion. Bodies were scattered like they had simultaneously tried to hit the ground and been struck.

“How did it happen?”

“I-I don’t know.” She looked around. “Mr. Duke’s? Again?”

“Again?”

“First the fire. Then a robbery. Now this?” Her puzzled face held the tiniest glimmer of indignation. “It can’t be.”

“Are you all right?” he asked her, interrupting the subdued self-chatter.

“I’m fine.” At those words, her eyes cleared, as if she were just coming to realize who he was and the position they were in. “I just need to get up.” It would have been amusing had it not been so pitiful to watch her push herself up.

“You’re hurt—”

“I’m fine.” Her eyes flickered to the countless injured on the street. “Far worse injuries need tending.” She tried to get up again, this time succeeding, albeit awkwardly. No attempt to clean herself off would have been worthwhile, which she must have known, for she only placed a palm to her temple to steady herself.

“We need to get the physician.”

“Or a few,” she muttered to him. He almost allowed himself to get riled up at her unwarranted hostility when he composed himself. Never in his life had he so misjudged someone’s character upon first meeting them. Habitually, he excelled at reading people, but that night—that kiss—had been a mistake. He’d found out only a short time afterward when her real character was revealed.

That night in Vauxhall, a woman had been ruined because Mirabelle had caught her in a scandalous embrace, thus forcing her to marry an undesirable man. The hypocrisy and exacting demands Mirabelle had made would forever be engrained in his mind as those belonging to a weak and shallow character. Heartless.

“You there, are you able to ride?” Mirabelle’s sharp tone rang through the air.

The man she addressed, nodded.

“Go call on the physician. Tell him to come immediately.”

“You!” Mirabelle pointed at another man. “You work for the Duke of Aylesford, do you not?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“You know where Rosemere Manor is?”

“Yes.”

“Ride ahead and tell them to prepare as many rooms as they can. With ample beds to spare.”

The second man took off while Gabriel stood gaping. Well, as much as he tended to gape. Which meant his mouth was actually clamped shut, it was just that his jaw had loosened ever so slightly. Which in turn pulled his brows downward to the point they were burrowing a hole between his eyes.

“What do you think you’re doing, Mirabelle?”

“I’m helping—”

“You can’t just take over the Duke of Aylesford’s house.”

“I can and I will.”

“You—”

“Alexander would want to do this.”

“You’re acquainted with Alex?” Even he could hear the disbelief coating his question, and he had to work hard to hold back the wince from her responding blow.

“Yes,” she seethed. “Alex and I have become good friends.”