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“So then, they have not managed to get word to you or the viscount about their whereabouts?”
“Foolish to think so!” the duke could not help but snap. “Why would they?”
“I thought they might have heard you were nearby and looking to help,” answered Sir Owen quietly.
“Apparently, Sir Owen, your line of thinking is in disarray,” the duke said on a threatening note.
They had reached a narrow turn-off in the road and he smiled to say, “This is where I leave you, Margate.”
The duke nodded a dismissal and made plans for the future. The man needed planting in the ground and as soon as he was free to do so, that was what he intended to do. But, the question remained, why hadn’t Mandy told him that she had met with Owen again?
What was her true relationship with Sir Owen?
Instead of turning off for Wharfdale Manor, he continued down the road toward the shortcut to Abbey Ruins. He was going to find out for himself, just what the bloody hell was going on!
* * *
Mandy was restless.
Both Ned and Chauncey had dozed after consuming what she had thought to be an inordinate amount of wine.
The summer night was too lovely to ignore and she made her way outdoors and stood staring up at the full moon and the dark velvet sky alight with stars. Sighing and thinking of the duke, she strode a few yards away from the Abbey and sank down onto the dry weeds and stared through the dim light. It couldn’t be…how could it be? Was that him…was that the duke?
He sat his horse for a moment and looked like an ancient warrior, with purpose and determination and her heartbeat increased rapidly.
She had no way of knowing that he was in a temper, until she saw the way he jumped off his horse, locked his reins into his stirrups, and strode toward her.
She could almost feel his fury as he stomped hard and fast and then he was pulling her off the ground and into his arms. He crushed her in his embrace and his kiss started out wild and relentless as it took and gave and she responded willingly.
Suddenly he shoved her away though he retained a hold of her shoulders as he glared at her, “Do you kiss him like that?” he growled.
“What? Who? What are you talking about?”
“What have you done? Trusting someone like that with your whereabouts!”
She could see he was enraged, but how dare he? Her own temper came forward and she snapped, “Have you lost your mind? How dare you speak to me in such a fashion!”
“How dare I? That is rich,” he ran his hands through his hair as his hat had fallen to the ground unheeded. “You behave with thoughtless recklessness and ask how dare I?”
“Thoughtless recklessness?” she returned with a puzzled frown. “Do you mean because I am walking about here in the dark? I don’t understand? ‘Tis but a small amount of freedom…am I not allowed some?”
“It would appear that you take it whether it is permitted or not. And walking so far away from the abbey, at night…when you don’t know who might be snooping about is the outside of foolishness.”
She could not think what had come over him. Plain speaking was needed and so she demanded, “It appears we are at odds here. What is wrong? Why are you in a rage? Surely not because I am out here alone at night?”
“That, my wide-eyed gamine is nothing when compared to your duplicity,” he sneered at her. “But come, since you give it away so freely…let’s have another kiss, shall we?”
Kissing him, being in his arms had been all she had been dreaming about after they had been together. This, however, was not how she wanted to be kissed. Not in anger. She punched his chest and cried out, “Oh! You blackguard. How dare you speak to me like that!”
“And how dare you meet with Sir Owen!” he retorted and then suddenly with an oath and a movement born of fury, he turned on his heel, strode back to his horse, took up the reins, jumped nimbly back into his saddle and rode off.
Mandy was momentarily stunned.
What the deuce was all that about?
And then sudden dawning—her duke had been jealous and this as nothing else, made her smile from the heart. He cared, oh, but he cared.
His behavior had been both awful and wonderful all at once. He was jealous and quite insanely jealous at that.
