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“You may hand Finn down to me now.”
Alaric returned to an awareness of his surroundings to look down to where Grace stood beside him, holding out her arms to take the wriggling dog from him.
He couldn’t help but notice, as he passed the dog down to her, that she was careful not to allow either of her lace-gloved hands to touch him in any way. Nor did she say a word as, to Alaric’s surprise, she merely gave him a coldly scathing glance before turning abruptly and walking away.
Notthe reaction Alaric had been expecting after he had rescued her dog.
He hadthoughtthere might be tears of joy at having her pet returned to her, along with immense gratitude toward Alaric for being the one to effect the rescue. What came after that, he hadn’t been quite sure, but it had certainly involved the hope it would include an invitation for the two of them to meet again, possibly in a more private setting.
Never had he ever imagined her simply walking away from him without so much as a thank you for his trouble.
Alaric threw his leg over the saddle before sliding down to the ground. He quickly tied Caesar’s reins to a bridle post and purposefully followed Grace.
“What a nasty man to do such a thing.” Grace was cooing to the dog she still held in her arms when Alaric fell into step beside her. “If you had bitten him, I should not have been angry with you. It is the least he deserves for having stolen you from me. We will return home now so you might rest from your ordeal and enjoy one of your favorite treats.”
Alaric gave a disgusted shake of his head at the absurdity of listening to the dog receiving praise for having been rescued when his rescuer had not received a single word of gratitude. It made no sense to him when, in his imaginings of this scene,hewas the one on the receiving end of Grace’s gushing gratitude. Perhaps even having her arms thrown about him and a grateful kiss or two on his cheek.
“I lived in a small village for all my life before coming to London a year ago.”
Alaric gave Grace a startled glance at what seemed to him to be totally random conversation.
“The Widow Bell’s land abuts Mr. Willett’s farm,” Grace carried on walking as she spoke. “For years now, Mr. Willett has wished to either buy the widow’s land or marry her and unite the two properties in that way. The widow has always refused both the offer of money and the possibility of marriage.”
Alaric had absolutely no idea who the people were Grace was talking about. Or why. What possible relevance did the behavior of two random people he had never met, nor was ever likely to meet, have to his rescuing her dog?
“Out of desperation,” Grace continued amiably, “Mr. Willett decided to let the widow’s cattle loose in his orchard, where they promptly proceeded to eat all that year’s crop of fruit. When informed of the mishap, Mrs. Bell was, of course, devastated. She was also, as Mr. Willet knew would be the case, unable to financially compensate him for that loss. Mr. Willett’s subterfuge had placed Mrs. Bell at the disadvantage of being beholden to him, resulting in her being more amenable to his persuasions when he again asked her to marry him.”
“I fail to see—”
“I have not finished speaking,” Grace stated firmly. She came to an abrupt halt before turning to look at Alaric with scornful eyes. “You are at liberty to correct me if I am mistaken, of course, and it is obviously not exactly the same, but I do believe the situation of the widow and Mr. Willett to be similar enough to the one the two ofuscurrently find ourselves in to merit being mentioned.” Her expression became hard, her eyes cold. “The main difference being that the two of them have now been married for five unhappy years, whereasIam not inclined to be fooled by such subterfuge as you have practiced on me today in order to be persuaded into entering into any sort of relationship with you.”
“I— You— It—”
“Just so.” She gave an acknowledging nod at his bluster. “I admit that at first, I thought the kidnapping of my darling Finn to be genuine. But when you rode off to rescue him, I had time to reason there could be no justification for it when Finn has no monetary value and I am not wealthy enough to pay a ransom for his return. Once I had acknowledged that, I had no problem at all in deciding, in view of your previous determination to strike up an acquaintance with me, with whom the guilt lay for Finn having been abducted.”
Alaric winced. “If I could just explain—”
“There is no explanation you could give me that would ever make me think well of you now,” she assured dismissively. “Indeed, I believe the most beneficial thing you could do right now is to leave, before I am forced into using more of that language you took such exception to the last time we spoke.”
He winced. “Where on earth did you ever hear such language?”
“As a child, I loved to spend time on the beach with the local fishermen when they came back with their haul.” She smiled fondly at the memory before her visage hardened once again. “You really should go now. No doubt your partner in crime is waiting not too far away so that you might reimburse him for having stolen Finn.” She swept her gaze over him with a look of cold disgust before once again walking away.
Alaric was too surprised at her dismissal to defend himself.
And inwardly, he knew there could be no defense when he was indeed guilty of doing all that Grace accused him of.
CHAPTERFIVE
“Well, my friend,” Grayson Vaughn, the Duke of Flint, drawled after listening to Alaric’s description of what had happened in the park three days previously. “I do not believe I am exaggerating when I state that as far as Miss Grace Sunderland wishing to have anything more to do with you in future, you have well and truly destroyed yourself by your own actions.”
Alaric wished he had a rebuttal to Flint’s calm observation, but it was impossible to deny when the other man only spoke the truth. Alaricwaswell and truly fucked in regard to Grace, and not in the pleasurable way he wished to be.
The first day after that debacle, Alaric had sent a posy of fresh flowers from his hothouse, with an apology written in his own hand on the back of the card that accompanied them.
He had received no acknowledgment of the flowers or his written apology.
The following morning, Alaric had arranged for a beautiful box of French chocolates to be delivered to her house. Once again, he had added a card with his handwritten apology.
