“But I cannot give myself such massages,” she said, nibbling her lip. “Nor would it be proper for you to do so.”
“Perhaps is you have a female companion,” he suggested. “She might aid in this.”
“I will certainly ask.”
The dance ended to the applause of those watching. Teresa curtsied as the Duke bowed to her. “Might I get you a drink, Miss Wolcott? Wine?”
“That would be lovely.”
Teresa, her head high and aware of the whispers around her, walked toward an open spot near the doors. She caught sight of Thomas’s furious gaze sent in her direction, and Amelia’s frown of disapproval. Not caring a whit that her brother and sister-in-law did not care for her to be dancing with the Devil Duke, Teresa ignored them as well, and smiled as His Grace approached her with two glasses of wine in his hand.
“May I offer you my compliments?” he asked, handing her one. “You are by far the most beautiful lady here.”
Teresa flushed under his admiring gaze. “Thank you. You flatter me unnecessarily.”
“Actually, I do not,” he said, sipping from his glass. “I speak my mind and refuse to compliment a lady unless it is deserved.”
“So if I were as ugly as the nether end of an ox, you would say so?”
The Duke laughed. “Well, I might not be quite so honest, as I have little desire to harm a lady’s feelings. I would simply not mention her looks at all.”
“Sensitive as well as handsome,” Teresa said with a grin. “Then I wish to pay you a compliment, Your Grace, for you are kinder than your reputation warrants. I happen to like men who have a compassionate streak that run through them.”
“As evidenced by the boy in the market.” His green eyes gleamed as he sent her a lightning fast wink.
“And your treatment of me this evening. I have not felt this good in a long while. Thank you.”
He gazed around at the people who continued to stare, whispering in small groups, and Teresa had no doubt her name would be on the next flaming hot scandal sheet. Nor did she care. “You amaze me, Miss Wolcott,” he commented. “You have no fear of being snubbed by these people here, just because we danced and are now talking together.”
Teresa sniffed, and sipped her wine. “People should mind their own business,” she said firmly. “Gossip is a sin, and being seen talking to a man in public should certainly not be construed as a crime. If these people wish to be so small and petty minded, that is none of my concern.”
His grin bloomed wide and he bowed. “I do like you, Miss Wolcott.”
“If they had less time on their hands, they might be less inclined to whisper in one another’s ears.”
The Duke lifted a brow. “We are, after all, the titled rich with servants to serve our every whim. That leaves more than enough time to gossip about one another.”
“Are you saying that you give as much as you get, Your Grace? Teresa asked, tilting her head to the side as she peered up at him.
“Hardly. I do not care what they do, who they have in their bed, or what they happened to say. No, I do not repeat what I know.”
“You’re not guilty of that sin then.”
“But I am guilty of many others.”
Teresa shrugged. “Are we not all guilty of something? None of us are perfect.”
“Perhaps. Though I cannot imagine what sins you may have committed, Miss Wolcott.”
“And those only my confessor knows,” she replied with a chuckle.
The Duke glanced around at the Whittaker guests, at the smaller clusters of aristocrats and wealthy merchants. “I would like to drive you home in my carriage, Miss Wolcott, if that is acceptable to you. I must depart now, but I still desire your company.”
Teresa smiled. “I would also like that. But I have not a chaperone.”
“I can assist with that,” the Duke replied. “I have offered a lift home to Mr. and Mrs. Coombs as well. Your reputation will remain intact.”
“Then I must inform my brother Thomas.”
“I do believe I am acquainted with your esteemed brother,” the Duke commented. “The best investigator the Bow Street Runners have ever had. He is reputed to be rigidly honest and firm in his integrity.”
“It would appear his reputation precedes him,” Teresa replied, observing Thomas watching them from across the room even as he spoke to the Baroness of Whittaker. “Yes, he has always been fascinated with finding things, even when we were children. Our father was an importer of rare silks from the Orient, and Thomas inherited the business. He runs it with the help of managers, but primarily investigates wrong doings around the city.”
“And I have heard he has put many a criminal in Newgate Prison.”
Teresa nodded. “That has also earned him much enmity as well. I often worry that someone may wish him harm.”
“That is a risk we all take, I fear.”
“Just let me inform him that you will be taking me home.”
Aware of the mass of people all around her, Teresa felt her chest tighten as she crossed the wide hall, yet the previous panic remained out of sight. She breathed in as deeply as she could, feeling some of the tension leave her. It still hovered in the background, however, and she knew that the Duke’s tension relief was wearing off.
Curtseying to the Baroness, Teresa smiled even as the older woman eyed her warily, as though she were a species of creature she had never seen before. “A word with you, Thomas?” Teresa asked.
His expression tight, Thomas excused himself from the Lady, and turned away so that they might speak without being overheard. “I don’t like you being with him,” Thomas snapped in an undertone.
“He is not what people say he is,” Teresa replied in a near whisper. “Nor is this the place for an argument. He wishes to take me home, so please permit this.”
“Without a chaperone?” Thomas hissed. “That is not acceptable behavior, Teresa. Think of your reputation.”
Teresa scowled. “He is also taking home Mr. and Mrs. Coombs, so I am chaperoned. Thomas, truly, the Duke is harmless, and it is a simple ride home. Nothing more.”
Turning, her anger driving her anxiety down deep where she could no longer feel it, she returned to the Duke’s side. He watched her come, his brow lifted. “I see that my request did not go over well with him,” he commented dryly. “Perhaps my invitation should be rescinded. I do not wish for your name to be tarnished because of me.”
“No, please.” Teresa drew a deep breath to quiet her fury. “Thomas tends to believe the worst in people, I fear. Perhaps because he sees so much evil in them. But I choose to see the good first and foremost. I would like very much to have you take me home.”
The Duke smiled. “A woman with fierce courage and independence. You are most unusual, Miss Wolcott. Come then.”
Bowing footmen opened the doors for them, and Teresa walked at his side across the foyer to the main doors of the huge baronial mansion. More servants in livery and powdered wigs bowed low as they passed through them and onto the broad veranda outside. Lanterns held the darkness back, and decorated the nearby trees. Waiting carriages stood in neat rows, ready for the masters and mistresses to leave the party.
The Duke whistled sharply. One of the drivers cracked his whip, and a team of four matched greys trotted out from the line and headed toward them. Following the circular drive, the carriage rolled smoothly to halt in front of Teresa, the Duke, and the Coombs. Footmen leaped down from the rear steps to bow, opening the carriage doors.
Seating herself on the plush leather, Teresa heard the Duke inform the coachman where to go in order to drop her off. She glanced around, awed by the sheer luxury, the portly Mrs. Coombs at her side. “And this is just your carriage.”
His Grace smiled as he entered, and sat opposite her with Mr. Coombs beside him. “I have a mansion here in the city, as well as estates in the country. I have not visited them lately, however. Perhaps I will when the Season is over.”
“You also have a business h
ere in town, do you not?” she asked as the team rolled the coach down the long drive.
“A few of them, yes,” he replied. “I breed fine horses at my estate in Lancashire, as well as buying and selling property here in the city.”
Teresa gazed out the window at the dark trees that lined the avenue, stark against the starlight gleaming down from the heavens. “You must be incredibly wealthy.”
“I suppose that is true. I studied hard at Eton, and took certain advantages when the opportunities came.” He smiled wryly, his green eyes gleaming. “Nothing illegal, I assure you. It is not my business activities that garner attention, just my social proclivities.”
Though it came to her tongue to mention the scandals surrounding his many affairs with women both in England and on the Continent, Teresa refrained. They were none of her business after all. “Do you have brothers or sisters?” she asked.
“A sister,” he answered. “Currently married to the Count of Eban in York.”
“Are you close?”
His Grace stared out the window. “I am afraid not. My family was not what you might call loving.
My father was a hard man, strict in his rules, married my mother for her connections. He never loved her, nor did he seem to care much about his offspring.”
“That is terrible.”
“It is, if you come from people who loved one another. For me, it was normal. But it also makes me cynical when it comes to relationships, and perhaps why I prefer married women over young single heiresses.”
“Do you not ever wish to marry, Your Grace?” she asked, horrified at the thought of him growing up in a loveless home.
“One day. Maybe.” He gazed past her head to the carriage wall, his expression blank. “If ever I meet the right woman.”
Chapter 4
Miss Teresa Wolcott
His hands on his hips, Thomas glared at Teresa as she descended the stairs from her chamber. “I hope you realize what a spectacle you made of yourself last night.”
Teresa eyed him sourly, passing him by as she strolled to the kitchen. “What spectacle? I danced with a Duke and had a lovely time.”
Seizing her by the arm, Thomas wheeled her around to face him. “You just had to pick that man to dance with? Do you realize everyone knows you left with him in his carriage?”
Glaring at him, Teresa snapped, “First of all, he was the only one who asked me. All these other men know about my condition and often avoid me. You want me to get married? You want me circulating at parties and balls? Then I will go to them and dance with whomever I please.”
Dropping his hand from her arm, Thomas groaned. “Of all the people you choose to be with, you just had to choose the most miserable of scoundrels to leave with. The scandal sheets will be in flames with this one.”
“What have you got against him, Thomas?” Teresa demanded. “What did he ever do to you?”
Her brother’s face suddenly closed, and his eyes narrowed. “That is none of your concern. And I have been asked to look into the matter of Baroness Beaulieu’s untimely death. The Duke of Thornehill is my prime suspect.”
“What evidence do you have, Thomas?” Teresa inquired, her own brows lowered. “Rumors?”
“He was the last one to see her alive.”
“That does not mean anything. Everyone in the city knows she had more affairs than His Grace, and her Baron husband often threatened to have her killed if she did not stop. You should be looking at him, brother.”
“I will follow where the evidence takes me.”
“Has it not occurred to anyone that perhaps if she fell down the stairs it was in truth an accident?”
Thomas nodded slowly. “Yes. I will be looking into that as well.”
Amelia appeared in the doorway from the kitchen, her expression tense. “Congratulations, Teresa. You made it to the top of the scandal sheet this morning.”
Teresa shook her head. “Do these people truly have nothing better to do than write about me dancing with His Grace?”
“It was not the dance,” Amelia snapped, shoving the paper at her. “It was for him touching you in private, in the garden, and you without a chaperone.”
“What?” Thomas roared. “You let him touch you?”
“Oh, stop it, both of you,” Teresa demanded, her hands on her hips. “He asked permission, and it was a technique he had learned on his travels to calm my anxiety. He massaged my neck and shoulders.”
Thomas blinked. “So that was why you were so calm and happy last night.”
“Yes. The Duke was the only one who cared enough to see if I was well. And when he learned of my anxiety about being in crowds, he helped me. No one has ever done that for me before.”
“Still you should not have permitted it. It’s disgraceful.”
Teresa tightened her lips. “I would not have had I known we were being watched. Even so, it was in innocence, he did not harm me and he was a gentleman the entire time.”
“You make it sound as though it is perfectly acceptable to be touched by a man who is not your husband,” Amelia commented dryly. “It is not, Teresa.”
“It was not like that at all,” Teresa protested. “Can you not see that? He is very kind. Not at all like what people say.”
“I suppose you are going to see him again?” Thomas asked. “Whether I approve or not?”
“If he asks, yes.” Teresa thought about his warm, strong hands on her neck and shoulders, and smiled inwardly. “If he is interested in courting me, then I would think you’d approve. A Duke, incredibly wealthy and exceedingly handsome.”
“If he were not riddled by scandal, I’d be throwing you in his arms. As it is, I have no desire to see your name besmirched by him. He is no good, Teresa.”
“I disagree.”
Turning, Teresa marched into the dining room where the odors of frying bacon, potatoes, peppers and baking bread emanated from, making her mouth water. In her anxiety at the ball, she had not partaken of the food on the tables and was now famished. The cook failed to smile as she usually did, thus informing Teresa that she, too, had gotten wind of Teresa’s scandalous behavior.
Joining her at the table, Thomas and Amelia changed the conversation to the baby and possible names while also discussing what room would make the best nursery. “My room is the sunniest,” Teresa commented. “If I marry and move out, it should be the nursery.”
“In order for that to happen,” Amelia answered firmly, “you should cease your ridiculous behavior.”
“If I showed you what His Grace did to calm me down,” Teresa asked thoughtfully, ignoring Amelia’s comments, “would you be willing to rub my shoulders as he did? Then perhaps I can remain unaffected by crowds at the next ball or party.”
Thomas nodded. “If it worked once, it might do so again. Amelia?”
“Why not? If it helps you, I am willing to try.”
Solomon Eli Dunn, the Duke of Thornehill
As Solomon ate his own breakfast in the formal dining room within his mansion, he pondered what he might write to Miss Wolcott. Feeling deeply intrigued by her only partially lessened the guilt he felt in his plot to get her brother to help him in his quest. He knew it was wrong to see Miss Wolcott in order to obtain Thomas Wolcott’s aid, but his desperation overrode his manners. A knock at the door interrupted his contemplation, and he glanced around as his butler, Jarvis Hall, ambled like a tall crane stalking through deep water to answer it.
“Mr. Upton to see you, Your Grace.”
“Send him in,” Solomon replied. “And fetch him some breakfast will you?”
Percival Upton, his steward and one of the few men he trusted, bowed before approaching the table. “Have a seat, Percy,” Solomon said, gesturing toward the chair opposite. “Jarvis will bring you a plate.”
“Thank you, Your Grace.”
Percy sat down and offered Jarvis a smile of thanks as the butler placed a loaded plate in front of him. “I fear my news is not good,” he said. “I have been over
the books until my eyes have crossed and I cannot see where the drain in your accounts is from.”
“I have my suspects narrowed to either Aldric or Edward,” Solomon replied, chewing a piece of bread. “Both of whom are smart enough to hide their tracks, and neither has a loyal bone in his body.”
“I must make a very bold suggestion, Your Grace,” Percy said smoothly. “Close all your accounts with the Bank of England. Stop this drain immediately.”
Solomon gaped. “But I have thousands in there. What exactly do I do with it all? Wooden coffers?”
“If you must, yes. Until this thief is stopped, you will continue losing pounds at a rapid rate.”
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