No Dukes Need Apply (The Impossible Balfours Book 4)

by Gemma Blackwood

  As Selina made to follow them, a light cough drew her attention back to George. He took her hand and tucked it into his arm companionably. “May I have a moment, dear sister? Perhaps you can show me around Lady Aldershot’s grounds. I have a great desire to stretch my legs after that long journey.”

  It was an invitation that clearly excluded Malcolm. Selina glanced at the duke, half-afraid he would take offence, but his charming smile was firmly fixed in place. He bowed again to George. “Do excuse me, Streatham. I ought to go and see what progress Lady Aldershot’s men have made with my wounded phaeton.” His eyes cut to Selina. “I hope we can take that drive we spoke of before I return to London, my lady.”

  Selina inclined her head, polite but nothing more. She did not think Malcolm would be wounded by her show of indifference. He had battled on against worse, after all. Besides, it could come as no surprise to him that she did not want to publicly acknowledge the intimacy they had shared the night before. Not yet, at least.

  As it happened, that choice was taken away from her. The moment George led Selina out of earshot of the footmen unloading his carriage, he turned to her with serious eyes and said, “I will not hesitate to call Caversham out if he has crossed the line, Selina. You need only say the word.”

  Selina could not help but laugh. “Really, George! There is such a thing as being too dashing, you know. Anthea would not approve of your threatening to duel every man who invites me out for a drive.” Seeing that he was not placated, she patted his arm and continued. “The duke was being polite, that’s all. We found ourselves unexpectedly stuck in Lady Aldershot’s quiet country house, and he suggested it to divert me from my worries about Aunt Ursula.”

  “Politeness is not what induced him to show you the secret passageway at the Whitby house,” said George.

  Selina’s smile fled her face in an instant. “How do you know…?”

  “I have a habit of noticing small details. On that evening, it was the silver trim on the hem of your gown. Caversham was canny enough to hide your face, but that was not enough to deceive me.” George shook his head, the corner of his mouth lifting into a grin. “Believe me, I understand the allure of a clandestine encounter. But it does not sit right with me that Caversham is taking such liberties with you.” He pressed her hand. “There is a fine line between harmless fun and real danger, and Caversham has never been noted for his delicacy.”

  “I do not think you give him enough credit, George.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “If he is courting you, and you wish to be courted, I will say no more about it. You are far wiser than me, I know, and you know how best to protect yourself. But I hope you are not blind to the man Caversham is. He may be paying you compliments to your face, but he is paying men off left, right, and centre to buy that Twynham election behind your back.”

  “Ah! Dear George, you are quite mistaken.” Selina was relieved. If this was all George’s misgivings were based on, she was easily able to dispel them. “Malcolm does not have anything to do with the bribery of the Twynham voters. We discovered it together – in that very hidden passageway. In fact, he took me in there precisely for the purpose of fairness. He intended to listen in on the talk between two of the voters, and he did not want me to be at a disadvantage.” She smiled warmly, hoping that George’s penchant for noticing small details would not uncover the unusual brightness in her tone as she lied. “So, you see, there is nothing romantic between us at all. Only a little friendly competition.”

  George nodded slowly. “So, you and the duke overheard the bribery taking place?”

  “We did, and he was just as shocked as I was.”

  “More shocked, I would think, since he must have recognised – just as I did – that the man offering the bribe was his dear friend Sir Roderick March.”

  Selina stopped walking abruptly. She cast her mind back to the voices she had heard in the dusty darkness of that hidden passageway.

  The memory of Malcolm’s breath against her ear threatened to distract her, but she pushed it aside.

  She had not recognised the voice of the man speaking to Mr Griggs. Any passing familiarity had been masked by the rasp of a heavy cold.

  “You must be mistaken,” she said. “Malcolm does not know who offered the bribe. There were so many men with political interests at the Whitbys’ ball that night. It could have been anyone.”

  “But it was Sir Roderick. And I cannot see how Caversham did not recognise him. You do not know Sir Roderick well, but he has known the man since childhood. If I knew the voice, he cannot have mistaken it.”

  Anger flared in Selina’s chest, hot and tight. It was not directed at George, exactly, but it cracked in her voice like a whip when she answered him. “You are extremely interested in the Twynham election for a man who has never before dabbled in politics. What were you doing in the Whitbys’ secret corridor, that you just happened to overhear Sir Roderick – if it was Sir Roderick – offering bribes?”

  George sighed, looking genuinely sorry, which took some of the air out of Selina’s ire. “It was pure happenstance. I stepped into the corridor, as I said at the time, to avoid an awkward social encounter. I simply chanced to overhear Sir Roderick as I walked past the card room.” He let go of Selina’s arm and adjusted the cuffs of his jacket. “Besides, as it happens, I am taking an interest in politics. Anthea has so many noble causes. A poor sort of husband I’d be, if I didn’t support them.”

  “Oh, George.” Selina touched a hand to the ribboned bonnet covering her hair, as though her unexpected show of emotion could have knocked it out of place. “I did not mean to speak so unkindly. Thank you for telling me your concerns. Perhaps I ought to accept Malcolm’s offer of a drive, so that I can ask him about everything directly. I’m sure there is a reasonable explanation.”

  “You must trust your own judgement,” said George, offering his arm again. They turned by unspoken agreement back up the winding path to the house. “However, if it turns out that he has not been honest with you… Well. I would not wish to be on first-name terms with a man who had deceived me. And the offer is still there. I will not hesitate to teach him a lesson on your behalf. You must only say the word.”

  “I will not tell Anthea you said that,” said Selina, managing a teasing smile. “She would not approve at all.”

  “And I have not told her that I caught you and Caversham together in the corridor – though I think she would approve of that very much.” George winked roguishly. “I have never had sisters before. I am beginning to understand why your brother is so serious all the time. So many cares must take their toll on a man!”

  “But only think of the improving effect we have had on your character!” Selina let go of George’s arm as they reached the house. “Now, I will go and see whether Isobel and Anthea have managed to raise Aunt Ursula’s spirits. If she is in good cheer, I will not feel any guilt in leaving her for an hour or so while I take the air with Mal–” She stopped herself just in time. “With Caversham.” She gave George a stern look. “Be polite to him in the meantime. If I come downstairs to discover you both shouting about pistols at dawn, I will have no compunction about bringing your wife’s wrath down upon your foolish head.”

  George bowed ironically low. “That is a risk I wouldn’t dare take!”

  As Selina went upstairs, she fought to ignore the feeling that her heart was beating a little off rhythm.

  It shook her to know that her indiscretion with Malcolm had been noticed. George, at least, could be trusted with her reputation, but how many other needless risks had she taken in the meantime? Malcolm had managed to unravel her careful behaviour like the ball of wool he had sent tumbling to the floor the night he dined in her brother’s house.

  The night he had touched her cheek and looked at her with an expression both yearning and haunted – an expression that she now knew meant that he wanted to kiss her. She had seen it again in the sunset on Lady Aldershot’s terrace last night. Something inside her was still
trembling from the wonder of it.

  Was he worthy of the risks she had taken? Or was he, as George insisted, only a rogue using her for his own political advancement?

  A maid was leaving Aunt Ursula’s room as Selina arrived. She stopped the girl on her way past.

  “Please take a message to the Duke of Caversham,” she said, her voice light and even. “Tell him to prepare his carriage, if it is roadworthy. I will be ready to drive out with him in half an hour.”

  13

  Malcolm, for all the rumours that swirled about him, had never actually set about courting a woman before. Not in this way, anyway. Not the right way.

  And never when there was anything more at stake than his own pride.

  He had brought Percy, of course, as a much-needed ally. The little dog displayed no regrets for his curtailed career as a coach dog. He curled up in the space between Malcolm’s feet and Selina’s, careless of the world that passed them by.

  Selina, on the other hand, sat straight-backed and regal, one hand resting lightly on the side of the phaeton, the other in her lap. She looked out at the fields rolling past with an imperial air. A queen surveying her lands. Selina had always looked as though she owned everything she saw.

  When she turned, finally, to Malcolm, a flare of pride in her dark eyes, he realised that she looked at him that way, too. At least, that was how it felt. Part of him was already in her possession. He knew it, even if she did not.

  “I thought you’d take the left turn at the last crossroads,” she said. “This road will lead us back to Lady Aldershot’s before long.”

  “You thought I’d want to get lost with you?” When he grinned at her, with all the roguish insinuation that he usually deployed to send mothers whisking their daughters away in horror, he was rewarded by the faint hint of a smile.

  “After the liberties you took yesterday, I imagined you had set aside any last shreds of delicacy.” Was he imagining the note of disappointment? “I thought I would at least be gone long enough for my sisters to worry.”

  He transferred the reins to one hand and reached over with the other to catch hers, pressing it to his lips. “That’s where you are mistaken, my lady. The gift you bestowed upon me yesterday evening has left me a reformed man. I have resolved to behave differently from now on. No more tricks. No more carriage accidents or secret corridors.”

  A cloud crossed Selina’s face. She glanced away briefly, but curiosity enticed her eyes back to his. “I didn’t give you anything.”

  “You won’t persuade me that you give kisses lightly, Selina.”

  Her hand was still in his. “No. I do not.” Again, she looked troubled. “Caversham, speaking of the secret corridor…”

  “So, I’m Caversham again,” he noted wryly. “How have I offended?”

  She withdrew her hand. Not coldly, but without any hint that it might return. “It occurred to me that I might have recognised the speaker. The man who was bribing voters on your behalf.”

  Luckily, at that moment, the horses shied a little from a fallen branch on the road. Malcolm turned his face to them, gripping the reins with both hands until they had calmed. He felt Selina stir at his side and could not help but smile. He rather suspected she was a dab hand at driving a carriage herself. It must irk her to watch another lose control where she would not.

  “I thought we had left that business of the bribery behind us,” he said, keeping his eyes on the horses. “I told you that I consider it a smear on my name and abilities. I will bring the errant party to justice.”

  “You don’t wish to hear whom I suspect?”

  He risked a glance at her. “I can already guess that I won’t like it.”

  “No, you will not.” He felt her gaze raking him, even as he turned back to the road. “I believe it was Sir Roderick March.”

  “Old Roddy?” Malcolm hesitated.

  He was about to lie to Selina again. There was no avoiding it.

  Yes, he was a reformed man. Yes, he intended to woo her properly. To speak to her brother. To give her the courtship she deserved.

  But this matter of Roddy and the whispered bribe… It was personal, in a way that his quest for the perfect duchess was not. It hurt in a way he could not quite explain. And it gave Selina political ammunition to use against him. Which, until she was his wife and their power was shared, was unacceptable.

  “As I recall, the scoundrel in the card room had a heavy cold,” he said. “Sir Roderick is currently in perfect health. But as for the man we overheard, with such a hoarse voice it would be difficult to identify him precisely, even if you knew him well. And I do not think that you and Sir Roderick are great friends.”

  “We are not.”

  “Is there anything else that leads you to suspect him?”

  Selina drew in a quiet breath before answering. Malcolm recognised it at once. He had won their game of piquet by noticing that she took the same subtle inhalation just before she played a bluff.

  So, she was hiding something, too.

  “It’s only that Sir Roderick would benefit from taking the Twynham seat,” said Selina. “And he certainly has your political interests at heart. Though not, I fear, your best interests.”

  “We’ll have to agree to disagree there.” Malcolm turned back to her, his guilt easing a little. “If it will set your mind at ease, I will include Sir Roderick in my investigation. If he’s the one behind this foul business, I’ll see him punished for it. And I’ll be harder on him than on anyone else. I don’t take kindly to friends who sully my name, or to dependents who work against me.” That, at least, was true. He fully intended to make Roddy regret ever doubting his success. “Does that satisfy you?”

  She smiled. “It will do.”

  The towers of Lady Aldershot’s dower house were just visible over the treetops ahead. Malcolm had planned a short drive, true enough, but he had not intended for so much of it to be taken up discussing Sir Roderick. He slowed the horses to a gentle walk. Percy lifted his head and yipped, intrigued by the change in pace. Selina bent to scratch his ear.

  “Clever dog,” she said fondly. “He knows what you’re about. You’ve no intention of returning me in good time at all. Percival can sense deception.”

  “The ungrateful wretch,” Malcolm sighed. “After all I’ve done for him, to be betrayed in this way! It’s too much to bear.”

  She lifted her head from Percy, a mischievous light in her eyes. “Don’t be too hard on him. He kept our secret of yesterday evening, after all. He could have wreaked terrible damage, if he chose.”

  The horses were barely moving. Malcolm dropped the reins. Selina straightened, caught, perhaps, by the sudden tension in his jaw.

  “Is something the matter?”

  “I meant what I said about behaving differently. I think I have given you the impression that I’ve been toying with you. That is not the case.” He let his eyes linger on those parts of her that he too often had to tear his attention from in public. The dark shimmer of her hair, what was visible of it beneath her bonnet. The elegant lines of her collarbone, just seen beneath her fichu. So much of her was hidden from him still.

  Then he raised his gaze to hers. “I kissed you because I want to take you seriously. It wasn’t a game. It wasn’t a trick. When I return to London, I will call on your brother and ask his permission to court you.”

  “Alex won’t give it without speaking to me first.”

  “Then I’ll wait.”

  “And if I don’t give my permission?”

  He risked a slow, teasing grin. “If you don’t agree to let me court you properly, Lady Selina, I will never kiss you again. There. The choice is yours.”

  She held his eyes gravely, and then, slowly, deliberately, pulled her lower lip into her mouth to moisten it. Malcolm’s breath stilled in his chest.

  “Interesting that you imagine Lady Icicle would be susceptible to a threat like that,” she said, settling back against the seat with a glow of triumph in her cheeks.
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  “Ah.” Malcolm coughed, taking off his hat and running a distracted hand through his hair. “I, ah, I didn’t think you knew…”

  “Oh, I’ve known about your charming pet name for me for some time.”

  “I never meant any offence by it.”

  She cut her eyes to him, brief and devastating. “Yes, you did.”

  Blast. “Yes. You’re right.” He glanced up at the sky, where a few lonely clouds were drifting in the wind. “You’ve wounded my pride, Selina. Time and again. But it was only what I deserved.”

  “You’re not the only man I refuse to dance with. It was never personal.”

  Malcolm was willing to bet that he felt those refusals more deeply than any of the others. “I am sorry that I ever called you that name. It was unkind. No, worse. It was hypocritical.” He gave a half-shrug, as though he were not saying anything of note. “I’m cold enough myself, beneath all the flirting and the glamour of the title.”

  “You were not cold yesterday, when Aunt Ursula fell.” To his surprise, he felt the gentle pressure of her hand on his shoulder. “And you are not cold now.”

  Far from it. Malcolm was burning. The gentleness in Selina’s voice was like paraffin poured on the banked coals of his heart. He longed to turn back to her, to let his eyes drown in hers, and yet he could not bring himself to do it.

  He knew what he would see when he looked at her. A Lion Duchess, only lacking her duke. What would it take for her to accept him in place of her lonely freedom? He might have every seat in Parliament in his pocket, and yet Selina would remain unmoved.

  “Let me be your second strike of lightning,” he said, his lips moving heavily around the words. He forgot what he had said about refusing to kiss her. He forgot why it was dangerous to meet her eyes. “Let me win you. Let me give you everything you deserve.”

  Her lashes fluttered low, as though she, too, saw too much to bear in his gaze. Malcolm took his opportunity while it lasted.

  He leaned forwards and pressed his lips to hers.