The Black Duke's Prize (22 page)

"You need some manners, you shrew," he flung back at her.

She went white. Abruptly she flung her hand out, catching him full on
the left cheek with her open palm. The blow stung, but far more stupefying was
the fact that she had actually struck him.

She looked stunned as well, but stood her ground. "I have only one
question for you, Your Grace," she ground out.

"Yes, Miss Ralston?" he returned stiffly.

"Is Crestley Hall still considered to be my property to
manage?" she asked, her voice shaking. "Or are you going to hand my
deed over to some shepherd?"

"Crestley is yours, Miss Ralston," he affirmed, so angry, his
own voice was unsteady.

"Then get off my property."

For a moment he was again too stunned to speak. "As you wish,"
he was finally able to reply, and turned his back to stride away from her.

He headed for the stables, where Jack was busy hammering at something.
"Jack!" he bellowed. "Put that damn thing down and get the coach
ready! We are leaving for London."

"Your Grace?" his groom said questioningly, sticking

his
head out of one of the stalls.

"Now, Jack!"

"Yes, Your Grace."

Back inside the house he found Gladstone and told him he was to remain
until he was satisfied that Crestley was being properly restored, and he was
then to hire a coach and take himself back to London. His secretary agreed
without comment. Upstairs Nicholas threw his things back into the traveling
cases he had unpacked less than a week earlier. That done, he brought the cases
downstairs himself, not willing to wait for the damned doddering old butler
to do it.

Neville and Alison were going through the disorganized mass of papers in
the drawing room when he strode in. "I am taking my leave of you," he
said, and turned around again.

"Nick, what's going on?" Alison queried, standing up in alarm.

"Ask your darling Kate," he spat out, and walked out, slamming
the door behind him. He couldn't believe that he had been on the verge of
asking that damned stubborn, impossible, ungrateful woman to marry him. He
would sooner wed ... He couldn't think of anyone who made him as angry as she,
and so he grabbed up his cases again, swearing. He didn't stop cursing until he
was well on the road back to London.

17

 
K
atherine stayed away from the
house for better than an hour. When she finally returned she had calmed down,
and half expected to see Nicholas waiting for her, ready to fly up into the
boughs at her for slapping him and behaving like such a gudgeon. He was
maddeningly overbearing, but belatedly she had realized that he had only been
trying to assist her. And perhaps she did need him a little, not for his
considerable wealth, but for the way he made her feel.

Instead of Sommesby, though, she found her godparents sitting in the
parlor. They looked at her as though some great tragedy had befallen them all.
"Oh, dear," Lady Alison said-taking Kate's hand and drawing her down
to the couch.

"What is it?" Katherine asked, bewildered and more than a
little worried.

"Whatever did you say to Nick?" her godmother asked earnestly.

Katherine lowered her eyes. "I told him to get off my
property."

"You said that to the Duke of Sommesby?" Neville queried,
raising his brow.

Lady Alison gasped. "How could you do such a thing?" "He
made me angry," Katherine stated, "trying to order me about and
telling me what to do as if I were one of his footmen."

"But what about—"

Katherine sighed and stood. "Where is he? I suppose I
 
have to apologize."

"He's gone back to London," Lord Neville said when his wife
put one hand over her face.

"He's gone back . . . " Katherine sat down rather abruptly,
feeling as though the breath had been knocked out of her lungs. "Well,
good. Good riddance," she said, her voice breaking. Nicholas was gone. She
knew he had been angry, but they had. argued before. She had never thought he
would leave.

"Did you refuse him?" her godmother asked softly. "Refuse
him?" Katherine echoed, beginning to feel hysterical.

"He was going to offer for you," Neville explained.

Kate's heart faltered. "Nicholas was going to ask me to marry
him?" she whispered.

"Yes, child." Lady Alison tried to take her hand again, but
she pulled away.

"Well, I wouldn't have married him, anyway. I could never marry
such an arrogant, provoking man."

"I'm so sorry, Kate," her godmother murmured.

"Don't be," she said, shooting to her feet and hurrying toward
the door, so they wouldn't see her crying. "I'm glad he's gone. I hope I
never see him again."

He had gone back to London. The Black Duke had changed his mind about
her and left. He'd probably never even give her another thought. He'd probably
already found someone else to tease and send roses to, if he even bothered with
such things where his other conquests were concerned. Katherine looked for any
excuse to remain at Crestley, but after a week her godparents finally told her
in no uncertain terms that they were returning to London. They were concerned
about her reputation, but she dreaded seeing Nicholas again more than she felt
trepidation about encountering the snubs of the
ton.

They arrived back in town with no ceremony, and Katherine spent the
next days moping about Hampton House and trying to pretend that she was not.
From the reaction of her godparents she knew something wasn't right, and she
realized that no one had come to call, or even sent a card. "I told you it
doesn't matter," she said to Lady Alison when her godmother appeared
close to tears after their third day back. "Just let me return to
Crestley."

"No, my dear. If anything is to be done to salvage this situation,
we must act now. We shouldn't have stayed away even this long." She shook
her head. "Oh, if only Nick hadn't ridden back here like that. He must
have known this would happen."

"I'm certain he didn't care." "You don't mean that,
Kate."

"Yes, I do." She had known better, had been warned innumerable
times about the notorious Black Duke, and she had been a ninnyhammer and fallen
for him anyway. And now she was paying the price.

Despite Kate's protests, the baroness decided that they should go
shopping. It would get them both outside, her godmother argued, and perhaps
they would find that things were not as bad as they had imagined.

Things were as bad as they had imagined. Once unctuous dressmakers were
barely civil, a sure sign that her story had been widely bandied about.
Katherine was certain that if she hadn't been with Lady Alison she never would
have been waited on at all. Several ladies in the shops left as they entered,
the younger ones staring at her with bald curiosity as they went.

Lady Alison continued to claim that it didn't signify, but her
protestations became more and more muted, and finally she suggested that they
return to Hampton House, after all. Outside a dressmaker's her godmother
stopped short. A beautiful brunette woman walked toward them along the street,
her eyes so dark, they looked black. Her dark blue dress was of the finest
muslin, and her skin like porcelain. She stopped before Kate with a rustle of
skirts.

"You are Kate Ralston," the woman stated with a heavy French
accent .

Lady Alison took Kate's arm and tried to turn her away, but Katherine
was intrigued. "I am," she replied.

"You are barely more than a child," the woman murmured.
"Not at all the one for Nick. I am surprised he did not realize so much
sooner."

"Go away," Lady Alison snapped, pushing Katherine toward the
carriage.

The woman nodded. "I hope he at least gave you a nice parting gift.
He does that, for the ones who amuse him."

Lady Alison instructed their driver to leave immediately.

"Don't look after her, Kate," she ordered.

"Who is she?" Katherine asked, looking over at her godmother's
white face. She had never seen Lady Alison so angry.

"Josette Bettreaux. I thought her still in Paris. She
would
come
back now."

"That was Josette Bettreaux?" Katherine echoed feebly.

Louisa had been right. The woman was stunning.

When they returned to Hampton House Katherine was little heartened to
see the Viscount of Sheresford's phaeton there before them. When Rawlins opened
the door he informed her that the viscount had arrived several minutes earlier
and was waiting for her in the drawing room. Her godmother sighed, then
motioned for Kate to go meet him.

When she entered, Thomas was pacing up and down as though he were being
chased. "Thomas, is something wrong?" she asked.

"Kate, I'm so pleased you're home safe," he said, coming to
her and taking her hands.

Privately she thought that if he had been that concerned he could have
come to see her two days before, but she said nothing. She was in dire need of
a friend, and he was the only one who had shown himself. "Quite
safe," she replied.

He released her and strode away, then turned around again. "I would
have come sooner, but I had . . . there was business I had to tend to."

"I understand." She seated herself.

"Kate," he went on, walking over to the mantel and leaning on
it, then striding over to the window, "I need to know something before I
go on. I hope you understand."

She nodded, wishing that he would stop moving around so much, for he was
making her dizzy.

"Did anything transpire between you and Nick while you were
away?"

She started to retort that it was none of his business, but he seemed so
genuinely concerned that she relented. "We argued," she replied with
a shrug.

"That was all?" he pursued, coming closer.

"That was enough," she answered. Enough to ruin her, and
enough to break her heart.

He nodded. "Nick's been in a rare temper since he came back to
town. Right after he returned I asked him how you were, but he only glared at
me until I thought he was going to kill me."

"I really don't care to hear about him," Katherine said
stiffly. "May I ask you a question now?"

"Of course." He took a seat, but she doubted that he would
light for long.

"When did Josette Bettreaux return to town?"

The viscount shot to his feet. "How do you know that name?"

"She spoke to me this morning when Lady Alison and I were out
shopping."

"She didn't!" He gasped, his expression mortified. C

She did. And not very kindly."

Thomas cleared his throat, and for a moment she thought that he wouldn't
answer. "She came back two days after you . . . left for Crestley,"
he finally said.

Katherine felt like crying, and took a deep breath to steady herself.
"Is he seeing her again?"

"It depends on who you ask," Thomas said shortly.

"According to Josette he is; according to Nick it's no one's bloody
business." He came forward again and sat beside her, taking her hand in
his. "I didn't come here to discuss Nick either, however."

"No?" Katherine asked, wondering whether Nicholas looked at
the lovely Josette and his other mistresses in the same way that he had looked
at her, and whether his parting gift to her for amusing him had been the
return of Crestley Hall.

"No. I've come to ask you to be my wife." Abruptly Thomas was
on his knees in front of her, his eyes on her face and his expression earnest.

"To marry you?" Katherine repeated, completely astonished.

"I know that you don't love me," he went on hurriedly,
"but I'm certain that you could grow to." She opened her mouth, but
he kept going. "Don't answer now. Think about it, please. All right?"

"Are you doing this to try to save my reputation?" she asked,
smiling sadly.