Page 6 of To Dare a Duke

“So, I’m supposed to let this anonymous lunatic author destroy my character and write such… such ludicrous nonsense?”

His sister shrugged and took another bite of toast, chewing with the air of someone with something to say. “If you don’t want things to get worse, yes,” she said once she could, and reached for her tea. “It will only last so long, and then there will be someone else in the spotlight and you’ll be forgotten. Unless you make a huge scandal of it, then it will take years to die down and everyone will believe you’ve really something to hide.”

“Everyone thinks that now!” he raged, frustrated by his inability to act.

Helena smiled, her green eyes—the same shade as his own, the same as their mother’s had been—warm with affection. “No, they don’t. Not everyone. Not the people that matter. If anything good came of the whole disastrous affair, at least we discovered who our friends were.”

Robert snorted. “Oh, yes, that was marvellous,” he said, dry as dust. He snatched up the paper again, waving it in his sister’s face. “I wouldn’t mind so much if it wasn’t so preposterous. Listen to this….”

He cleared his throat and turned to the offending page.

“Lydia trembled in the darkness as she realised, she’d been tricked. She ought never to have come, ought never to have slipped away from the ball and the lights, and sought the shadows. She ought never have been tempted by the velvet night, soft and warm with promise, but now there was no going back. He was there before her, full of wickedness and dark pleasure. Her breath caught.” Robert gave his sister an I ask you look but found nothing but rapt concentration in her eyes. “Oh, for God’s sake. What utter rubbish!”

Helena gave a heavy sigh, smiling a little.

“I think it’s romantic.”

“Romantic?” Robert spluttered, staring at her in horror. “The bloody man is set on ruining an innocent girl, and no doubt murdering her too if they follow the story to its logical conclusion. In what perverse world could you believe that romantic? And,” he added, thoroughly unsettled, “you’re never being let out of this house again! Heaven alone knows what I’ll find you about. Romantic, indeed.”

Helena returned a scathing look. “I’d like to see you enforce that.”

“And,” Robert continued, too irritated to stop now, “that’s supposed to be about me. I’m your brother, for God’s sake!”

“More’s the pity,” Helena muttered before giving a huff of annoyance as he glared at her. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Robert. The ton might think it’s you, but I know it isn’t. I can assure you my villain doesn’t look a bit like you,” she added with a dreamy smile.

“How terribly reassuring.”

She grinned at him and Robert sighed, reaching for her hand.

“Sorry,” he muttered, feeling like an arse. Helena was his staunchest ally and she’d not had an easy time. His first wife, Lavinia, had tainted her reputation just as she had his own, and Helena was entirely innocent in a way he was not. To cap it all her come out had been delayed by their mother’s death, whose kind and loving presence they both missed sorely.

At least she had put off those dreadful blacks now for half-mourning, and the pale lavender she wore today looked charming.

“Idiot,” she said, giving him a sweet smile even as her eyes twinkled with mirth. She enjoyed insulting him. He snorted and went to withdraw his hand but, to his surprise, she kept hold. “Seriously, though, Robert. It’s time we put the past to rest. Start over. You need to go back into society, let them see you’re not the monster they have painted you.”

Robert hesitated. “And what if I am?”

Helena squeezed his hand tighter. “That, I will never believe. You… You allowed the darkness of life to swallow you up for a while, that’s all, but you’ve promised me that part of your life is over, and I believe you.”

He frowned, staring down at the table, unwilling to meet her eyes. God, he was a bastard for having put her through this.

“You must go back out there, Robert, and you must meet people and make friends and… fall in love.”

Robert jolted and snatched his hand away. “This is what comes of reading such twaddle,” he said, revolted by the notion. “As if I would, after the mess I made the first time around?”

His sister sighed, her expression too full of pity for comfort. “I know you’re afraid, but―”

“Afraid?” he barked. “No, Helena. Not afraid. I’ve been educated, schooled by the very best teacher I could have had. It’s just as Father told me, and I was a bloody fool not to heed him. Love is not for the likes of us. What’s more, I don’t want it!”

“That’s a lie, Robert,” she said, her voice soft and so full of sorrow for him that he wanted to hit something. “We all want to be loved.”

“Not me,” he said firmly, his expression hard and implacable. “It’s the last thing in the bloody world I want. I’ll not have it. Not at any price.”

Silence rang between them for a long moment, but his sister was nothing if not persistent. “And what of the title?”

He turned and gave her a measured look, forcing his temper down, knowing she of all people did not deserve to receive the scalding blast of his fury and frustration. “I will ensure the title. Just as father wanted, as is expected of me.”

“Then you must marry,” she said, smiling a little.