Page 13 of The Duke of a Thousand Desires

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The marchioness spiritedRavenna up a spiral staircase to a suite of connecting chambers. A trio of trusted footmen shadowed their flight to discourage any wandering partygoers from eavesdropping on what promised to be an enlightening conversation. Jane’s forced gaiety had dissolved. She was a quietly enraged hostess whose green eyes smoldered with anger as she marched into her sanctuary.

“What an evening,” she muttered, drawing a breath.

She ushered Ravenna through a receiving room hung with more mirrors than the Palace of Versailles. “I shall leave town in the morning,” Ravenna said. “This is my last social appearance. I won’t shame you again.”

“We shall decide what to do once we get to the bottom of this,” Jane said with a directness that heightened Ravenna’s growing sense of guilt. “Now confess. How did you end up in the duke’s arms after I warned you of his reputation?”

“It wasn’t his fault.” She sank into a tufted armchair. “As far as I know, he isn’t guilty of any wrongdoing. At least not where I’m concerned.”

“You are defending his actions?”

Was she? Ravenna hadn’t decided how to judge Simon. “I can’t speak for his recent behavior, or his intentions. Tonight is the first time he and I have spoken more than a few words to each other since my engagement.”

“Which is over,” Jane said.

“I would assume so.” Heaven help her, it had better be over after all this fuss. “That isn’t Simon’s fault, either, by the way.”

Jane compressed her lips. “Is that what Simon told you? That he was a victim of romance and could not control his attraction to you?”

Ravenna smiled. “This is how gossip starts.”

Jane’s hand fluttered in the air. “Let me understand. He positioned you against a tree, kissed you without fanfare, and said something to the effect that he wasn’t to blame because you were a beautiful woman and he couldn’t resist you, and that sort of twaddle? And you believed him with stars in your eyes?”

“Nothing like that at all. What an imagination you have, Jane. One wonders what manner of education you received.” Simon might have charged Ravenna like a medieval warrior, but his reflex had been motivated more by survival than an opportunity for seduction.

“I shall start again,” Jane said in a cooler voice. “He lured you out into the garden?”

“He did not. There was no luring involved -- at least not between him and me.”

“Honestly, Ravenna. Heath’s wife saw the two of you sneak out together at almost the same instant. You’re not speaking to a dowager, and moreover you are a Boscastle. It’s accepted that sooner or later your passions will get the better of you.”

“My passions have been provoked, I grant you, although not in the manner you suggest.” Ravenna pulled off one of her elbow-length gloves and folded it in her lap. “Since you’re familiar with amorous mishaps, can you tell me how long it takes for a woman’s heart to stop racing after she has been held captive by a duke?”

“I haven’t been imprisoned by any man above the title of marquess,” Jane said with a reluctant smile. “And his presence still sends my heart into a furor. But now you’re trying to distract me.”

“The threat to Simon’s life distracted me. That’s really how it started. I slipped outside on a private matter. I might have fulfilled my objective and caused a different sort of disgrace had I not realized that Simon was about to be blown to kingdom come. Quite reasonably, I couldn’t stand by and watch him die, could I?” She laced her hands together, one gloved, one bare. “More than that I’ve promised not to reveal.”

“Promised Simon?” Jane said in disbelief.

“I shan’t say more.”

She didn’t have an inkling why. She could only hope that the rogue had good cause for his bluff. “He’s going to explain all of this,” she added. “His life was at stake. Mine might have been, too.”

“Is that what he told you?” Jane said, openly scornful. “Of all the excuses a man could use to mislead a lady, that’s one of the most inventive I’ve ever heard. And I have heard my share.”

Ravenna opened her mouth.

Jane spoke again. “I take it he convinced you he was at death’s door and that only your kiss would revive him? Shall we change his nickname to Sleeping Simon?”

Ravenna shrugged in resignation. “No one will believe me. No one did before. I can’t offer another explanation. Ask him.”

Jane pressed on. “What was your plan? Why didn’t you confide in me? And our discussion of his love life. No wonder you were so interested.”

“This is complicated, Jane.”

“You’re complicated -- not the complete innocent I assumed you to be. Yet I want to believe you. What went on?”