Page 59 of The Devilish Pleasures of a Duke

A rather terrifying transformation seemed to have settled over his handsome features. Before her very eyes he changed from a dashing gentleman to a dark avenger. His very smile filled her with foreboding.

This was not Adrian Ruxley, heir to a dukedom. The man who strode into the room might have just leapt off a pirate junque into a battle on some foreign shore. The image only sharpened in her mind as he wrenched off his cloak and drew his sword from its scabbard.

His white linen shirt clung damply to his chest. A gasp composed of as much admiration as protest rose in her throat. At any other time she might have been offended by the sight of a man’s sweaty chest, as attractive a view as she admitted to herself it was, had she not been so grateful to see him.

“Tell me you are all right, Emma,” he said without looking at her.

She nodded, heard her brother calling down from the top of the stairs. Then the loud clatter of Hamm’s footsteps in the hall. But all of her attention suddenly centered on Adrian, beautiful, heroic, and blessedly here.

“I’m fine, but Harriet—”

Suddenly Adrian’s focus shifted. One of Harriet’s brothers was already racing through the garden, silverware and snuffboxes spilling out of his pockets. Rob had edged to the window with his knife held out in an effort to keep Adrian away.

“Don’t sleep too sound, none of you,” he said roughly. “We’ll come back.”

Adrian unsheathed his sword. “What did you say?”

Emma blinked. She was too riveted by Adrian to even acknowledge the three other people crowded in the doorway. Her stomach fluttered at the hard smile that curved his mouth. His dark menace mesmerized everyone who watched him as he moved forward.

Harriet retreated behind a satinwood library table.

Rob cast a wild look around the room. “Ain’t no one going to stop him? Harriet?”

Adrian circled him with unnerving concentration, raising his saber to the throbbing pulse of Rob’s throat so swiftly that even Emma had not seen it coming. “I want to kill you,” he said, shaking his head as if the confession amused him. “I’m not entirely sure I can stop myself.”

Emma clutched the bellpull. From the corner of her eye she saw Heath and his footman standing in the door, their presence blocking the view of Julia and her aunt. She was profoundly grateful that Charlotte and Miss Peppertree appeared to have kept the girls occupied in the other wing.

They must never learn what had happened today, at all costs. It would give them nightmares for months.

Rob’s forehead glistened with sweat. His brother had disappeared. The tall blond man with the sword had a murderous glint in his eye that even a fool would respect. “Look. There’s been no ’arm done.”

Adrian walked him against the window. “Says who?”

“Ask me sister,” Rob said, his voice thick. “Ask that lady at the bellpull.”

Adrian’s lips thinned. “What say you, Harriet?”

She pushed her hair from her eyes. “Slit him open like a salmon. Scourge of the earth, he is.”

Adrian glanced at Emma. “The decision is yours.”

Emma could not seem to think clearly. She wished only that this ordeal would end. “Let him go,” she whispered.

Adrian stared up at the ceiling. His hard expression said it wouldn’t bother him to send Rob to the next world. “Are you sure?” he asked lightly.

“Please—”

He pressed the tip of his sword into Rob’s throat. Rob’s face drained white. “The lady wishes for me to be merciful. I release you with reluctance.”

Rob stood in hesitation, glancing covertly from Adrian to Emma.

“Go, you big witless nit,” Harriet said in contempt. “Get out before he changes his mind.”

A moment later Rob spun on the shattered glass and dove out the window into the rose bushes below. He broke into a run before he even straightened, thorns and leaves stuck to his clothes. Adrian shook his head in disgust and sheathed his rapier.

Harriet clapped her hands in delight. “Criminy! I’ve waited my whole life to see ’im get what he deserved. You’re a hero, Lord Wolf, that’s what you are. Wait’ll I tell the girls—”

“Harriet Gardner.” Emma raised her voice. “You will not speak of this affair again. To anyone. Do you understand?”