Anna Campbell: What a Duke Dares

Dixon approached and extended a salver upon which rested a letter. “Your pardon, Your Grace. A note was delivered this evening for Her Grace and Thomas placed it with the other mail. When I heard the disturbance, I took the liberty of checking to see if Mr. Thorne had sent a message.”

Cam reached out, but Pen was there first. “The letter is meant for me,” she said with a touch of spirit, ripping it open with shaking hands.

“Give it to me.” Leath snatched the paper. He quickly scanned the contents, then crumpled the page with a savagery that Cam knew he’d rather expend on Harry Thorne. Tossing the letter to the floor, Leath headed for the door without a farewell.

“Wait.” Pen bent to retrieve the page and smooth it. “Before you go—”

“Time is of the essence.” He didn’t pause.

“Please,” Pen called after him. “Surely, my lord, you can spare one moment.”

“Thank you, Dixon.” Cam said firmly. Reluctantly Dixon turned to go.

Leath faced Pen, his features a mask of disdain. “I owe you nothing. If you were my wife, I’d horsewhip you.”

“Look to your own household and your hoyden of a sister,” Cam bit out. “My wife isn’t your concern.”

“Thank God,” Leath said fervently.

At last Cam glanced at Pen. She was paler than the paper she held and her black eyes were lifeless.

“I have no excuse,” she said dully. Cam had never heard her sound like this. “But before you go, please, tell me how you know I was involved and how you know about Russell Square.”

Leath’s laugh was so cutting that Pen jerked back as if he’d hit her. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard. Word is everywhere about the duchess playing pimp for her brother.”

“But how—” Pen looked utterly horrified. “We were so careful.”

“Not careful enough.” He sighed and spoke less aggressively. “Just as I wasn’t careful enough with Sophie. Believe me, I make no excuses for my own faults in this matter.”

“I’m sorry.” Piercing regret weighted Pen’s voice.

“Too little too late.” Leath inhaled, fighting to control his temper. When he spoke, he sounded more like the man Cam had faced in so many parliamentary debates. “A hackney driver recognized Sophie. The gossip rags pay for items of interest. A journalist dug up the rest of the sorry facts, including your ownership of the house where Thorne lured my sister. That journalist has trailed them all week. The story hit this evening’s papers. I’m guessing the elopement will make a fine follow-up piece tomorrow.”

“Couldn’t you ask the damned scribbler about their destination instead of barging in here?” Cam asked sharply, even as visions of cataclysmic scandal battered him. While his deepest fury centered on Pen’s breach of trust, he didn’t discount what hell life would become for Fairbrothers, Thornes, and Rothermeres in the wake of this rash imbecility.

“I tried. For a few shillings, the man proved disgustingly voluble. Such is the worth of my sister’s honor.”

Cam had seen immediately that Leath’s anger, while powerful, couldn’t compare with his profound hurt. How odd that he and Leath were in exactly the same boat. A sinking one.

“He saw Thorne collect my sister in a closed carriage from the back gate of Leath House, but lost them in traffic.”

“So publicity is unavoidable,” Pen said bleakly.

Leath cast her a look of loathing. The mark on his chin looked red and sore and promised to become an impressive bruise. “My sister will be branded a harlot. Your brother’s name will become a byword for dishonor. You will be derided as a bawd who promoted a young girl’s destruction. The world will sneer at your husband as a fool in the hands of a brazen woman. A fine result for your interference, madam.”

Pen looked brittle enough to shatter. Furious as he was with her, Cam couldn’t bear it. He grabbed Leath’s arm. “Get out before I throw you out.”

Leath snatched free. “With pleasure.”

His boot heels clicked across the marble tiles, and then he was gone, leaving the ruins of Cam’s marriage behind him.

Pen watched Cam with a devastated expression. “I’m so sorry—”

He held up an astonishingly steady hand. In the last few seconds, he’d battened his raging, ferocious anguish into the dark depths of his soul. The same dark depths where his pathetic longing for parents who loved him still lurked. Even his voice was calm. Although flat and dead like a desert. “Just tell me where they’ve gone.”

“Cam—”

He sighed and grabbed Harry’s note from her shaking grasp. After reading the short message, he stared at Pen in shock. “The fool is taking Sophie Fairbrother to America?”

“He’s not—”

“I told you not to bother excusing his behavior—or yours.”

Her eyes flashed. “Cam, don’t go all ducal on me. We need to fix this.”

Her teasing about his ducal ways had—mostly—amused him. Now the reference grated. “As his lordship pointed out, you’ve done enough. Go to your room.”

Her mouth flattened with defiance. “I’m not a naughty child, Cam. I’m your wife.”

“More’s the pity.”

She whitened and staggered back, fumbling for the banister. Her eyes were like dull black coals in her strained face.

He sucked in a breath and struggled to rein in his anger. “That was unworthy. My apologies.” His jaw was so tight that every word felt carved from stone. He bowed stiffly. “We’ll discuss our future when I return.”

“You’re going after them?” she asked unsteadily.

“Of course I’m bloody going after them.” His attempt at control frayed almost before he’d told himself to settle down, for the sake of his pride if nothing else. “I need to stop Leath from killing Harry, much as the sod deserves it.”

He was Camden Rothermere, famous for his self-possession. How he longed to be that man again. Not this agonized, confused, enraged creature who wanted to march away from his wife and never see her again. And who wanted to seize her in his arms and kiss her and make her swear that everything he’d learned tonight was spiteful lies.

“I didn’t think you cared what happens to Harry,” she said heavily.

“I care that this scandal gets no worse than it bloody is already.”

Unfortunately that wasn’t nearly the whole truth. He cared about much more than that. He cared about Pen, although he intended to eradicate that affliction before the night was done. He cared for reckless, thoughtless Harry Thorne. He cared for silly, headstrong Sophie Fairbrother, who right now imagined the world well lost for love. She’d face a bitter awakening once she’d abandoned the privilege and protection of life as the Marquess of Leath’s sister.

Love! The world would be a better place if there was no such thing.

“This is my fault,” Pen said in a leaden voice.

He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. When the silence extended, she turned away with a despairing gesture.

He needed to leave if he meant to overtake Leath. But still he lingered to watch Pen climb the stairs. Her head was up, her shoulders were straight and her spine could double as a ship’s mast. But he didn’t misunderstand that if she’d dealt him a killing blow, he hadn’t been much kinder. If he had a heart, he’d feel sorry for her.

But he had no heart. She’d crushed it when she proved herself untrue.

Cam ran down the front steps. His phaeton waited, his two fastest horses restless after being roused from a warm stable before sunrise.

He wanted to concentrate on his immediate need to find that blockhead Harry Thorne and his brainless inamorata. Not to mention prevent Leath from committing murder and making this elopement a matter for the authorities. But he couldn’t help dwelling on the failure of his lifelong efforts to bury the old scandals. Scandal fattened on scandal, so all the stories about his mother and her taste for Rothermere brothers would do the rounds again.