Proof by Seduction (Carhart #1)

Ned opened his right hand and looked at it. Then he smiled and clenched the hand into a fist.

“That,” Ned said, “is a present from Jenny. She told me I could. In fact, she ordered me to do so. She said somebody had to keep you in line. I’ve been trying to work on my resolve, so I figured that someone had better be me.”

Gareth scowled and scuffed his foot against the floor. Of course Jenny would do that. She’d thought of Gareth, of how he hated his title. He’d let her go; but she hadn’t abandoned him.

Ned pushed his chair back and strode closer. “That, as I said, was a present from Jenny. This is a present from me.”

He slammed his fist into Gareth’s face. Stars burst across Gareth’s vision, and he went flying. He crashed on the floor and skidded ignominiously into a wall. For a stunned moment, he lay there, too shocked to even catalog his hurts. But then his jaw started throbbing and a sharp network of needles lanced through his back where he’d struck the floor.

He opened his eyes to see Ned standing over him.

“What in blazes was that for?”

“You think just because you’re a marquess you can take advantage of any woman you choose?”

“I didn’t—”

“And leave her destitute? Alone?”

“I offered—”

Ned shook his head. “You offered her no real choice but to flee to another country.”

The pain in Gareth’s jaw was nothing to the impact of those words, slamming into his chest like a hatchet. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t breathe. He doubled over on the ground. When he could finally catch his words, he pleaded. “Where? When? And how do I get her back?”

“You don’t, you ass.”

“I know I’m an ass. I’m an idiot. But I’ll do anything to get her back.”

Ned tapped his fingers against the leg of his trousers. “What are your intentions?”

“Exceedingly dishonorable,” Gareth confessed. “If I have to trick her into marrying me, I will.”

Ned’s fingers stilled, his mouth falling open. “Marriage. You? Where’s the advantage in that for her?” He looked off to the side, his lips moving.

Perhaps he was totting up the many times that Gareth had failed him. Gareth feared that balance sheet. “Don’t you see,” he broke in, “if you do the accounting, I’ll never come out even. I can’t do this—I can’t make up for anything without her. Not with you. Not with Laura. I know you’re counting all the ways you can pay me back—”

Ned looked at Gareth in mild surprise. “Actually,” he said, “I was counting the hours until her ship sails. And trying to think of a reason I should let you have a single one. I’d like her last memories of England to be pleasant. Why should I let you ruin them?”

“Because I have to try again. I have to make it right—”

“Wrong answer.” Ned turned away. “‘Because I want to make her happy’ might have worked.”

“That, too.”

“If you really cared for her,” Ned scoffed, “you’d have dealt with that louse at her bank instead of gallivanting off who knows where.”

And those words didn’t make any sense at all. Maybe Gareth was entirely befuddled because he could sense Jenny slipping through his fingers. Still, he tried. “Louse? Bank? What are you talking about?”

Ned eyed him carefully. “I’ll tell you,” he finally said, “but don’t think it will change a thing. I’m still not letting you make her unhappy. Not again.”

THE BANK NED POINTED HIM TO was smaller than the institutions Gareth typically did business with. It was also shabbier. The rosewood furniture was nicked and in dire need of a good polish. The green draperies were sun-faded, and Gareth was willing to wager that if he beat them, they would exhale huge clouds of dust.

As he and Ned entered, the clerks and managers snapped to attention. It was not just the sleek air of wealth Ned radiated. They were accompanied by the wily white-haired solicitor who helped manage the many Carhart interests. Even if the men occupying this place of business didn’t recognize the Marquess of Blakely on sight, they recognized his solicitor, Martin Scorvil. The elderly gentleman was considered something of a genius in the administration of trusts and, as such, his clients typically held tremendous wealth.