Dangerous in Diamonds - Madeline Hunter [97]
While she would end up a duchess if such an event transpired, her duke would still be Castleford. Not the Castleford of the last few days or even the one of Tuesdays. She would be married to the other one, whose behavior had been so disgraceful for so long that even scandal could not be bothered to rise around him.
She touched his nose to make sure he slept very soundly. He did not stir at all. She eased out of bed and padded over to the wardrobe. She imagined walking into his apartment one morning after they were married and finding it full of naked whores waiting their turn with the notorious duke. He was even rumored to indulge sometimes in more than one at a time. Oh, yes, he was.
That would be a fine thing to see—her husband in that big bed, naked, foxed no doubt, with two other women. All the diamonds in the world would not make up for that insult. Or that heartache, if she cared a fig about him.
Stars twinkled as she passed the looking glass near the washbasin. She paused and looked at her reflection and the way the diamond necklace appeared against her pale skin and below her tumble of hair. It made her exotic, she thought. It caused her to look much more interesting than she actually was. The woman in the looking glass was a worldly and dangerous minx, not staid, formidable Mrs. Joyes of The Rarest Blooms.
She opened the door of the wardrobe. It squeaked enough that she grimaced and froze. She looked back at Castleford, to make sure it had not disturbed his sleep.
His frock coat hung on a peg. She fished in the pockets until she found what she sought. She pulled out those small, creased map pages.
Glancing to check on him again, she carried them over to the one lamp that still burned on the writing table. She smoothed each one in turn, then set aside the pages with Cumberworth and Failsworth.
Bending her head low so she could see and read clearly, she memorized the other two.
Chapter Twenty-one
“You will stay with me as my guest,” Castleford said. “Summerhays’s brother is returning. Their house will be very full. Nor do I fancy going through tiresome antics to be discreet. I will tell my stewards to find an old female relative of mine to bring in, if you insist on maintaining appearances.”
“I agree to accompany you to your house now. We will talk about where I will stay after we have refreshed ourselves,” Daphne said.
This was no time to have this conversation. Castleford was too full of himself, for one thing. That probably had to do with his having sent her into ecstasy four times during hours of badness right here in this coach. He had only raised this idea of her living in his house at this moment because he assumed she was still too dazed to think straight.
It would not do, of course. Now that they were back in London, there would be more steps in the direction of afterwards. She found that increasingly difficult, even painful, to contemplate. She knew, however, that when it happened he would regret this bold indiscretion he now planned.
He did not respond to her lack of total agreement. His expression suggested that he just assumed he would have his way. That was how the world always accommodated him.
He had not bothered to send word that he was returning home today, so their arrival at the house created some surprise and confusion. While servants ran hither and fro, they glanced at their master with concern.
The butler took Castleford aside right there in the reception hall to have a private word. Initially Castleford listened with bored forbearance. Then a deep frown formed. Suddenly, in the next instant, he looked as if this were a Tuesday.
“Damnation, I did not tell him to return, let alone with a guest.”
“The situation has been most distressing, Your Grace. He has been giving orders as if—well, as if he were you.”
“Where is that insubordinate cub?” He glanced at Daphne, twenty feet away. There would be hell to pay now. What was