Duke of Desire (Maiden Lane #12)(78)

Raphael glanced at the window and went to it to look down.

The brickwork of the house was laid with regular ornamental indentations beginning about six feet off the ground. An agile man could climb it easily if he had a ladder to start.

He turned back to the room and approached the body.

“Nasty business,” the doctor said, almost sounding cheerful. “Be a job to clean the gore from the wall.” He gestured to a spatter on the wall directly behind the desk.

“Mm,” Raphael murmured and bent over what was left of Leland. There was a piece of paper sticking out of the man’s right sleeve.

He plucked it out.

“What have you there?” The doctor was at his elbow, peering at the paper.

On it was a dolphin, crudely drawn, but quite recognizable.

The doctor snorted. “A fish. Whyever would he draw that?”

Raphael ignored him and turned the paper over.

And then his heart stopped.

An iris was drawn on the other side. The doctor was muttering about flowers and fish and other nonsense, but Raphael heard none of it. There was a dark X over the iris, drawn with such venom that the pencil had scored the paper. Beside the crossed out iris was a bunch of grapes.

Dionysus was the god of wine and grapes and debauchery.

Leland hadn’t drawn this. The Dionysus had—and the message was plain: Iris was in danger. The Dionysus had threatened his wife.

It was as if he’d been hit in the head. There was a ringing in his ears and his vision was washed with red. How—how—could he have let himself become so enthralled with Iris that he’d let his pursuit of the Lords of Chaos and the Dionysus slow? She’d almost been murdered last night by one of them and what had he done?

He’d taken her home and lost himself in fucking her.

She was a distraction. A siren, singing only to him. He had no defenses against her, and while she sang her song so close to him his attention would always be diverted. The next time he fell in thrall to her, the next time he turned from his mission, the assassin the Dionysus sent might not be so incompetent.

She might die.

He had to get back to her.

Raphael turned to the doctor. “Thank you.”

The doctor was still commenting behind him on daft aristocrats when he left, but Raphael hadn’t the time to respond.

The Dionysus had already killed Leland.

His sights were set on Iris now.

Raphael had to send Iris away—to keep her safe and to save his own sanity.





Chapter Sixteen




“Do not go,” said the stonecutter to Ann. “The Rock King is an evil spirit. Once you’re in his grasp, he’ll never let you free.”

“He seemed but a man to me,” said Ann. “Oh, stay!” cried El. “How is it fair that you save me and then must give your life away?”

“It’s only a year and a day,” Ann replied.

“Besides, I promised him.”

And she set off into the wasteland, a small sack of clothes on her back and her mother’s pink pebble in her fist.…

—From The Rock King





Chartres House had a lovely garden, even when it wasn’t yet in bloom.

Iris stood in the gravel path with Donna Pieri. It was late morning and she hadn’t seen Raphael since their argument the night before. She hadn’t told Donna Pieri about the fight, but she had the sense, from the way the older woman studied her with a pitying air, that Donna Pieri suspected a falling-out.

Iris sighed and looked down at Tansy. The puppy was sitting in the middle of the path and crying piteously, refusing to take a step farther.

Donna Pieri cocked her head as if examining an insect she had never seen before. “And you say Raphael got this dog for you himself?”

The older woman had to speak rather loudly because Tansy’s whining had risen in volume.

Iris shook her head and gave in to the dog’s begging, bending and picking her up.

Tansy wriggled frantically, licking Iris’s face in thanks as if the puppy had been saved from perilous waves.

“Yes, I think so,” Iris replied as they continued their walk. She frowned down at Tansy, who had settled, tucked into her elbow, and was now enjoying the view. “He didn’t say, but he presented her to me in a basket.”

“Amazing,” Donna Pieri murmured.

Tansy yawned, shaking her little head with the effort.

Donna Pieri smiled, her eyes crinkling behind her gold spectacles. “It is a very pretty little dog.”

“Yes, she is,” Iris said, and stroked Tansy’s silky head.

Tansy licked her hand. For some reason the puppy’s affection made her lips tremble. She wasn’t sure after the night before if she could fix what was between her and Raphael. If he’d ever accept her—accept their marriage—and let them live together as they should.

As man and wife.

His face last night had been so horrified. So angry and cold. And it had been cruel, just when she thought they’d overcome their problems, just when she thought they’d finally become one, for the whole thing to be smashed because of his fear.

If he never relented, could she live like this?

She wasn’t sure. She blinked, gazing at her ruby ring as she held Tansy. Somehow the sight of the ring made her eyes blur.