No Good Duke Goes Unpunished (The Rules of Scoundrels #3)(30)

“Oh, I am to believe you now? Suddenly, you are willing to keep me safe?”

Pippa winced. The lady’s tone was scathing. The gentleman in question—who was no gentleman at all, if Pippa had to guess—had most definitely wronged her in the past. She increased her pace, nearly to the edge, almost able to peer over the side of the balcony and identify the mysterious ex-lovers below.

“Lavinia . . .” he began softly, pleading, and excitement coursed through Pippa. A name!

That’s when she kicked the flowerpot.

They might not have heard the little scrape that came as she made contact with the great, footed beast of a thing . . . if only she hadn’t cried out in pain. It did not matter that her hand immediately flew to cover her mouth, turning her very loud “Oh!” into a very garbled “Oof.”

But the instant silence from below was enough to prove that they’d heard her quite clearly.

“I shouldn’t be here,” the lady whispered, and Pippa heard a rustle of skirts fading away.

There was a long moment of silence, during which she remained still as stone, biting her lip against the throbbing pain in her foot before he finally spoke, cursing in the darkness. “Goddammit.”

Pippa crouched low, feeling for her toes, and muttered, “You no doubt deserved that,” before realizing that taunting an unidentified man in the darkened gardens of her ancestral home was not a sound idea.

“I beg your pardon?” he asked quietly, no longer whispering.

She should return to the ball. Instead, she said, “It does not sound as though you have been very kind to the lady.”

Silence. “I haven’t been.”

“Well then, you deserve her desertion.” She squeezed her smallest toe and hissed in pain. “Likely more than that.”

“You hurt yourself.”

She was distracted by the pain, or she wouldn’t have responded. “I stubbed my toe.”

“Punishment for eavesdropping?”

“No doubt.”

“That will teach you.”

She smiled. “I hardly think so.”

She couldn’t be sure, but she was almost positive that he chuckled. “You had best be certain that your partners do not tread upon your toes when you return.”

A vision of Castleton flashed. “I am afraid it is very likely that at least one of them will do just that.” She paused. “It seems you gravely wronged the lady. How?”

He was quiet for so long that she thought he might have left. “I was not there for her when she needed me.”

“Ah,” she said.

“Ah?” he asked.

“One need not read romantic novels as frequently as my sister does to understand what happened.”

“You don’t read romantic novels, of course.”

“Not often,” Pippa said.

“I imagine you read books on more important things.”

“I do, as a matter of fact,” she said, proudly.

“Tomes on physics and horticulture.” Pippa’s eyes went wide. “Those are the purview of Lady Philippa Marbury.”

She shot to her feet and peered over the edge of the balcony, into the pit of darkness below. She couldn’t see anything. She heard the swipe of wool as his arms shifted, or perhaps his legs. He was right there. Directly beneath her.

She moved without thinking, reaching for him, arms extending toward him as she whispered, “Who are you?”

Even through the silk of her gloves, his hair was soft—like thick sable. She let her fingers sink into the strands until they rested on his scalp, the heat of it a stark contrast against the cold March air.

It was gone before she could revel in it, replaced by one large, strong hand, no more than a shadow in the yawning blackness, capturing both of hers with ease.

She gasped and tugged.

He did not let go.

What had she been thinking?

Her spectacles were slipping, and she stilled, afraid they would topple off her nose if she moved too much.

“You should know better than to reach into the darkness, Pippa,” he said softly, the sound of her name familiar on his lips. “You never know what you might find.”

“Release me,” she whispered, risking movement to look over her shoulder to the still-open door to the ballroom. “Someone will see.”

“Isn’t that what you want?” His fingers tangled with hers, the heat of his grasp nearly unbearable. How was he so warm in the cold?

She shook her head, feeling the wire frames of her glasses slip more. “No.”

“Are you certain?” His grip shifted, and suddenly, it was she holding him, not the other way around.

She forced herself to release him. “Yes.” She put both hands safely on the stone railing, straightening, but not before her glasses dropped into the darkness. She reached for them, knocking them off course with her fingertips, sending them shooting through the night. “My spectacles!”

He disappeared, the only sign of him the whisper of fabric as he moved away from her. And she didn’t know how, but she could feel the loss of him. The top of his head came into view, a few inches of blurred, burnt orange gleaming in the candlelight loosed from the ballroom.

Recognition surged on a tide of excitement. Mr. Cross.

She pointed toward him. “Do not move.”