Loved by a Duke (The Heart of a Duke #4)(58)

“Your being here is madness, Daisy.”

“Perhaps.” Only, she’d spent the past years not truly living or being seen, that stolen moments such as these served to remind her that she lived. “But tell me there is not something invigorating in seeing places you don’t normally see and exploring a side of the world you’d not otherwise know.”

“You’d make the world to which you don’t belong something it’s not,” he snapped. The gypsy glanced up from the items she sifted through, curiosity teeming from her eyes. Auric lowered his voice. “You believe it is romantic and—” A coarse-looking man with pockmarked skin, in homespun garments knocked into Daisy. Auric cursed and caught her to him, righting her. He fixed his black glower upon the man. The stranger gulped and then spun around and headed in the opposite direction.

When had he become this stiffly disapproving gentleman? She planted her arms akimbo. “You needn’t be so rude and condescending, Auric.”

“Would you have had me invite him for tea?”

“Well, not tea,” she said, wrinkling her nose, and then registered his faintly mocking tone.

Auric closed his eyes and his lips moved as if in a silent prayer. When he opened them, they were the hard, commanding eyes of a man accustomed to having his every wish obeyed. “This is not a game, Daisy.”

“I never said it was,” she snapped.

“Ah, here it is,” the old gypsy said with a pleased nod.

Auric glanced at the woman as though she were a Bedlamite who’d wrestled her way free of the hospital and set up her cart here on Gipsy Hill. With another curse, he took Daisy by the wrist.

As Auric dragged her off, Daisy cast an apologetic glance back at the old gypsy. “What are you doing?”

“Leaving. We’re leaving,” he amended. “I do not want you here.” His words were a bold command that stirred annoyance in her belly. “I do not want you near anyone in this part of London.”

A gasp escaped her and she wrenched her hand free, forcing him to stop. “Whatever has happened to you? You’d be unpleasant to men and women merely for the station of their birth?” She gave her head a sad, little shake. “The Auric I knew would never be so coolly arrogant.” Nor did she like the glimpses of this dark, unfamiliar side of him.

“And you know me so well?” he taunted.

Perhaps not, because neither had she ever known this condescending man. “I do,” she angled her head back, holding his gaze square on.

He passed a hard, furious stare over her face and then in an un-Auric-like manner, cursed.

She widened her eyes. What else did she not know of him?

Auric jammed his hat on his head. “It is not safe for you, Daisy,” he hissed. “Surely Li—?” She sucked in a breath, clasping and unclasping her hands against her chest. A mottled flush stained his cheeks. “Surely life has taught you to be wary of venturing out into places no polite lady should be?”

His chest moved forcefully with the harsh, angry breaths he drew. Daisy widened her eyes. At last his almost panicked urgency to remove her from Gipsy Hill made sense. “Oh, Auric,” she whispered. How could she have failed to realize? What an utter fool she’d been. Many of the details surrounding her brother’s murder had been carefully kept from her. Even the most shocking aspects of his death, by the very gruesome nature of them had not been bandied about the ton, as was the case with nearly all gossip. But Auric knew all the details. Knew, because he’d been there. The air around them filled with Auric’s angry, rasping breaths.

“I’ll not come to harm,” she said gently.

A bitter laugh, devoid of all humor escaped his lips. “How na?ve you are to believe that you could prevent such a thing.” There was no heated charge in those words. He clenched and unclenched his hands at his side, hinting at the thin level of control he had over his emotions.

“Auric,” she spoke in hushed tones, wanting to take him in her arms and erase the horror of the past from the both of their memories. “I—”

“Marry me.”

She blinked. Surely, in her own desperate yearnings she’d drummed up the request she’d carried in her heart.

He took a step closer and claimed her hands, raising her knuckles to his mouth. “I said, marry me.”



What in hell had he done?

Daisy undoubtedly required a husband. She did not, however, deserve a husband who’d consigned her brother to the grave. Wouldn’t Lionel want you to care for her…? Auric gave his head a shake. He’d proven himself incapable the night he’d found his pleasure in some whore’s arms, putting his own baser needs before the lives of his friends.

The tremble on her tempting lips and the wistful glimmer in her piercing eyes indicated what a bloody, dangerous folly he’d committed. For Daisy dreamed of romance and fairytales and longed for love—and he could never be more removed from those whimsical sentiments.

Auric released her hands quickly and doffed his hat once more, beating it against his leg. He cleared his throat as the silence stretched on. Perhaps she’d failed to hear his offer…but no, there was the tremble on her lips, lips he longed to capture under his, and the hope in her eyes that spoke to all number of damning truths and troubles.

“Yes,” she whispered.