Loving The Lost Duke (Dangerous Deceptions #1)(64)

‘That was you in Cal’s room the first night.’ The relief that it was not someone with a knife or a phial of poison must have shown in her voice, for Jonathan looked at her strangely.

‘I won’t be patient much longer, Sophie. I want five hundred pounds by tomorrow night or I will start telling tales.’

‘And I will tell the duke and he will kill you. He is at least as good as you with a rapier, you saw him this morning.’

‘I don’t think you will, Sophie.’ He moved, forcing her back against the dressing table. ‘Look what you have to lose, all this wealth, all this status. You will be a good girl and do as I tell you. And, just for old times’ sake, I think I’ll take a kiss on account.’

She reached behind her, searching for the hairbrush, swung at him as his right hand closed over her breast, then twisted as his other hand came up to grab for the heavy silver-backed brush. It flew away, crashed into the glass of a watercolour by the door, shattering it. Sophie’s recoil sent her across the dressing table scattering bottles and boxes to crash to the floor.

‘You stupid bitch.’ Jonathan hauled her to her feet and she came up fighting, kicking and scratching as he dragged her towards the bed.

The sound of the sitting room door crashing open seemed part of the struggle until there was a roar of rage and Jonathan was dragged off her. Sophie reeled back and fell onto the bed as Cal hit Jonathan across the room.

‘Sophie, are you hurt?’ He moved to stand between her and the fallen man.

‘I don’t think so. Bruised, perhaps.’ She kept the tremor out of her voice with an effort. Cal looked incandescent, if he guessed how shaken she was she could not imagine what he would do next.

‘Good. Then I do not need to disembowel this scum before I kill him.’

Jonathan shambled to his feet. ‘You wouldn’t commit murder.’

‘I wouldn’t bet on it if I were you,’ Jared Hunt drawled and she realised he had followed Cal into the room, Flynn at his heels. ‘He might not, I would.’

‘You want to protect her now, but wait until I tell you what she is. I took Little Miss Virtue’s – ’

‘Virginity, yes, I know.’ Cal sounded bored, if anything. Sophie stared at the broad back, the slowly clenching and unclenching fists, wishing she could see his face. How had he known it was Jonathan? ‘Dreadful judgement on Miss Wilmott’s part, taking something like you as a lover, but she was young and innocent and we all make mistakes. Yours, Ransome, was coming within a hundred miles of her again.’

‘I’ll wager she didn’t tell what else happened that night, who else had her.’ Jonathan dragged the back of his hand across his bleeding mouth.

‘No-one did,’ Cal said with total assurance. ‘But Sophie humiliated you, which is why you haven’t been back to London since. What was it? Did she threaten to tell everyone how pathetic your bedroom skills are?’

Cal appeared to be possessed of some kind of black magic arts. Sophie brushed aside Flynn who was attempting to roll back her cuffs to check her wrists for bruises and got off the bed.

‘I thought we were eloping,’ she said, seating herself elegantly in the nearest chair before her knees gave way. ‘It was the night of Lady Houghley’s masquerade ball and I knew I would not be missed for hours. He took me to some squalid ale house just across the Thames where he was obviously known, given the number of drunken oafs who greeted him. He dragged me up to a repellent bedroom and said that if I didn’t let him do what he wanted then he would invite all his friends in too. So I did. He was getting drunk by then, and afterwards he drank more and passed out.

‘I tied him to the bedposts with his cravat and my stockings and took a pink silk ribbon from my chemise and tied it in a pretty bow around his – ’ She waved a hand, searching for the right word.

‘Prick?’ Flynn suggested.

‘Exactly. Prick. It was about the size of a bodkin by then so that is exactly the right word.’ Cal gave a snort of laughter and Jonathan went scarlet. ‘Then I crept downstairs and discovered that I was close to the river. A waterman took me across, then I found a hackney carriage and I was back at the ball just before the unmasking. No-one ever knew I was missing.’ She risked a glance at Cal’s profile and found he was smiling, albeit grimly. ‘Jonathan vanished from London and I didn’t see him again until before we came here. He is trying to blackmail me.’

‘Is he now?’ Cal linked his fingers and cracked his knuckles ominously. ‘So he is a liar, a rapist and an extortionist.’

‘You can’t challenge him,’ Hunt observed. ‘He is not a gentleman.’

‘No. Pity.’

‘I am not the first,’ Sophie said. Her legs had stopped shaking so she got up and fetched Tanner’s letter from the broken wreckage of her dressing case and handed it to Cal. ‘I had him investigated.’

His gaze flickered from the letter heading to her face, then back down to the letter. ‘He has a taste for sheep, it would appear.’

‘That’s not true! That bloody parson – ’

‘But everything else is accurate, isn’t it? Come now, Ransome, you may as well admit it. I might be squeamish about facing you on a field of honour, but I have no objection to beating a confession out of you.’