Behind the Courtesan - By Bronwyn Stuart Page 0,33
any moment now, so you needn’t bother yourself. Why don’t you get back in your carriage and be on your way.”
The duke’s face turned a rather unbecoming shade of red, his lips tightened to a thin line and Sophia swore she heard his teeth grind together in his mouth. But then he closed the distance, his hand held out to her. “I believe the choice is yours, milady. Stay here in the cold with a barkeep or join me in my warm carriage for a glass of French brandy. I will have you back to your lodgings and in that hot bath before the lunch gong sounds.”
Oh, she played with fire. The way Blakiston’s charm oozed from his handsome mouth worried her, but she would surely kill Blake if she had the chance to have him alone right now.
“I would be eternally grateful, Your Grace.”
As she stepped toward the duke with the feeling akin to entering a snake pit, Blake’s hand shot out and gripped her arm hard. “Sophie, you can’t go with him.”
“And why not?” she asked through teeth gritted against a frustrated shriek.
“He is nothing more than a slimy worm. You are better than this.”
Sophia’s cheeks heated and before she knew what she was about, her free arm swung, her palm flat, and for the second time, Sophia slapped Blake’s face with all the anger he made her feel. Did he think she would perform sexual acts with a duke in his carriage for the pleasure of a comfortable seat back to the tavern? His tone implied that was exactly it.
Wrenching her arm from his hold, she turned to Blakiston, placed her fingers in his hand as if nothing had happened and let him lead her to his carriage and the promise of spirits. She could certainly use something to calm her nerves and her fury.
Chapter Nine
Sophia fumed. If she’d been elsewhere, she would have paced, she would have thrown her arms in the air and ranted like a lunatic. But she was here. Instead she had to keep the smile on her lips and charm the current Duke of Blakiston all the way back to the inn.
She clasped her hands around her bare arms in an effort to get warm and shake the melancholy that threatened.
“Are you cold, m’dear?” Blakiston asked, his voice charming, his manner not in the least bit threatening.
So why did she feel such a deep sense of impending doom?
“A little, Your Grace.” She watched as he stood, stooped and lifted the top of the bench seat he sat upon. He pulled out a blanket of rich maroon wool large enough to warm her entire body if she wrapped it around herself.
“Here you go.” The duke placed the blanket on her lap and tucked the edges beneath her legs. He was so close she could smell his cologne—an off-putting scent filled with enough sandalwood to make her nose itch—and his touch evoked yet more shivers, but this time of revulsion. Even though Charles was a very distant relative to the previous duke, the same blood flowed through his veins. Through all men of the Blakiston line.
Blake included.
“Thank you, Your Grace. I only hope my gown doesn’t soil the fine wool.” The mud had dried from her ruined dress, but sand and dirt still fell with only the slightest of movement. She didn’t like to think of the picture she made, blood and mud and dirt combined.
“Nonsense,” he replied with a wave of his bejeweled hand. “Can’t have you freeze to death just to save my linen.”
The intent catlike gaze he turned on her after he sat made Sophia squirm and pull the warm blanket to her chin.
“Would you like to tell me what you were doing there with that oaf?” he asked.
Sophia thought about her reply for a moment before deciding a lie would be far better than the truth. “I had heard of a milliner in Sheffield that I thought to visit, so Blake accompanied me. It wouldn’t do to travel about alone.”
“What of your carriage?”
Yes, why hadn’t she thought of that? “Blake had to collect supplies and they wouldn’t have fit in my small conveyance.”
“Pardon my ignorance, but are you good friends with the innkeeper?”
Sophia laughed out loud. “Friends, Your Grace? I would hardly count Blake a friend. I am staying at his inn for a short time is all.”
“So you hail from this part of the country then?”
“I grew up close to here if that is your question, Your Grace.”