The Notorious Nobleman Read Free Page B

know
nothing.”
    She poured some more bourbon into the teacup
for him and said, softly, “I know that it takes two men to fight a
duel. What happened to the other man?”
    He looked at her over the rim of the cup. “I
don’t know,” he said, quite honestly.
    “ Is he . . .? Is he . . .?” She
couldn’t bring herself to finish the question because she suddenly
wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer. She hated to think she
was bandaging the arm of a man who had killed someone only hours
before.
    Gavin frowned. “You’re very concerned over a
situation of which you know precious little,” he said, dampeningly.
“Save your pity! The man I fought this morning received no more
than he deserved.”
    “ Did he deserve to die? Or did he just
deserve to be wounded?”
    “ I told you, I don’t know his
condition. When I left him, he was still alive and under the care
of his second.”
    Julia wished he had said something
else. She wished he had reassured her that the man he had fought
was alive and well and suffered from nothing more than a flesh
wound. She wished he had told her anything  even lies  as long as he had told her that he hadn’t hurt
anyone; for she was suddenly most heartily convinced the Duke had
killed the man with whom he had fought the duel.
    Suddenly, Julia couldn’t bring herself to
touch him. She sat back on her heels, unable to trust her trembling
hands and equally unable to meet his eyes. Lord Warminster was, of
all things, the kind of man she most disliked, and now she was
filled with a sudden dread that his conduct was not only
unscrupulous, but criminal.
    After a long moment she looked up at him and
saw that his dark gaze had never wavered from her face. His look
was watchful and knowing, and lacking any hint of repentance. Small
wonder, she thought, that tales of his black conduct should
circulate about the neighborhood, making him seem larger than life
and as evil as the devil himself.
    She forced herself to meet his dark eyes and
asked, “Have you any way of discovering the man’s condition?”
    “ I can think of nothing that would
interest me less.”
    “ Don’t you care at all that you might
have killed him?”
    “ Not in the least.” He was quiet a
moment, then he said, in a grudging voice, “As it happens, my own
second remained behind in London. He is a close and trusted friend,
and he will come to me as soon as he has word of the man’s
fate.”
    “ Then, will you share the news with me
when you’ve heard it?”
    “ Share it with  ! My dear young woman, what possible reason
could you have for wanting to know that?”
    “ Please?” she persisted.
    He scowled at her. “I never make
promises.”
    A shiver of cold went through Julia and she
tried to dispel it by forcing herself concentrate on his wound. She
studied it a moment and said, “About your arm: It is not as bad as
I originally thought and I can bandage it up again, but I think it
shall need to be sewn. You’ll need a surgeon for that.”
    “ I don’t need a surgeon.”
    “ Oh, but you do. The wound is much
too  ”
    “ And I don’t need your
advice!”
    She said, patiently, “I am merely trying to
be a helpful, Christian woman.”
    He corrected her: “On the contrary. You’re
trying to be a managing and meddling woman.”
    Julia looked up at him quickly, an odd light
of recognition in her green eyes. “Do you know, my husband used to
say the very same thing.”
    “ My sympathies to your
husband.”
    Julia almost replied in anger. She almost
lost her temper and explained to this insufferable man what she
thought of his manners. Instead she pursed her soft, full lips into
a tight line before saying, still quite angry, “I’m going to wash
your wound with the spirits now.”
    She didn’t give him time to brace himself or
argue. Instead, she swiftly doused bourbon on the cloth she had
been using and pressed it against his arm.
    Gavin sucked in his breath; then just as
quickly, he let out