The Duchess Read online

  “Do you want to stop and sleep or drive on?” Trevelyan asked.

  Claire knew whom he had spoken to but she acted surprised. “Were you speaking to me? I thought perhaps I had disappeared, that I had become invisible, that maybe I’d faded into the upholstery.”

  “Nyssa is asleep.”

  “That explains it,” Claire said nastily. “You have no one else to talk to. But then I guess you’ve told her all your stories. After all, you did have a great deal of time together on the long journey back from Pesha.”

  “Nyssa is not a good listener,” Trevelyan said softly. “Not many women are interested in what I have done. Not as you are.”

  A little of the hurt that Claire was feeling left her. “That’s surprising. She seems to be very interested in you.”

  “In bed perhaps, but nowhere else. In my life I’ve found that for the most part people do not like to learn. They like to know and they like to tell others what they know, but they do not like the process of learning as you do.”

  “In bed?” Claire whispered.

  “Good God, woman, I’ve just given you the compliment of a lifetime and you give me back jealousy?”

  “Compliment?” Claire spat at him. “What compliment? She’s the one you love.”

  Even in the darkness she could see his eyes. They were glittering. “You’re wrong about that.”

  Claire looked away, then leaned back and closed her eyes. “It’s none of my business what you do. We’ve done what we set out to do and I’m glad of it. Jack Powell won’t be able to offer proof that he went to Pesha. Perhaps you can teach your…your paramour to speak English and she can tell the Royal Geographic Society how you rescued her, both from Pesha and from Powell. Now, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll try to sleep.”

  Claire couldn’t sleep. She kept her eyes closed but she was too aware of Trevelyan and the woman snuggled together on the seat across from her. She was puzzled by the depth of her anger, but she told herself that it was because their conduct was unseemly. They weren’t married, or even planning to be married, yet they were obviously lovers.

  The sun rose, they stopped to eat and change horses, then they were off again. Nyssa woke up, and like a child, she was refreshed and restless. She and Trevelyan started playing a hand game to occupy themselves. Trevelyan asked if Claire would like to learn the rules and play too, but Claire said she’d rather not. She sat and watched them, watched the way they laughed with each other. She saw how easy they were in each other’s company.

  At one point Nyssa looked at Claire, then said something to Trevelyan. Trevelyan turned to Claire. “Nyssa says that you look old and sour when you frown like that. She says it’ll give you lines in your face before your time.”

  “I’m not frowning. I merely…” Claire couldn’t think of an explanation.

  Nyssa spoke to Trevelyan again. “She says that you’re very jealous of her.”

  “That’s ridiculous. Did you tell her that I was the one who insisted on coming with you? That you didn’t want me to go with you?”

  “I’ve told her a good deal. I’ve told her all about Harry and your pending marriage to him, and I’ve told her about your family and about your dear little sister.”

  “I wonder exactly what you told her? Did you tell her that my sister is more beautiful than she is?”

  Trevelyan smiled. “No, I didn’t tell her that. I don’t think she’d believe me.”

  “She’s vain, isn’t she? Vain and not awfully smart, judging from the silliness of your game. Can she read?”

  “I doubt it.”

  Claire sniffed in satisfaction and looked away. She was determined not to look at them again.

  When they arrived at Bramley it was one o’clock in the morning and Claire knew that she should go straight to bed. She hoped that Brat hadn’t had any trouble covering for her. But as Oman helped her from the carriage, she looked at Trevelyan and Nyssa standing in the darkness, standing close together, and she didn’t want to leave them alone. She kept thinking of them in Bonnie Prince Charlie’s big bed.

  “I’m starving,” Claire announced. “Absolutely famished. Oman, I know it’s late, but do you think there’s any food in the tower? I absolutely must have something to eat.” She could feel Trevelyan looking at her but she wouldn’t meet his eyes. She didn’t want to see that he knew what she was thinking.

  When Oman nodded that he did have food, Claire put her head up and followed him into the tower, Nyssa and Trevelyan behind her.

  Once in Trevelyan’s writing room, Claire walked to the window seat and looked out. She still didn’t want to look at Trevelyan and see what he knew. She should go back to her own room, back to where she belonged, but she kept seeing that woman kiss Trevelyan.

  Oman served a cold supper in the bedroom. Claire took a seat across from Nyssa, then, to her surprise, Trevelyan pulled his chair up so that he sat next to Claire. So he can see her while she eats, Claire thought and bent her head over the food.

  Nyssa spoke to Trevelyan in Peshan.

  “She wants to know if you’re a virgin,” Trevelyan said.

  Claire’s head came up. “Tell her it’s none of her business. Tell her that in my country it’s impolite to ask such a question.”

  Nyssa spoke.

  “She says that it’s impolite in her country also but that she’s the Pearl of the Moon so she can do whatever she likes. She asks if—” Trevelyan broke off and spoke to Nyssa. The two spoke for a few minutes. Oman was serving food and as Claire glanced at him, she saw that he was shocked.

  “What’s she saying about me?” Claire asked.

  “Nothing much,” Trevelyan answered.

  “I want the truth. I want you to tell me what she’s saying.”

  Trevelyan looked at Nyssa then at Claire. “She says that you have the look of a virgin. She says it’s a shame that you haven’t…”

  “Haven’t what?”

  “Nothing,” Trevelyan muttered and filled his mouth with food.

  “I want to know!” Claire felt near tears. For hours now she’d watched the two of them together and she’d been angry every second of those hours. She was tired and she wasn’t thinking clearly. “Tell me what she’s saying. I’m not a child who has to have secrets kept from her.”

  Trevelyan looked at Claire, his eyes intense. His voice was quiet when he spoke. “Nyssa said that it’s too bad you believe in keeping your virginity because, according to her, Captain Baker is a great lover.”

  Claire looked at Nyssa, sitting there in her diaphanous robe, her exquisite little face with its slight smile, and Claire was furious, furious that so much was assumed about her. Why did this semi-harlot assume that she, Claire Willoughby, knew nothing?

  “Tell her I’m not a virgin, and that I’ve had many lovers.”

  “I’ll tell her no such thing.” Trevelyan sounded shocked.

  Claire glared at him. “You are going to pretend to have scruples? You? You with your twenty-five women in one night? You are balking at one lie? Tell her I’ve had as many as a dozen lovers in one night.”

  Trevelyan’s eyes started twinkling. “That’s too many.”

  “Oh, is it?” Claire frowned. “How many’s an impressive number?”

  “One man who kept you awake all night.”

  “Just one?”

  Trevelyan laughed at that. “One good one.”

  “All right, tell her that then. Tell her I’ve had the world’s best.”

  “And who would that be? Harry?”

  “You leave Harry out of this.” Claire was losing her resolve to tell Nyssa anything. She looked back at her plate of food.

  “I’ll tell her you and I have spent nights of ecstasy together,” Trevelyan said softly. “I’ll tell her that of all the women I’ve had, you have given me the most pleasure.”

  Claire looked up at him, and the way he was looking at her made chills go up her spine. “You would do that for me?”

  He gave her the softest, swe