13
Malcolm, for all the rumours that swirled about him, had never actually set about courting a woman before. Not in this way, anyway. Not the right way.
And never when there was anything more at stake than his own pride.
He had brought Percy, of course, as a much-needed ally. The little dog displayed no regrets for his curtailed career as a coach dog. He curled up in the space between Malcolm’s feet and Selina’s, careless of the world that passed them by.
Selina, on the other hand, sat straight-backed and regal, one hand resting lightly on the side of the phaeton, the other in her lap. She looked out at the fields rolling past with an imperial air. A queen surveying her lands. Selina had always looked as though she owned everything she saw.
When she turned, finally, to Malcolm, a flare of pride in her dark eyes, he realised that she looked at him that way, too. At least, that was how it felt. Part of him was already in her possession. He knew it, even if she did not.
“I thought you’d take the left turn at the last crossroads,” she said. “This road will lead us back to Lady Aldershot’s before long.”
“You thought I’d want to get lost with you?” When he grinned at her, with all the roguish insinuation that he usually deployed to send mothers whisking their daughters away in horror, he was rewarded by the faint hint of a smile.
“After the liberties you took yesterday, I imagined you had set aside any last shreds of delicacy.” Was he imagining the note of disappointment? “I thought I would at least be gone long enough for my sisters to worry.”
He transferred the reins to one hand and reached over with the other to catch hers, pressing it to his lips. “That’s where you are mistaken, my lady. The gift you bestowed upon me yesterday evening has left me a reformed man. I have resolved to behave differently from now on. No more tricks. No more carriage accidents or secret corridors.”
A cloud crossed Selina’s face. She glanced away briefly, but curiosity enticed her eyes back to his. “I didn’t give you anything.”
“You won’t persuade me that you give kisses lightly, Selina.”
Her hand was still in his. “No. I do not.” Again, she looked troubled. “Caversham, speaking of the secret corridor…”
“So, I’m Caversham again,” he noted wryly. “How have I offended?”
She withdrew her hand. Not coldly, but without any hint that it might return. “It occurred to me that I might have recognised the speaker. The man who was bribing voters on your behalf.”
Luckily, at that moment, the horses shied a little from a fallen branch on the road. Malcolm turned his face to them, gripping the reins with both hands until they had calmed. He felt Selina stir at his side and could not help but smile. He rather suspected she was a dab hand at driving a carriage herself. It must irk her to watch another lose control where she would not.
“I thought we had left that business of the bribery behind us,” he said, keeping his eyes on the horses. “I told you that I consider it a smear on my name and abilities. I will bring the errant party to justice.”
“You don’t wish to hear whom I suspect?”
He risked a glance at her. “I can already guess that I won’t like it.”
“No, you will not.” He felt her gaze raking him, even as he turned back to the road. “I believe it was Sir Roderick March.”
“Old Roddy?” Malcolm hesitated.
He was about to lie to Selina again. There was no avoiding it.
Yes, he was a reformed man. Yes, he intended to woo her properly. To speak to her brother. To give her the courtship she deserved.
But this matter of Roddy and the whispered bribe… It was personal, in a way that his quest for the perfect duchess was not. It hurt in a way he could not quite explain. And it gave Selina political ammunition to use against him. Which, until she was his wife and their power was shared, was unacceptable.
“As I recall, the scoundrel in the card room had a heavy cold,” he said. “Sir Roderick is currently in perfect health. But as for the man we overheard, with such a hoarse voice it would be difficult to identify him precisely, even if you knew him well. And I do not think that you and Sir Roderick are great friends.”
“We are not.”
“Is there anything else that leads you to suspect him?”
Selina drew in a quiet breath before answering. Malcolm recognised it at once. He had won their game of piquet by noticing that she took the same subtle inhalation just before she played a bluff.
So, she was hiding something, too.
“It’s only that Sir Roderick would benefit from taking the Twynham seat,” said Selina. “And he certainly has your political interests at heart. Though not, I fear, your best interests.”
“We’ll have to agree to disagree there.” Malcolm turned back to her, his guilt easing a little. “If it will set your mind at ease, I will include Sir Roderick in my investigation. If he’s the one behind this foul business, I’ll see him punished for it. And I’ll be harder on him than on anyone else. I don’t take kindly to friends who sully my name, or to dependents who work against me.” That, at least, was true. He fully intended to make Roddy regret ever doubting his success. “Does that satisfy you?”
She smiled. “It will do.”
The towers of Lady Aldershot’s dower house were just visible over the treetops ahead. Malcolm had planned a short drive, true enough, but he had not intended for so much of it to be taken up discussing Sir Roderick. He slowed the horses to a gentle walk. Percy lifted his head and yipped, intrigued by the
