woman’s thin cheeks as she stood up to rush over to look at her mistress with appealing, if reddened, eyes. ‘We none of us knew—we were all downstairs enjoying a late supper—I only discovered it when I went up to lay out your night things—all the beautiful things in your bedchamber …!’ She began to wail once again.
Rupert gave a pained wince as the return of that screeching seemed to go straight through him and succeeded in giving him a headache. ‘I will physically remove you from my presence if you don’t stop that noise instantly,’ he warned the woman coldly.
‘Stop it, Rupert.’ Pandora turned to give him a reproving frown. ‘Can you not see how upset she is?’ she admonished. ‘Try and calm yourself, Henley.’ Her voice softened into kindness as she crossed to the distraught woman. ‘Enough to tell me what has happened, at least.’ She took the older lady’s hands in hers and gave them a reassuring squeeze.
Rupert, having absolutely no patience for the woman’s sobbing and wailing, let alone her garbled explanation, turned instead to the butler who still hovered at his side. ‘Explain, if you please?’ he prompted quietly.
‘It’s just as Henley said, your Grace.’ The elderly man frowned. ‘Whilst we were all downstairs, partaking of a late supper, someone must have entered the house and gone up to her Grace’s bedchamber.’
‘And?’
The older man winced. ‘And the room is in great disarray, your Grace.’
Rupert’s arrogant brows rose. ‘Have the authorities been called?’
The butler looked uncomfortable now. ‘Not as yet, your Grace.’
Rupert scowled darkly. ‘Why on earth not?’
‘Well, I—’ The man glanced briefly, uncomfortably, to where Pandora was still in quiet conversation with her maid. ‘We only discovered what had occurred a few minutes ago, your Grace, and anyway, I was not absolutely sure that—’
‘I think there has been quite enough chatter for one night,’ Pandora stated. Having now learnt from Henley exactly what had occurred—in lurid detail!—in her absence, she had no wish to discuss it further in front of Rupert Stirling; he already knew far too much about her personal business for her comfort.
She certainly didn’t need Bentley to tell the overly curious and shrewdly intelligent nobleman that the reason he had not called the authorities as yet was because he had been unsure of whether or not she would want him to bring this to their attention.
Pandora turned to the butler. ‘Bentley, take everyone back down to the kitchen and see that they are all given a little brandy to calm their nerves—’
‘But first bring a decanter of the same and two glasses to her Grace’s blue salon,’ Rupert instructed the elderly man imperiously even as he took a firm hold upon Pandora’s elbow.
‘You are white as a sheet, madam,’ he added sternly as Pandora would have protested the need for strong alcohol.
Well … yes, she probably was. But she had thought—hoped— What did it matter what she had thought or hoped, when tonight’s events had so obviously proved her wrong?
‘Do as his Grace suggests, Bentley,’ she instructed wearily, knowing that there would now be no persuading Rupert to leave her or her home until she had offered him some sort of reasonable explanation for what had happened here this evening.
Although quite how much of an explanation Pandora wanted, or indeed, intended to give him, she was as yet uncertain …
‘I am still waiting, Pandora,’ Rupert prompted.
‘What exactly are you waiting for?’ A frown creased her ivory brow as she looked up from where she was seated upon the sofa on the other side of the unlit fireplace from where Rupert was standing, the glass of brandy he had poured for her minutes ago remaining untouched in her gloved hand. They had both dispensed with their evening cloaks and hats upon entering the salon, Bentley having quietly removed them after delivering the silver tray containing the decanter of brandy and two glasses.
Rupert moved to refill his own empty glass before answering Pandora in measured tones. ‘I’m waiting for an explanation, of course.’
She raised fair brows. ‘I’m not sure I understand—’
‘A word of caution, Pandora,’ he cut in grimly, instantly causing her expression to turn wary. ‘I have never appreciated being lied to.’
‘Very few people do,’ she returned lightly as she took a tentative sip from the brandy in her glass before instantly making an expression of distaste.
‘I especially don’t appreciate being lied to by a woman,’ he added.
‘Does that include all women, or do you have a specific preference in that, too?’ She placed the half-full brandy glass well away from her on a side table.
Rupert’s mouth compressed at her levity. ‘I believe you will find my mood much more … accommodating if you don’t attempt to fob me off with sarcastic humour, either.’
‘Perhaps I wouldn’t feel the need to do so if I knew what it was you wished for me to tell you?’ she murmured.
‘I wish for the truth, madam!’
Pandora shrugged her shoulders dismissively. ‘It has been my experience that one person’s truth is not always the same as another’s — Rupert!’ she gasped in protest as he reached down to take a grasp of both her arms even as he thrust his face very close to her own.
He frowned darkly. ‘Pandora, you expressed neither surprise nor distress upon hearing that someone had entered your home illegally whilst you were out at the opera this evening. Nor have you since gone up to your bedchamber in order to see what, if anything, may have been taken. Why is that?’ His voice was now silky soft and all the more dangerous for it.
Her throat moved convulsively as she swallowed. ‘I have had other, more immediate concerns—’
‘More immediate than establishing whether or not any of your valuables have been taken?’ he pressed determinedly.
The idea that she might have any valuables left in her possession which could be taken almost caused Pandora to laugh bitterly. Almost. For the expression on Rupert’s face was of such fierceness, and so very close to her own, that she found it impossible to do anything other than continue to look into the angry glitter of those compelling silver eyes. ‘There will be plenty of opportunity for me to go upstairs when you have gone.’
‘Which could be some time when I have absolutely no intention of going anywhere until you have fully explained this situation to me,’ the Duke assured her implacably.
‘There is no situation,’ she denied. ‘An unknown person, or persons, seems to have entered my home this evening, deeply distressing my personal maid and leaving the rest of the household in uproar. That is the end to what I know of this business at the present time.’
Rupert continued to look at her searchingly for several long seconds, but could read absolutely nothing from the blandness of her expression or the calm look in those violet-coloured eyes as they gazed up into his.
Such fine and beautiful eyes. So deep a violet as to give the appearance of a deep, dark well. And as full of mystery …
Damn it, now was not the time for him to be appreciative of the fineness of Pandora’s eyes, or indeed any other part of her anatomy!
Rupert released her to straighten abruptly, but continued to look down at her along the length of his nose. ‘I will come up the stairs with you now—’
‘That will not be necessary—’
‘Nevertheless, I have every