UPSETTING NEWS (2)

Violetta nodded in agreement and Evelina led her up the stairs to her bedroom, tucking her safely under the duvet before turning to the door.

"Have a good night's rest, cousin. And know that I will always have your back, no matter what, just as you have mine."

The 13-year-old's innocent words cut Evelina to the quick.

For the first time tonight, she would realise the true gravity of her actions - why she should not have gone too far and visited that place, and what it would mean for her family, especially ... young Violetta, if word got out as she wanted it to.

Evelina chewed on her lip until she could taste the blood oozing from the small cut her teeth had made.

The people of Longdale were not very forgetful, and they were equally unforgiving.

Once she was declared a spinster by choice (or, in this case, by misdemeanour, which was far worse), the marital future of a girl like Violetta would be quickly dragged through the mud because they were closely related.

God!

Evelina wished to God she could bury herself in the ground right now and disappear from their lives forever. But she couldn't, and besides, it wouldn't change anything.

Closing the door with a soft click, she marched to her bedroom and entered. Quickly kicking off her shoes, she changed into something much more breathable for sleep, then climbed into her bed.

She curled up on her side as soon as her 5'5" frame hit the plush feather quilt that made up her bedding.

She pressed her hand to her chest, unable to stop it from swinging like a pendulum switch that she could neither turn off nor control.

Her guilt over Violetta wasn't the only thing troubling her tonight. The memory of how that stranger with the indecipherable eyes had come so close to taking her tonight was another.

She did not know how to feel about it. Frightened? Shaken?

She wished she could muster the courage to admit such feelings.

If she was true to herself, she liked that he'd kissed her, and kissed her with such fire.

At Burnsbury, Alexander shook off his large cloak and angrily flung it at his butler, an ageing but sturdy man who barely caught it by the hem. His shoes also flew from his feet, one of each pair landing in the opposite direction of the entrance hall as he kicked them out. Such was the intensity of Duke Alexander's mood as he entered the interior of his castle.

Rolling up the sleeves of his undershirt, he padded up the corridor and found the stairs in no time.

He had trouble getting that short, petite woman out of his mind. Standing next to him, he'd seemed at least a foot taller, yet she'd boldly confronted him about her missing purse, with a clear audacity in her tone and a fierce temper behind her eyes?

This girl had somehow wormed her way into his thoughts and managed to make him go mad for her alone and in just one meeting?

He was the King of Rakes, for God's sake.

Tricking her into staying indebted to him wasn't going to work. Because somehow, in the heat of their verbal exchange, he had left out the most important thing.

Her name.

How he'd failed to ask her her name was beyond him, and when Colin returned to his table moments after she'd left his side, and mentioned it to him, Alexander's mood had been sour ever since.

"Go. Get me my brand of whiskey, will you?" Alexander shouted angrily as he felt his butler follow him.

He felt so full inside that he needed to relieve his tension in some other way.

When he reached his bedroom, he slammed the door in a fit - or almost. The door flew open and in came a muscular, brown-skinned man.

Otto.

The very last person he wanted to see.

"What's got you so agitated, Duke?"

Otto was his chief of guards and was probably here to find out why he had climbed the stairs in such a mood.

The trick was that Alexander wasn't in the mood for a chat right now. "Get out and be sure to close the door behind you." He scowled in the end.

Well, that just confirmed that something was going on with him. "I'll go, Duke, but not before you tell me which scallewag did this to you." Otto said.

"Did what to me?" Duke Alexander approached him, arched his eyebrows and said.

"Your left eye, it's purple. If any villains had got to you, you should let me know." Otto said.

Why didn't he think of that? Alexander scoffed, then thought. Well, because he could take care of himself.

During his studies in London, which had taken him away from Burnsbury for a few years, he had been privileged to master a few fights.

Just because he had only been Duke for a few weeks didn't give Otto or anyone else the right to look down on him.

He said, "Since you're so eager to get busy, go and find the villain who attacked me and then robbed me."

"You were attacked and then robbed?"

"Yes."

"I knew that I should have left a few men behind to accompany you to this place if I didn't want to go myself," Otto muttered to himself, but Alexander could hear him.

"I will go now and take some men with me. I'll be sure to get the local authorities involved and try to make an arrest if possible." Otto said.

It was only after the man had left that Alexander realised how brilliant his plan had been.

Who knows? It might not be impossible to find her after all. Alexander thought to himself and grinned wickedly.