Good Dukes Wear Black by Manda Collins Read Free Book Online

two spoons of sugar in her tea. “You’ve had a shock,” was all he said as he handed it to her, then set a plate piled high with biscuits before her.
    As she began to sip, he rose and tugged on the bellpull. When a footman responded, he requested a small basin of warm water, basilicum powder, and bandages.
    When he was seated again, the duke said, “Your wound seems to have stopped bleeding for now, but I’ll take a closer look at it once you’ve had time to calm down.”
    Ophelia waited for his response to her accusation like a prisoner awaiting a sentencing.
    Finally, when he made no move to address her words, she snapped, “I realize that you think something like this is beneath your notice, but I am quite prepared to take this story to my editor. I feel sure that he will wish to let all of London know just how the Lords of Anarchy treat those who cross them.”
    But if she was hoping to provoke a confession from him, she was sorely mistaken.
    To her annoyance, he merely raised one dark brow and tilted his head. As if trying to figure her out.
    â€œI can assure you, Miss Dauntry,” he said, setting his teacup gently down on its saucer, “that I have no knowledge of any ties between the Lords of Anarchy and this Dr. Hayes. Or his clinic for that matter. You must understand that I’ve only been the president for a few weeks. And as you know, the previous leadership was … ah…”
    â€œShot dead by Lord Freddy Lisle?” she finished for him. “Do not look so alarmed. It’s not as if Leonora didn’t tell me the whole story.”
    â€œIt just isn’t something that I would think suitable talk for a lady,” he said with a shrug. “Though it sounds as if you and your friend Maggie know quite a bit about the goings-on of the Lords of Anarchy. Perhaps more than I do, which I don’t mind telling you is troubling.”
    â€œBecause it’s so unladylike?” she asked sweetly. Really, she was quite tired of being told not to worry her pretty little head over serious subjects. It wasn’t as if she were incapable of understanding what went on in the world.
    â€œBecause I’m the president of the damned club and I know nothing of this business,” he snapped. Then immediately apologized. “I beg your pardon. It’s just that this club has been a nuisance since the moment I decided to take leadership of it.”
    â€œThen why do you stay with it?” she asked, curious.
    â€œBecause it’s only been a few weeks,” he said with a shrug. “And I have hopes that the new members I’ve recruited will have an impact on the way the club behaves as a general rule. That will take time, however. And your friend, it would appear, doesn’t have much of it before she is subsumed into the bowels of this Hayes Clinic.”
    â€œNo, she doesn’t,” Ophelia said, reminded that there was more to this than just her own petty annoyance with Trent. “I was so useless to her,” she said once she’d set her cup down. “I might as well have been a small child for all the help I rendered her.”
    â€œYou can hardly blame yourself for being unable to thwart two large men with experience and tools at their disposal,” Trent said, brushing biscuit crumbs from his hands. “I’d have been more astonished if you’d succeeded. But that doesn’t mean that you were useless. You’ve a good eye for detail. And I have little doubt you can describe them both accurately.”
    When the maid arrived with the warm water and bandages, Trent rose to take them from her, and moved to sit beside Ophelia on the sofa.
    â€œTo distract yourself,” he said matter-of-factly, “perhaps you can tell me about them now.”
    And while her heart beat fiercely in her chest at the nearness of him coupled with the instinct to flinch every time he neared the wound on her forehead,