Free The Duke's Dilemma by Nadine Miller Page B

fainted dead away, but my coachman said the ruffian was dark haired, armed with two pepperbox pistols, and riding a horse as black as his evil heart.”
    Emily gasped. The coachman ‘s description sounded too familiar to mistake. Jared had already come by a costly signet ring through suspect means. Now this! The man must be a complete fool to court danger so close to home.
    She kept her gaze carefully averted from Mr. Rankin’s discerning eyes, lest he read her thoughts and realize the man he had already warned her about was the tobyman who had robbed the squire’s lady. Much as she disapproved of the black-hearted villain, she could not bring herself to betray him.
    The duke edged his horse around the crowd of excited guests and servants until he stood next to Mr. Rankin. “This thief grows too bold. I am leaving to collect some of my men to help hunt him down before he takes a life as well as a purse. I rely upon you to see my guests safely back to the manor house.”
    “Pettigrew and the footmen can handle that task quite admirably, your grace,” Mr. Rankin declared. “I would ride with you…with your permission, of course.”
    A glint of something Emily could not quite identify shone briefly in the duke’ s eyes as he stared down at his man-of-affairs. “As you wish, Mr. Rankin. I shall see you at the manor in a few moments then.”
    He turned to Emily and acknowledged her with a brief nod of his handsome, aristocratic head. “Your servant, ma’am,” he said stiffly, and turning his horse, galloped off with the squire close behind.
    Mr. Rankin directed a nearby groom to ready his horse, then turned to Emily with an apologetic smile. “It seems we must postpone our pleasant visit until later, ma’ am.” His eyes narrowed. “You are very pale, Miss Haliburton. Please be assured you have no reason to fear for your safety. The thief would not dare show his face with such stout men as Pettigrew and the footmen about. Neither the duke nor I would leave unless we were certain of that.”
    Emily hated the idea that Mr. Rankin should think her a missish creature, but she could scarcely tell him it was not for her own safety she feared. She cleared her throat. “What will you do with the thief if you catch him?”
    “Not if Miss Haliburton, but when , and the answer is we shall see a noose about his scurvy neck. His grace is not a man to countenance such licentious behavior close by one of his estates.”
    An icy chill traveled Emily’s spine as a picture of Jared’s lifeless body swinging from Tyburn ‘s gallows tree suddenly flashed through her mind. “Perhaps circumstances have made the fellow desperate,” she ventured.
    Mr. Rankin ‘s tight little smile did not reach his eyes. “You have too kind a heart, ma’am. There is no excuse for thievery—even in these desperate times. No man willing to put in a good day’s work is turned away from Brynhaven, or any of the duke’s other estates, with an empty belly. The brigand has made a calculated choice to live outside the law and, for that mistake, he will pay with his life.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    T he rosy glow of dawn had barely tinged the horizon when Emily crept silently from the manor house and hurried to the stables the morning after the picnic.
    She had watched by her chamber window until well after midnight when the duke and his men returned from hunting the outlaw. From their disgruntled remarks she’d concluded the hunt had been fruitless, and her relief had been so great she’d sunk to her knees and offered a prayer of thanks that the mocking silver eyes which haunted her every thought would see yet another day. Then, conscience-stricken, she had spent the balance of the sleepless night chastising herself for being so taken in by the wicked fellow she had lost all sense of right and wrong.
    But all her soul-searching was to no avail. With the first light of day, devil take her conscience, here she was, scurrying to caution him to cover his