He looked up to see James standing at the end of the hall. “Do you lurk in dark corners, just waiting to bedevil me?” he growled.
James laughed. “I have far more important people to bedevil than you, Ravenscroft. I was just on my way down to breakfast.”
“I've been thinking about her.”
“I'm not surprised.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
James shrugged, his expression beyond innocent.
Blake's hand descended heavily on his friend's shoulder. “Tell me,” he ordered.
“Merely,” James replied, removing Blake's hand and letting it drop, “that you look at her a certain way.”
“Don't be stupid.”
“I've many bad qualities, but stupidity has never been among them.”
“You're insane.”
James ignored his comment. “She seems like a nice girl. Perhaps you should get to know her better.”
Blake turned on him in fury. “She isn't the sort one gets to know better,” he roared, sneering the last word. “Miss Trent is a lady.”
“I never said she wasn't. My my, what did you think I was implying?”
“Riverdale,” Blake warned.
James just waved his hand in the air. “I was merely thinking that it has been quite some time since you've courted a female, and as she's conveniently right here at Seacrest Manor—”
“I have no romantic interest in Caroline,” Blake bit out. “And even if I did, you know that I will never marry.”
“Never is a very strong word. Even I don't go around saying I will never marry, and Lord knows I have more reason to avoid the institution than you do.”
“Don't start, Riverdale,” Blake warned.
James stared him hard in the eye. “Marabelle is dead.”
“Do you think I don't know that? Do you think I don't remember that every single bloody day of my life?”
“Maybe it's time you stopped remembering that every single bloody day. It's been five years, Blake. Almost six. Stop doing penance for a crime you didn't commit.”
“The hell I didn't! I should have stopped her. I knew it was dangerous. I knew she shouldn't—”
“Marabelle had a mind of her own,” James said with surprising gentleness. “You couldn't have stopped her. She made her own decisions. She always did.”
“I swore to protect her,” Blake said in a low voice.
“When?” James asked flippantly. “I don't recall attending a wedding between the two of you.”
In half a second Blake had him pinned up against the wall. “Marabelle was my affianced bride,” he ground out. “I swore to myself that I would protect her, and in my view, that oath is more binding than anything sworn before God and England.”
“Marabelle isn't here. Caroline is.”
Blake abruptly let him go. “God help us.”
“We have to keep her at Seacrest Manor until she's free of Prewitt's guardianship,” James said, rubbing his shoulder where Blake had grabbed him. “It's the very least we can do after you abducted her and tied her to the bedpost. Tied her to the bedpost, eh? I should have liked to have seen that.”