"Have you mistreated her?"
Collin tried not to take offense. It was a legitimate question considering the circumstances. "No. Though I was angry at her deception. I would never have, that is . . . I suppose it makes little difference, but I would never have taken her maidenhead, and she knew that." He felt pinned under the duke's glare but met his eyes without flinching. "I care for your sister. I would not have seen her harmed."
"And you did not think it harmful to tryst with an unmarried young girl, regardless of her respectability?"
"I did not feel it was right, and still I did it. There is no excuse for my actions."
Those icy eyes narrowed, studied him for a moment. "Oh, there's an excuse, I'll wager. Alex has been known to be ruthless in her enthusiasms."
Collin coughed, cleared his throat, and fought the flush that heated his skin.
"When she was sixteen, she insisted she needed a stallion for riding. She said a mare or gelding would not do. I resisted her, but it was rough going for several months. Her will has not been tempered in the meantime."
"No." Collin shifted, ran a hand through his hair. "I'll ask for her hand again when she recovers. She seemed quite adamant in her refusal, but perhaps I can change her mind."
"I'm not sure I'd want you to."
"Hardly a surprise. I'm quite beneath her, as you've said."
"Yes." But he studied Collin with an assessing gleam that any horseman could recognize. "You are not given to excess though. You're straightforward, intelligent. I've never heard a word said against you."
"I am seldom in London, Your Grace."
"Don't start with the 'Your Graces' now. It's a little late for that considering you've defiled my sister."
Collin inclined his head, trying not to betray his newly hatched irritation. He could hardly protest the treatment.
"Would you have offered for her in any case? Virgin or not?"
He opened his mouth to answer honestly and found he could not. No, he meant to say, but hadn't he thought of it, briefly, during that visit to Lucy's? Thought of it and dismissed it out of hand? And again at the cottage? But even if she hadn't been a virgin, could he have spent a week in her bed and given her up with naught more than a farewell kiss?
"Your silence speaks for itself."
"No, actually. I'm not sure of my answer. If I'd meant to marry her, I wouldn't have met her as I did, but as to how I would have felt afterward? I can't say. She's a remarkable woman, a woman to be proud of."
"You think so?" His words were a genuine question, not a reproach for Alexandra.
"If she had not been your sister, if she'd been born no more than a Scottish seamstress, I would have offered for her, virgin or not."
"Hm." Those eyes swept Collin again, chilling in their appraisal. "Thank you for bringing her home. You did not abandon her to her sickness, at the very least."
Collin's irritation pitched forward into anger. "Do not insult me."
One elegant black brow rose in mock surprise. "What should I have expected from you, do you think?"
"As much as you'd expect from any Scotsman. A sense of decency."
"Well, I believe you've just insulted my countrymen, but you're an improvement over her English lover, by any measure."
"He wasn't her lover," Collin spat.
"No," the man smiled humorlessly at Collin's ire. "He was something to her, but not her lover, it seems. Again, I appreciate her safekeeping. I will notify you of her health."
Collin drew himself up, tried to release the muscles of his jaw enough to speak. "You can't think I mean to drop her at your doorstep and flee. I'll not leave
before she's well again."
"No?" The eyes flashed with something less than icy for the barest moment. "Fine. I'll allow you to stay until she's well. But you will not reside under my roof. There's an inn—"