Seduced (16 page)

“What the hell are you doing here?” Jack asked as he sliced through the ropes in one slick movement and set Griffin free.

“I told you last time,” Griffin said, rubbing the place where the ropes had bruised his tender gentleman’s skin. “I want to join you.”

Jack shook his head. “Yes, you’ve told me,” he agreed. “You told me once, twice, this is now a third time. But I have no bloody idea why. You’ve got an easy life, lad. Money, position, and power if you can learn to leverage it. You have family who cares for you.”

Griffin sniffed, his face twisting like Jack had just mentioned something distasteful.

“Don’t do that,” Jack said with a shake of his head. “Don’t dismiss that like you know what it’s like to be without it. You should appreciate that they care. Your sister—”

“Letty has no damned idea what I have to live with,” Griffin interrupted. “She wants me to stay a child forever and live the same empty life she has.”

Jack’s jaw set, and a good portion of the sympathy he’d felt for this boy reaching for manhood fled. “I would highly suggest you stop talking about what you don’t know,” he said, his tone low but unmistakably dangerous. “You have
no
idea what your sister has endured over the years, nor how bravely she has faced it. But you would do very well to emulate her if you hope to have any life worth living.”

Griffin stared at him, confusion plain on his face. “I—what would you know about it? About her?”

Jack held back a curse. Defending Letitia had exposed something he hadn’t wanted revealed. Now he shrugged to dismiss it and hoped this spoiled young man would be too focused on himself to pursue it.

“Lucky guess,” Jack said.

“Please,” Griffin said, moving toward him. “Just listen to me.”

“You have one minute,” Jack said. “Then I have other important things to do.”

“I know I look like a fop to you, but it’s not what I want to be!” Griffin insisted. “I can’t live my life like my father, sitting around idly, discussing crops or politics, trying to save a farthing here or there, mindless and aimless. I want adventure, I want excitement. I’m strong and clever and I could be of use to you, Jack.”

Jack stared at him. There was such a bright-eyed enthusiasm to Griffin. It was nothing like his own desperate pain that had driven him to this life. And perhaps a year or five years ago he would have taken the boy on.

But now it seemed impossible, and not just because of Letitia.

“I’m sure you are clever,” he began. “But right now, just a short distance from here, there is a man having his leg hacked off to save his life.”

He stopped talking and faintly, from the direction of the infirmary, came the raw sound of screams. Jack’s stomach turned at the awful sound, but he forced himself to remain silent to let the full power of the wails sink in for Griffin.

The boy’s face paled to almost paper white. “Wh-why are they cutting off his leg?” Griffin asked, his voice a low croak.

“The reason he’s suffering is because he works for me. This is a hard and dangerous life, Mr. Merrick.” Jack took his seat again and folded his hands on the desk. “And
you’re
too soft for it.”

Griffin’s face twisted with disappointment and pain at first, but then it reddened with anger. “You don’t know me,” he said.

Jack nodded. “Yes, boy, I do. I’ve known a dozen yous. Some I’ve stolen from without them noticing. Others have died in some ridiculous pledge to thwart their fathers, a pledge just like the one you’re so desperate to make. I’m finished with it. I have neither the time nor the inclination to bother with you. So go home. And don’t come back.”

Griffin’s bottom lip quivered and the boy still residing within the man was very clear in that moment. Jack almost felt badly for crushing him. But it was for his own good.

“I’m going to prove you wrong,” Griffin said, his voice catching. “You’re going to be sorry.”

Jack shrugged. “I doubt it. Hoffman is waiting for you in the hall. He’ll escort you out safely.”

“Fuck you, Jack,” Griffin snapped, and turned to all but run from the room.

Jack stared at his paperwork for a long moment after he’d been left alone. Then he got to his feet to go to the infirmary and check on his men.

“That family is going to kill me,” he muttered.

He only hoped that where Letitia was concerned, the murder wouldn’t be literal.

Letty settled back into her chair in her parents’ parlor and forced a smile for them. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to spend time with them. She enjoyed their company most of the time.

But today her thoughts were elsewhere. Specifically on Jack and the fact that she would join him at his townhouse in…she glanced at the clock…less than seven hours now.

Her body twitched with desire at that thought. A desire she now recognized and even welcomed when it woke her from her erotic dreams of Jack.

“You look very nice, my dear,” her mother said. “Your eyes look so bright and aglow.”

Letty blushed as she returned her attention to where it rightly belonged. “Thank you, Mama. I am happier than I have been in a long time.”

“That’s good,” her father said, his tone distracted as he sipped his tea.

“Are we not waiting for Griffin to join us?” Letty asked, surprised that both her parents were drinking.

Her father lifted his gaze and even before he spoke, Letty braced herself for what was to come. He was angry, that was clear, and from her mother’s tight jaw, it was clear
she
was worried.

“Your brother,” her father spat.

Letty sighed. “Oh dear. What has Griffin done now?”

“He is out of control, Letty,” Mr. Merrick burst out, slamming a hand down on the arm of his chair. “Utterly wild. Do you know he came home at dawn yesterday?
Dawn
.”

Letty shook her head in disbelief. “Where in the world had he been?”

“He was so intoxicated he could hardly stand up, let alone speak,” Mrs. Merrick groaned. “But we managed to get him to say he was out ‘proving himself’.”

“Proving himself?” Letty repeated. She very much did not like the sound of that. “What could he have meant by that?”

“Apparently his way to
prove
himself is to get in fights like a savage,” Mr. Merrick said, waving his arms around. “He’d clearly been in a brawl. His eye is still black. I’ve told him until he no longer looks like he lives on the street, he can stay in his chamber.”

Letty’s lips parted. “Oh, Papa. I understand you’re upset, but do you truly think that isolating him from the family is the best option?”

“Does he
deserve
to join us for tea?” Mr. Merrick asked. “To look at us sullenly and remind us what a disappointment he has become?”

“Letty, he is behaving very badly,” Mrs. Merrick interjected. “My friends have whispered about it. I don’t want him embarrassing us further in front of family or friends. Your father is right—let him think about the consequences to his actions.”

Letty nodded. “Yes, I realize he has not behaved prudently.” She hesitated as she thought of her brother’s appearance at Jack’s not so long ago. Had he gone back? She would have to ask Jack later. “But he is a young man. He sees the life laid out in front of him and he is frustrated by it. Surely you were like that once, Papa? You couldn’t have always thought the role of a gentleman was exciting.”

“I didn’t demand that it be exciting. It was my duty to fulfill and I never questioned it.” Her father folded his arms.

“All right,” Letty said, frustrated her father refused to find common ground with his son. “But Griffin seems to want more. Perhaps if you allowed him some leeway, a bit of freedom in the form of an occupation, it would fill his time more wisely and help him mature.”

“An
occupation
?” her father repeated, saying the word like it was a curse. “The Merrick family does not hold
occupations
, Letty. We are landed, though not titled, and we are greatly respected in the
ton
. We have worked hard not to have to join the riffraff in earning a living.”

Letty bent her head. This was an old argument and one she knew she wouldn’t win. What her father didn’t realize, though, was how bent Griffin was on doing as he pleased. She feared their mutual stubborn streak would destroy their relationship in the end. She feared it would send her brother far away where she might never see him again.

“Just think about it, will you Papa?” she asked, reaching out to touch his hand. “Griffin is headstrong, like his father. It isn’t the worst trait when harnessed properly.”

He smiled at her, his face suddenly more gentle, and her heart swelled with love for him.

“I only hope his behavior doesn’t affect
your
prospects,” Mrs. Merrick said with a sigh.

Letty turned her attention to her mother. “My prospects? What do you mean?”

“Well, you have been back out in Society half a year,” Mrs. Merrick explained with a frown. “Certainly I would like to see you make a bit of headway with the gentlemen.”

Letty tensed, worries about her brother’s future now replaced with concerns for her own. “Mama, I am a widow, not a debutante. I have enough funds to take care of myself comfortably. Why must you push me into the path of
the gentlemen
?”

“You are too young not to marry again, Letitia,” Mrs. Merrick snapped. “It is foolish, all this hemming and hawing about remaining a widow. You want children, don’t you?”

With a sigh, Letty nodded. She did want to be a mother. And when she had first returned to Society, she had known that would likely never happen for her. Noah’s secret, carried on her untouched body, would prevent it.

And yet now she was free. Her innocence taken, no man would ever know she had once been a virgin widow. No man but Jack. That should have thrilled her. She
should
have been putting her head together with her mother to determine if there were any men in their sphere who
would
be right for her.

But she had no desire to do that. She didn’t want to find some Society fop who would settle for her, likely as much for her inheritance as for herself.

She wanted Jack. Only Jack.

“I just need time,” she murmured, more to herself than to her parents.

“Time is running out,” her father said with a harrumph. “I adore you, my dear, but you are not getting any younger. Add to that my fear that your brother will do something rash which could link our name with scandal. Not to mention your Woodley cousins all seem to step in it wherever they go! It all leads me to feel, as your mother does, that it would be sensible for you to seek out a new mate as soon as you can.”

“Don’t you think I should choose a husband based on mutual attraction, on feelings? A man who would care for me
regardless
of any scandal that may or may not come our way?”

Mr. and Mrs. Merrick exchanged a look of pure confusion before Mrs. Merrick said, “That kind of man must only exist in those books you read, Letty. Most men of substance and character want a woman without a smidgeon of shame associated with her. As for feelings and attraction, well, you have been unduly influenced by your wild cousins, I fear. Love matches are not all they are cracked up to be. Look at your father and I. We’ve been wed near thirty years, and never once have we been so silly as to muddy the waters with love.”

“Never once,” her father agreed with a nod.

Letty sighed. They made that claim like it was something to be proud of, but like her brother, she could not desire what they had planned for her. Another loveless marriage? That sounded entirely painful, not to mention boring.

“I will think about it,” she promised.

“Good, do,” her mother said.

Her parents seemed placated by her acquiescence and began to talk to her about other things like London gossip, their home in the country, even something about horses, but Letty was able to shut out the topics. All she could do was think about Jack.

Her mother and father were right, she supposed, that she ought to begin looking for a match quickly. And she would. She would.

But right now she intended to enjoy her wicked affair as long as she could. Right now, all she wanted was Jack Blackwood’s touch.