The Sweetest Revenge (17 page)

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Authors: Dawn Halliday

Tags: #Historical Erotic Romance

BOOK: The Sweetest Revenge
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“So what did you say to him?” Susan asked.

“I…I asked him why he hurt us.”

Susan nodded but gazed at her expectantly from her chair across the room, a matching piece also upholstered in red silk. “And what was his answer?”

“He said he didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”

“Hm,” Susan mused. “Did he know it was you?”

“Aye, though I did not encourage that knowledge. However, it seems pointless to deny my presence here.”

“What else did he say?”

Isabelle traced a finger over the vine pattern on the chair’s arm. “He attempted to persuade me to come closer, to release his blindfold. He said he wished to see me. I did not move, of course. I only…” Her voice trailed off. She must be honest with Susan. She could not lie to her friend, not if she wished to retain her trust.

“What did you do?”

“I kissed him.” Isabelle’s face burned. “I could not help it. I kissed him, and then I ran away.”

Susan stared at a point on the wall beyond Isabelle, her elbow on the arm of the chaise, her chin resting in the palm of her hand.

“I know I am a fool,” Isabelle whispered.

Susan stayed silent for a long moment while Isabelle agonized, trying and failing to read the expression in her friend’s calm eyes. Then Susan’s gaze shifted to Isabelle’s face. “Do you still love him, Isabelle? After all these years?”

“Nay.” Isabelle shrugged helplessly. “I mean…oh, you must understand it. He is all I knew. It is so difficult, having him here. The memories… For so long, I had nothing to cling to besides my few moments of happiness with him. I know I shouldn’t love him. I can’t love him! He ruined my life, gave me a taste of happiness, then left me in disgrace.” She shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. “Nay. I don’t love him. It is an animal attraction. That’s all.”

If only her heart would agree.

Susan rose and came to Isabelle and knelt before her. “I understand, dearest. I understand.”

She held out her hands. Isabelle reached out, and for a long moment, they simply held on to each other. Then Susan said, “Isabelle, dear, you must find a lover.”

Isabelle groaned.

Susan squeezed her hands tighter. “No. Listen to me. You should not marry. True passion is rare to find in marriage—and I believe such a life would suffocate you. No, you must find a lover, one who will satisfy you in bed and keep you comfortable in life.”

Isabelle shook her head helplessly. “Susan, I am cut from a different cloth than you and Anna. I couldn’t do such a thing.”

“Why not?”

Because I don’t want anyone but Leo
.

“It’s…wrong.”

“Isabelle, is a life of misery a life worth living? My dear, you cannot suffer forever over something that happened over a span of a summer seven years ago! You are a woman, intelligent and lovely and passionate. I would hate to see you waste away.”

“But a lover? I wouldn’t have the first idea how…”

“It would be easy enough.” Susan’s eyes glinted. “You are already halfway there.”

Not Mr. Sutherland!
She shuddered.

“I saw the curiosity in your eyes when his gift arrived. I saw you walk out of the theater with him last night. What happened?”

“I told him I could not accept gifts from him, but I would accept him as a friend. Nothing more.”

“Yet it is a step toward something more.”

Isabelle stared at Susan, eyes wide. “I didn’t mean it to be a step of any kind.”

Susan gave her a probing look. “Didn’t you?”

“Nay, of course not.”

“Mr. Sutherland is quite handsome.”

“He is…but… What do you know about him, Susan? I don’t know the first thing about him.”

“I do not know much about him either. He is quite rich—I believe his family invested quite successfully in the East India Company. He runs in the same circles as Leo, he is a Tory, and, like Leo, he is a member of White’s Gentlemen’s Club. Beyond that, I do not know.”

“You said before that he is a rake.”

Susan released a breath through pursed lips. “Aren’t they all?”

Isabelle shook her head, trying to clear it of rampaging thoughts. How could she begin to pursue someone like Mr. Sutherland? Did she even want to? He was a handsome man, yes, but she didn’t feel in any way the same with him as she did when she was with Leo. There was no lust. No animal attraction.

And yet…she had to admit she liked him, his appearance, his kindness. She liked the way he looked at her.

The door swung open, and Anna burst in. She shut it behind her, leant against it, and grinned widely. “He is cured.”

Susan rose composedly, clasping her hands before her. “Good morning to you, Anna. I heard you came in early.”

“I did indeed, Susie. And it is a good morning, thank you. I came from Thomas’s house, washed and changed, and went directly to Leo.”

“So I’d guessed,” Susan said.

“And as I said, he is cured.”

“Well, Leo can wait, I should think.” Susan went to the chaise and patted the seat beside her. “First you must tell us what happened last night.”

Anna fairly danced across the room. “Oh, Susie. Do you really want me to tell you? I do believe it was too romantic for your ears. You will cringe.”

Isabelle couldn’t suppress her smile. “Nothing is too romantic for
me
, Anna. I promise not to cringe.”

Anna clasped her hands together. “Oh good. Then I shall tell all. Susie, you must cover your ears if it becomes too unbearable.”

Susan leaned back on the chaise and swept a motherly look over Anna. “I will try to endure it, whatever it is, despite the physical pain it is bound to cause my person.”

“Well, Thomas asked me in the most gentlemanly fashion if I would care to go for a ride. The performance being such an abomination, I readily agreed.”

“And I thank you for warning us of your departure,” Susan said.

“I do apologize for that, Susie. I did not expect that we would be out all night, you know.”

“I don’t doubt it.” Susan shook her head. Sighed. “It is so easy to get carried away in matters of the heart.”

“Yes…well, we went in his carriage. And the night was so cool, we sat very close—”

“Despite the warmth provided by the mantle he gave you?”

“It was very cool indeed. I would have suffered greatly had it not been for his gift, I think. In any case, we sat quite close due to the chill.”

Isabelle leaned forward, forcing herself to paste a neutral expression on her face. So this was what womanly gossip was like! She felt like she was living vicariously through Anna, and it gave her a strange sense of joy to hang on her friend’s every word.

She gave an encouraging nod. “Go on.”

“We were sitting so close, and it had been so long since I felt a man’s thigh pressing against my own in such a fashion…”

Isabelle’s breath caught. The other two women glanced at her. Yes, a year was a long time for Anna not to have touched a man. Isabelle hadn’t touched a man for seven times as long. No wonder she was behaving so impulsively, so strangely. By the expressions on the other women’s faces, she knew they understood.

“I’m sorry, Iz. It’s been much longer for you, I know.”

Isabelle felt a warm flush inside at the new nickname.

“But you see,” Anna continued, “a year for me is an awfully long time. I could not contain myself. I thanked him for the beautiful gift. Then I kissed him.”

Isabelle let out her breath in a long sigh.

Susan cocked an eyebrow at Anna. “Quite forward of you.”

“Of course.” Anna shrugged. “It was once my duty to be forward, remember? And I am forward by nature. Anyhow, we drove directly to his town house after that, and it went by rather quickly, because our lips were locked together the entire way.” She laughed. “By the time we arrived at his home, he had my gown stripped down to my waist. It was rather a challenge climbing the steps without exposing my naked form to the servants!”

Picturing Lord Archer and Anna in a carriage, kissing, struggling to disrobe, Isabelle fanned herself with her hand. “Oh goodness, Anna.”

Anna smiled dreamily. “The first time was rather rushed, I must admit. It was the release after the year of pent-up erotic desire, I daresay. But then, he took me to his bed—”

“You did not even reach the bed the first time?” Susan asked.

“Er…not exactly, Susie. It was on the wall, I believe, just outside his bedchamber.”

Isabelle gulped.

“But the second time, on the bed. Oh, Susie. It lasted all night. Nobody has ever taken such care with me; nobody has ever taken the time to give me such pleasure, not since…”

Isabelle held her breath, half expecting Anna to say “Leo,” but she did not finish the sentence at all.

“…and then we held one another and talked until dawn when we fell asleep. It was the most beautiful night of my life.”

Isabelle gazed at Anna, at her flushed cheeks, her happy smile. Was this what having a lover was like?

Could she do it? Could she cut her heart loose from Leo’s death grip and take a lover? Could she sacrifice her reputation as a decent woman?

She almost laughed aloud. In the years since Leo had taken her innocence, as much as she tried to attain the reputation of a decent woman, she never had. She never would.

Anna rose, stepped to the window, parted the heavy curtains, and gazed outside. “He would not harm me. He only wants the best for me. He loves me.”

Susan cast Isabelle an alarmed glance. How quickly Anna had forgotten her own advice to be cold, calculating, and careful. Isabelle feared for her. She nodded at Susan in encouragement.

“I imagine you will not wait long before you see him again.”

“I certainly will not wait long. We have plans to meet again this evening. His carriage will be by at eight.”

Susan sighed and spoke softly, “Please…don’t do anything foolish. I am so glad you’re happy. I just don’t want to see you hurt, dearest.”

Anna crossed the room, bent down, and kissed Susan on the cheek. “Of course I won’t do anything foolish, Susie. Thank you. What would I do without you to look after me?”

Those words hung in the air for several moments. What would Anna have done, indeed?

She stroked a whorl in the carved arm of Susan’s chair. “But I haven’t told you what I came to tell you. Susie, Isabelle, I believe Leo is reformed of his dissolute ways. We should let him go.”

Susan tilted her head up to Anna, her eyebrows drawn together skeptically. “What on earth could have possibly given you that idea?”

“He apologized. He said all the times he debauched a virgin, it was an accident, a mistake, and that he wouldn’t intentionally do it again.”

“And you believe him?”

Anna gave a solemn nod. “I do. He said he was sorry for it.”

“Do you not think you are being too easy on him, Anna?” Susan said. “Perhaps your current state of carnal bliss has made you more forgiving than you would otherwise be?”

Anna seemed to consider this seriously; then she said, “You know I seduced him in Peterborough. I flirted shamelessly, then invited him to my bedchamber.”

Susan shrugged. “Of course you did. It does not signify. I am exhausted by women feeling they must shoulder the blame for men’s indiscretions.”

“But I believe I gave him the wrong impression. I have been thinking about it. I wanted him to take me, then take me away from that place.”

“There is nothing wrong with that,” Susan said.

“I was full of romantic notions. I thought I could make him love me. I pretended to be an experienced woman, and I exploited what little I knew of men. He couldn’t have known I was an innocent until it was too late.”

“And then, instead of doing the right thing, the honorable thing, he fled in the middle of the night,” Susan said bitterly.

“Yes.” Anna gave a sad sigh. “That is true. He panicked, I believe. But this morning…well, I tried it again.”

“Tried what?”

“I tried to seduce him like I did that night. Only I’m rather better at it now.”

Prickling jealousy stabbed Isabelle directly in the heart, and for a second, just a second, she hated Anna for touching something she considered hers. Then it went away, and she cursed herself for a fool.

“And?” Susan asked.

“He would not be seduced. Well, that’s not quite accurate. His cock was eager enough, but his mind was not so ready to comply.” She turned to Isabelle, set her hands on her hips, and assessed her with shrewd moss-green eyes. “He would not stop asking for his ‘Belle.’”

CHAPTER TEN

 

Lady M came to Leo in the early afternoon. He was warmer now, because Hercules had taken pity on him and given him one of his own clean, dry shirts. It was too large by half but much better than being chilled to the bone by his own soaked shirt.

He was losing his mind. Lady M, whoever the hell she was, and Anna Newton had destroyed his gentlemanly veneer, which unfortunately had proven much thinner than he would ever have guessed. Too bad. He was finished with politeness. Lady M was the leader, and by the devil, she was going to hand over Belle; then she was going to let him leave this place.

He knew better than to reveal his knowledge of Mistress Jane’s identity. He had made that mistake with Belle, and look where it had led. Nowhere. No, he’d hang on to that juicy tidbit, keep it a secret until it would behoove him to expose it.

Now was not that time.

A gentleman would stand and bow when a lady entered. He did neither. He sat up, fisting his hands behind his back. The fringes on the chaise’s cushions pressed against the backs of his calves.

“Good afternoon, Leo.”

“Release these damned shackles, Lady M.”

“Do not speak to me disrespectfully, Leo. If you do, I shall leave.” Her voice was tight.

He spoke through clenched teeth, since he couldn’t get his rigid jaw to open to get the words out properly. “Do you see what you’ve done to me, goddamn it? You’ve turned my blasted, wretched world upside down in the space of a few days. That’s what you intended, is it not? You’ve shown me what a louse, no, what an
ass
, I am, haven’t you? Now let me take my miserable hide home, and I will not bother you again. Nor any of the likes of you. Just allow me to speak with Belle before I leave. There are… I must tell her a few things, talk to her first.”

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