Mary Brendan – Tempted By The Roguish Lord (страница 11)
Robin appeared not to have heard that emotional plea. He leapt up, enlightenment straining his features. ‘Houndsmere is closing in on us. He was out searching for her last night when he happened upon you. Did he state his business there?’
‘Lance Harley isn’t the sort of man to explain himself,’ Emma replied tartly. ‘He was not searching for you, I’m sure of it,’ she reassured. ‘He had been drinking although he wasn’t drunk. He seemed to be on his way home after a night of revelry.’
Robin looked a mite relieved as he prowled about on the turf. ‘Augusta said she believed the same. He has a
Emma couldn’t understand why hearing her brother confirm something the Earl himself had half-admitted should niggle at her. Lance Harley was nothing to her and neither was the woman who left a hint of rose perfume clinging to his clothes. She put him from her mind, noticing that a couple were strolling their way. ‘You should go now, Robin, before we arouse suspicion.’
Robin hastily turned his back to the onlookers.
‘Will you give me a message to pass to Papa?’ Emma got to her feet, brushing down her skirts. ‘I know he will ask me if I’ve seen you. He is so happy to know you are back. Please don’t do anything to hurt him again.’
‘I imagine our father knows I need some money if you have told him how I am living.’
‘He has bankrupted himself once for you, Robin. He mustn’t get deeper into debt or he will end up in the Fleet again.’
Robin looked disappointed. ‘What about you? Why haven’t you married? A brother-in-law might have been of help to me.’
‘A dowry might have been of help to me,’ Emma returned shortly. ‘Gentlemen who fancy a wife who is poor, ruined and past her prime are few and far between.’
Robin had the grace to blush. ‘Well, don’t blame me for everything. It’s not my fault your portion has been spent. You started all the trouble in any case.’
‘I pleaded with you not to call Simon out!’ Emma felt hurt by her brother’s attitude, but knew it wasn’t the time or place for bickering and apportioning blame. What was done was done and, if not forgotten, was best left alone. ‘I have to go now. Papa will be wondering where I am.’ After a few steps she turned back to him. ‘You said you came after me last night because you had something important to tell me. What was it? To say you had a woman in your life?’
He strode closer. ‘Partly it was about Augusta. Also I had changed my mind about you not telling our father. I cannot stay in that hovel. Augusta is increasing. She is constantly crying and saying we must move somewhere nice.’ He paused to make a hopeless gesture. ‘I do love her, you know, and don’t want to see her suffer. We should marry or the child will be born a bastard. Our father will want to assist me in finding a decent home, for his first grandchild’s sake.’
Dismayed by that news, Emma swallowed her questions and quickly took her leave of her brother as the strolling couple looked their way. ‘I will do what I can and get word to you at your lodgings,’ she rattled off.
‘Worse and worse...’ she groaned to herself as she hurried on towards home. But something else had occurred to her. Augusta hadn’t shown herself last night, but must have been close by to send Robin after her. Now Emma knew who her brother’s woman was she felt a rather vulgar desire to meet Augusta and get to know a bit about Lance Harley’s family, just as he seemed keen to know all about hers.
‘Get dressed and meet me downstairs. I’ll wait no more than ten minutes before I head back to London.’
The Earl of Houndsmere had spoken dispassionately while surveying rumpled bedding and entangled limbs. The chamber occupied space in a tavern that was situated far too close to his Hertfordshire estates for his comfort. The blonde had received the brunt of his flint-eyed contempt. She extricated herself from the covers and her lover and levered herself up on an elbow.
‘Who do you think you are, ordering me about? I’m your father’s widow and you can show me respect, Houndsmere.’
‘It’ll be a cold day in hell before I do,’ Lance drawled.
He was lounging against a door through which he had moments before inconspicuously entered the room. The woman gulped an indignant breath, but of shame at having been so discovered she displayed not a jot.
‘Once again I have been greatly inconvenienced by you and your daughter. If you wish my help in finding the tiresome chit, make haste and meet me downstairs. I’ll listen to whatever tale you have to tell, but know this: I have far more important things to attend to than searching out hostelries where you might be found fornicating.’ His eyes wandered on, prompting her beau to swing his legs over the side of the bed. Swiftly, the youth snatched at his breeches discarded on the floor and jumped into them. ‘Who’s this? The latest recruit to my stables?’
The young man turned florid.
‘Introduce yourself?’ the Earl suggested, thinking he had seen him somewhere before.
‘Peter Rathbone,’ came the barked reply.
‘God almighty...’ Lance said in genuine surprise. Now he recognised his neighbour’s son. The last time he’d clapped eyes on him the boy had been attending Eton and his voice hadn’t properly broken.
‘How old is he? Eighteen?’
‘I’m twenty,’ the fellow interjected, his blush deepening.
‘Be that as it may, I’d be obliged if you’d take yourself off now and, if you wish to stay healthy, keep your distance from her in future.’
‘He may visit me whenever he wishes, wherever he wishes,’ Sonia spat furiously. ‘The Dower House is mine and you have no say in it.’
‘I believe I do and you should take the time to read the documents you were given after your husband died. I can raze it to the ground if I wish and eject you back into the gutter whence you came. I tell this milksop to stay away from you for his own good unless he welcomes a dose of pox before he turns twenty-one.’
Peter Rathbone hastily grabbed at his coat and within a few moments the man’s escape was audible as he clattered down the stairs. Her young lover’s desertion caused the woman’s scarlet mouth to form a tight knot. In frustration, she swiped an empty brandy bottle from the side table and hurled it. Lance easily evaded the missile and stepped away from the glass shards.
She jumped naked from the bed and flew at him, fingers curled into talons that were aimed at his face. ‘How dare you tell him I’ve got the pox!’
Lance easily held her off and, spinning her about, shoved her back towards the mattress where she sprawled on her belly. ‘Well, if you haven’t caught it yet, I imagine it’s only a matter of time. He’s only a year older than your daughter. For common decency, leave the lad alone.’
Sonia peeped over her shoulder at him, wiggling firm buttocks and purring, ‘You may pull that insolent face, but you wanted me once...oh, how you wanted me...so many ways, Lance...’ Her gyrating became more provocative.
‘That was a long time ago, when I was as pitiable as that fool who’s just left.’
‘I’m only a few years older than you, so don’t make out I’m an ageing hag. We were a good match, Lance. I gave you everything you wanted and made you happy.’ She whipped over on to her back and, resting back on her elbows, openly displayed what she’d given him to his lazy gaze.
‘You never made me happy. That wasn’t it at all,’ he said with arrant self-disgust.
She crooked a finger, beckoning him as her knees dropped further apart. ‘I made you horny then. I bet I still can...’
‘Well, put your money down and I’ll take it. I couldn’t raise a smile for you, sweet. Now get dressed and meet me downstairs or you can search for Augusta yourself. And next time you want a tryst with a cicisbeo, travel out of Hertfordshire to bed him and pick on someone who isn’t one of my neighbours. I’m done with listening to gossip about you at the village inns.’
She bounced on to her knees, glaring at him. ‘And I’m sick of listening to talk about which scheming little strumpet has caught your eye.’
Lance turned on his heel and went out. He’d allow she had a point there. The opera singer had started a rumour that she’d hooked him. Just a week ago he’d have allowed her to be right. But for some reason his lust for Maria had cooled. And neither had he felt any inclination to visit Jenny again. As for the woman he’d just left...the thought of bedding her made him feel sick and not just because she’d been his father’s wife. But he wasn’t without fault. He’d once allowed himself to be taken in by her flattery and lies, and that had set in motion consequences of which he would always feel guilty and ashamed.
Below in the back parlour he was served cognac by an obsequious landlord who diplomatically avoided looking directly at his lordship. The man could feel the rage emanating from his grand patron although the Earl’s demeanour was cold as ice. The woman upstairs was a regular and it wasn’t always the same fellow. Although she had been in with young Rathbone several times and they always took the same chamber and a bottle of port and one of brandy upstairs with them. The mystery was why the Countess didn’t entertain her lovers more discreetly on home ground. He concluded the cat had some twisted sense of decorum and was loath to foul her own doorstep.