Title Sinful Tales of Desirable Ladies

by Lucinda Nelson

  Speechless, Maggie watched her walk towards the library door. Before she left, Rachel stopped in the doorway and looked back at Maggie. “He likes you,” she said, causing Maggie’s heart to skip a beat. “It may not seem like it sometimes, but he does.”

  “How do you know?” Maggie heard herself say, her guise of disinterest failing her momentarily.

  Rachel grinned. “He’s my brother, Miss Riley. I know him.” With those final words, Rachel left.

  ***

  Lord Henry Rivers, the Earl of Radingley

  Henry had given Maggie time, but it had now been a week since their kiss by the lake and he’d still failed to get her alone for more than a moment. He decided that it was time to put his foot down.

  He went to the library, where Maggie usually held her lessons with Alicia. The moment she saw him emerge in the doorway, Maggie stood. He knew that she was going to excuse herself before she started speaking, because she did this everyday that he sought her out.

  “I’ll leave you and your daughter alone, my Lord,” she said. It was the usual line. But before Maggie could pass him in the doorway, Henry put his hand out to stop her.

  “Actually,” Henry said, quirking his brow as he regarded her face. “I’d like to speak to you. Alone in my study.”

  “Will you come back later, papa?” Alicia asked. “To play?”

  “Of course, sweetheart,” Henry answered, without taking his eyes off Maggie’s face. “I just need to speak to your governess first.”

  He saw Maggie’s throat bob as she swallowed. She wouldn’t look into his eyes directly, but appeared to be staring at the center of his chest.

  “Well?” Henry said, as he walked out of the library. “Are you coming?”

  He could see the reluctance in her. The effort expended in trying to find an excuse. But before she could muster one, he paused in the hallway and gestured for her to walk ahead of him. “I won’t take no for an answer,” he said, in a voice that was becoming increasingly resolute.

  Maggie only hesitated a moment more, before walking ahead of him into the study. Henry shut the door behind him as he entered and crossed the room to perch on the edge of his desk. “Sit,” he said.

  Maggie took the seat in front of him and looked up at his face. “Can I help you, my Lord?”

  “You’ve been avoiding me.”

  When he said this, Maggie made a clear attempt to seem incredulous, but it failed miserably. He could read her like an open book. “I’ve been busy,” she blurted, which made Henry’s eyes roll. “Just very busy. As have you. Why? Did you want to see me? I had no idea. You need only have said.”

  She was speaking quickly and didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping. While she rambled, he pushed away from the desk and put his fingertips over her lips. “Stop,” he murmured, his voice deep and rich. “I know there’s more to it than that.”

  Her lips parted beneath his fingers, but it was clear that she didn’t know what to say. “Tell me why you’ve been avoiding me,” he said, his fingers reluctantly falling away from her lips. They were so soft, and they reminded him of what it felt like to kiss her.

  “I told you,” Maggie answered. “I’ve been busy.” She stiffened her jaw and leveled him with a stubborn gaze. For a long moment, they just stared at each other. It felt like a challenge. Like a fight. And it made him feel a lurch of excitement in his stomach. This was what he loved about being around Maggie. The tension. He never felt so alive with anyone else.

  “You’re stubborn,” he noted. “Perhaps your pride is stung.”

  She balked at this. “Why on earth would my pride be stung?”

  “You revealed something of yourself by the lake that day. You’re embarrassed.”

  “Embarrassed?” Even as she said this, her cheeks flamed red.

  “You don’t want to be seen as some simpering, smitten woman. Is that it?”

  Her jaw went slack with incredulity. “Is that how you see me?”

  “Not in the least,” he replied. “I rather enjoyed it actually. That’s what I wanted to tell you. That you don’t have to be ashamed. The feeling was not unrequited.”

  “I’m not ashamed,” Maggie said slowly and in a cutting voice. “I overstepped. It won’t happen again.”

  “I remember what happened in the kitchens, Miss Riley.”

  The blush in her cheeks vanished, and she suddenly whitened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I kissed you.”

  She was motionless and silent.

  “I did more than kiss you,” he added, beginning to smile slightly, which just seemed to irritate her. She stood abruptly, as if she meant to leave.

  “And you shouldn’t have,” she said, quickly. “Nor should I have kissed you. So I recommend we put it behind us and refrain from mentioning it again.”

  Maggie turned for the door, as if their conversation was over. When she put her hand on the door knob, Henry crossed the room quickly and put his palm against the wood, keeping the door closed. He was looming over her, their faces so close that he could feel her shallow breaths on his chin. “I don’t want to put it behind us. I want it to happen again.”

  “No,” she replied, in a hard voice, though her breaths sounded a little shaky. “It was a mistake.”

  She tried to open the door again, but he put more of his weight behind his hand, causing it to swing closed again. “Why was it a mistake? It felt good, didn’t it? You wouldn’t have done it if you hadn’t liked it the first time.”

  The color was back in her cheeks, but he wasn’t sure if it was mortification or anger. “I’m not interested in you like that, my Lord. And you’re not interested in me like that.”

  “I beg to differ,” he scoffed.

  “Let me pass, please.”

  “I want to talk about this, Miss Riley.”

  “Let me pass.” She enunciated every word, fixing him with a fiery gaze.

  Henry’s smile slipped away, and he frowned. He took his hand from the door and stepped back. Without missing a beat, Maggie threw the door open and stormed out of the room.

  To say that he was confused would be an understatement. Maggie had been the one to kiss him by the lake, which must have meant that she’d enjoyed their first kiss. Enough that she’d wanted it to happen again.

  But now she was behaving like he’d done something to anger her, or to put her off him, but he couldn’t fathom what that might be. After all, they hadn’t even spent any time together yet.

  But he knew that he wanted to spend time with her.

  Chapter 21

  Lord Henry Rivers, the Earl of Radingley

  Henry was coming back from a ride two days later. He’d wanted to clear his head, which had felt extremely cluttered since his conversation with Maggie in the study. She’d been avoiding him still, which had been made easier by the fact that Henry hadn’t been pursuing her as determinedly.

  In truth, Henry was confused by their conversation. It hadn’t revealed any concrete answers to his questions. Like why had she suddenly lost interest? What exactly did she feel for him?

  Initially, he tried to heed her words and let the matter drop. She’d made her position very clear, after all. But it was difficult to accept, particularly as she’d become such a stubborn occupant of his mind.

  He thought about her constantly and tried to revive the memory of their kisses every time he was alone. But wanting her from afar wouldn’t satisfy him, as he was quickly realizing. Time wasn’t making him feel any better, but Henry couldn’t see a way of breaching the distance between them. He knew that the only way of getting past her barriers was to talk to her, but she seemed adamant about keeping him at arm’s length.

  “Hello, Henry,” came a familiar voice as Henry stepped into the drawing room. It was Jeremy.

  Henry didn’t greet him with enthusiasm. Instead, he stared at him blankly for a moment and then said, “What are you doing here?”

  “I’ve come to see you,” Jerem
y remarked, with his usual charming smile. Henry didn’t believe it.

  “Not to see Miss Riley?” Henry replied, with an arched brow.

  “Well,” Jeremy said. “I suppose I’ll see her if she isn’t busy.”

  “You’re a poor actor, Jeremy.”

  Jeremy didn’t sense the hostility in Henry’s voice. Or, if he did, decided to ignore it. In answer, he laughed and said, “Am I so transparent?”

  “You’ve been visiting her regularly.”

  “It has been a while actually, but she wrote to me asking me to visit.”

  Henry felt his blood start to boil. “Do you not think you should acquire my permission?” He said, in a cutting voice. “Before taking my governess away from her duties.”

  Jeremy blinked at him, clearly surprised.

  “She shouldn’t be writing to you. Not without my permission. This is unacceptable.”

  “Come now, Henry. She’s entitled to a life,” Jeremy said, in an effort to placate him.

  “And what is your intention with her? Do you mean to ruin her?”

  Jeremy looked offended. “How can you ask me such a thing? Do you think I’d pursue her so persistently if that was all I meant to gain? I’m looking for a wife, Henry. I have been for some time.”

  Henry’s head started to ache. There was too much tension in him. He felt ready to explode. “So you choose her? A mere governess?”

  “I don’t give a damn about her rank or her position. She intrigues me.”

  “Intrigue is not the foundation of a marriage.”

  “The rest will come later.”

  “So that’s why you’ve come?” Henry snarled. “To ask for her hand? And you think she’ll say yes?”

  “I can’t imagine why she wouldn’t,” Jeremy rebuffed. “She’s a smart woman. I can offer her security, wealth, companionship.”

  “She wants more than that,” Henry blurted, as he thought of what she’d said to him during their walk in the gardens. It felt imperative to him that he put a stop to this before it went any further. He felt… desperate.

  Jeremy frowned. “How do you know what she wants?”

  Instead of answering, Henry said, “I don’t want you seeing her anymore.”

  If Henry’s initial remark had surprised Jeremy, this one astounded him. “Excuse me?”

  “She’s my governess.”

  “She’s-” Jeremy stopped speaking quite suddenly, and his expression morphed from confusion to realization. “Oh, I see.”

  “What?” Henry snapped, irritably.

  “You’re fond of her.”

  “Don’t be absurd,” Henry scoffed.

  “You should have said something earlier, Henry. You know I wouldn’t have minded stepping aside, provided your interest is serious.”

  “I told you it’s nothing of the sort. I just don’t want her focus compromised.”

  It was clear that Jeremy didn’t believe him. “She’s not the sort of woman you’d usually go for,” Jeremy said. “But I suppose I see it now. I admire her fire too. It’s well-suited to your character.”

  “Jeremy.”

  “I just want you to be happy, Henry.”

  “Out,” Henry barked in answer. He pointed towards the door, trying to disguise his shaky hands. He hadn’t felt rage like this in such a long time, perhaps because it wasn’t really rage at all. It was jealousy. He realized that now. He was jealous, and he had been all along. All his efforts to keep Maggie and Jeremy apart had been born of his desire to keep her for himself.

  Jeremy put his hands up and slipped out of the room without another word, leaving Henry to seethe.

  Maggie had invited him here.

  She’d kissed Henry, then invited Jeremy over, with every intention of taking his hand in marriage. He couldn’t let this stand.

  “Alfred,” he called, as he stormed out of the drawing room. “Where is Miss Riley?”

  Alfred approached Henry anxiously, stumbling over his words in the face of Henry’s obvious anger. “She’s in the kitchens, my Lord, getting her breakfast.”

  “Have her brought to me immediately.”

  Alfred hurried away, and Henry returned to the drawing room where he paced like an agitated lion. When Alfred returned, Maggie was by his side. “Leave us,” Henry said to Alfred, who disappeared with an anxious look in Maggie’s direction.

  But Maggie didn’t look anxious. Or if she was, she was doing a fantastic job of hiding it. She folded her hands in front of herself and regarded him with a steady eye. “Can I help you, my Lord?”

  “You can answer a question for me.” There was a rumbling growl in his voice as he approached her, with slow strides. “How do you have the nerve?”

  “The nerve to what?”

  “Don’t play dumb with me.”

  Maggie sighed audibly, as if she was growing impatient with him. As if he were the nuisance. “Be forthright, please. I have lessons to attend with your daughter.”

  “You do not speak to me that way.” His voice rose, but still she was unfazed.

  “You want me to speak my mind when it suits you,” Maggie noted, her own voice beginning to get harder. “Because it amuses you, perhaps. But only on your terms. I can’t speak my mind for the sake of my dignity, can I, my Lord?”

  Her argument flustered him, in part because he knew she was right. And in part because he was so full of feeling that he was struggling to process what he meant to say and get it out of his mouth. “You wrote to Jeremy,” he blurted, because it was easier to say that than to address her accusation.

  Maggie nodded. “I did.”

  His eyes widened. “You won’t deny it?”

  “Certainly not.”

  “You’re shameless.”

  “I am, because I have done nothing wrong.”

  “He came here today.”

  Maggie didn’t answer, but her eyes flickered to the door. He knew what she was wondering. If Jeremy was still there. Perhaps in the courtyard waiting for her.

  “He’s gone. I sent him away.” It should have brought him pleasure to say that, but it didn’t.

  Maggie had been holding back her anger very well… until he said that. She suddenly took a step towards him, her jaw hardening. “You had no right,” she replied, her voice breathy with barely bridled anger.

  “He is my friend. And you are my governess. I had every right.”

  “Do you own us, Henry? Do you own me?”

  She called him Henry. Not ‘my Lord’ or ‘Lord Rivers’. Henry. He wondered when she’d started thinking of him by his Christian name. It was a step in the right direction, as far as he was concerned.

  “I’m your employer.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question.”

  “You’re indebted to me.” He’d never wanted to say that to her, but the bitter taste of jealousy made it spill out of his mouth like bile.

  “That doesn’t answer my question either.” She stepped closer, until they were eye-to-eye. He could feel each puff of her angry breaths on his chin. “Do you own me?”

  He wanted to. It was a stark realization. One that frightened him. And, like a wild animal, fear made him even more volatile. The last time he’d wanted a woman in this way, she’d ruined him. She’d changed him. She’d made him this angry, irrational beast, where before he’d been tender and kind. Maggie didn’t even know that side of him. She had no idea the kind of man he’d been before.

  Maybe she would have liked the man he’d been before.

  Maybe she’d have chosen him over Jeremy.

  “You kissed me. You kissed me.”

  Her frustration was growing. He could see it. He stepped closer, backing her up into the counter, just like he’d done when they’d kissed in the kitchens. He heard her breath catch in her throat.

  “You’re avoiding my questions.” Her voice was breathier. “And you kissed me first.”

  “Exactly. And you wanted me enough then to kiss me again. So what changed?”

  Her lips parte
d, but it was clear that she didn’t know what to say. She tripped over her words when she finally spoke. “This isn’t about you and I. It’s about Jeremy.”

  Henry grit his teeth and slammed his hands down against the countertop, either side of her. The noise made her flinch, as did his voice, which snarled out, “No, it’s not!”