The effect that her sparkling eyes and lively wit had on Isaac, on the other hand, was sheer torture.
***
Eva felt slightly intoxicated, but not because she had partaken of too much wine. Alone in the drawing room with her two guardian angels she felt convinced her earlier premonition of excitement was about to bear fruit. Their manners were elegantly correct and they had neither said nor done anything to make her think they intended to behave inappropriately towards her—other than a gift of a ruinously expensive gown, and all the other items of clothing she now possessed. Even so, there was something in the atmosphere that had nothing to do with her new wardrobe that made her feel giddy with anticipation. There were so many questions she really ought to ask but this rare opportunity to enjoy a sophisticated dinner with compelling companions, free from her husband’s disapproving scrutiny, deprived her of the ability to formulate them.
She stared at the fire, acutely aware of the ticking of the long clock in the corner of the room, even more aware of two male gazes focused intently on her profile.
‘You will not return to Sloane Street.’
Lord Torbay’s words, a statement rather than a question, sounded too loud, too assertive, as though by speaking so firmly the matter was already settled.
She sighed. ‘I have no wish to, other than to see Grace, but I can’t stay here indefinitely.’
‘It won’t be an indefinite stay,’ he replied. ‘Franklin ought to be able to take advantage of your husband’s preoccupation and search for incriminating evidence without being discovered.’
‘We have thought of a few ways in which we might be able to divert him further,’ Lord Isaac added, grinning.
‘Then I would like to hear them.’
‘And so you shall,’ Lord Torbay replied. ‘As soon as we have thoroughly worked through them for ourselves.’
‘Have you thought where he might keep any sensitive documents that would be of interest to us?’ Lord Isaac asked.
‘What makes you suppose he would have any documents to connect him to an act of treason?’
‘Because that’s how he conducts himself,’ Lord Torbay replied. ‘He keeps written evidence about everything and everyone he comes into contact with, if only for self-protection.’
‘Well, if he does, such documents would be in his study. It adjoins his bedroom. My room is approached from the other end of the corridor so I have little occasion and absolutely no desire to go in there.’ She lifted her shoulders. ‘I’m sorry not to be more specific.’
Lord Torbay nodded. ‘That’s perfectly all right. But just so we are absolutely clear, anything important to him would be in the house, not his warehouse?’
‘Yes, almost certainly. Other people have access to his office at the warehouse. However, he knows his servants are too frightened to touch anything they shouldn’t inside the house. Only one of the maids is ever permitted to go in there.’
‘Cue Franklin,’ Lord Torbay muttered beneath his breath as he stood up. ‘Now you must excuse me. I have to be somewhere. I shall leave you in Isaac’s capable hands, Lady Eva, and see you tomorrow.’
‘Oh, very well, Lord Torbay.’ She stood and dipped a curtsey, wondering if it was a woman’s company he so urgently sought. ‘Good night and thank you.’
Lord Isaac led her from the dining room back into the small salon they had occupied that morning, waited for her to seat herself and asked permission to sit beside her on the sofa she had chosen.
‘By all means.’
Eva drew upon all the laborious training she had endured before her season to quell her nerves. She had no occasion she was aware of to actually be nervous of Lord Isaac. Even so, an expectant silence engulfed them, causing Eva’s heart rate to accelerate. It was the first time she had been alone with either gentleman and she wondered if that situation had been deliberately contrived. Did Lord Isaac expect something from her in return for protecting her? Married women who didn’t take their vows seriously were considered fair game in society’s circles, and Lord Isaac knew how she felt about her particular vows. What he could not know was that she had no interest in adultery, not out of consideration for William, but because she saw no point in it. However, if that was what it would take to ensure they kept their word and rescued Grace then it would be a small price to pay.
Eva glanced at Lord Isaac’s noble profile and felt ashamed at the turn her thoughts had taken. She had been with William for too long and had forgotten that once a gentleman gave his word, it was his bond.
Lord Isaac ran his arm along the back of the settee, tickling her nape with delicate fingers. It was a bold, over-familiar gesture that she ought to have taken exception to. Her protest stalled on her lips when instead of the anticipated revulsion, a ripple of excitement cascaded through her. How peculiar. Intimacy in all its guises disgusted her. She tolerated the weight of her husband’s body covering hers as he panted and groaned his way through the sexual act because she had no choice in the matter. She survived the ordeal only by separating her mind from what was happening to her and thinking about something else.
So why did the mere touch of Lord Isaac’s fingers on the back of her neck affect her so pleasurably? She couldn’t understand it.
‘He doesn’t deserve you.’ Lord Isaac’s breath peppered her neck as he leaned close, speaking in a soft, pensive tone that filled her with a bewildering paradox of pleasure and longing.
‘Few of us get what we deserve in this world.’
His fingers were now digging into her rigid shoulders, almost painfully, and yet she welcomed his touch. ‘You’re far too tense.’ His gaze bored into her profile. ‘I can help you to relax, if you will allow it.’
Her breath caught in her throat and her heart beat far faster than it ought to as she contemplated his offer.
‘We should not be having this conversation, Lord Isaac,’ she said, no real conviction in her tone.
To her intense disappointment he removed his hands from her shoulders and retreated to his side of the sofa. ‘Then we shall not have it. What would you like to talk about instead?’
Damn him, he was calling her bluff. ‘You are asking me to break my wedding vows?’
‘I am asking you to trust me.’ His fingers returned to her shoulders and danced across them, sending renewed shivers down her spine. ‘I want to make you aware of what you actually are. I don’t believe you have any idea.’
She cast him a look of utter confusion. ‘I fail to understand you.’
‘Which rather proves my point, I think.’
She wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of this situation. It sounded as though he was offering to seduce her and at the same time expected her to trust him. She should definitely tell him the truth and get the matter out of the way once and for all; then they could concentrate on the far more important matter of freeing Grace from her husband’s clutches.
‘Thank you, sir, but you are wasting your talents with me.’ She cleared her throat, embarrassed but determined to lay this matter to rest. ‘Just so that we understand one another, you might as well know that I’m frigid.’
She expected surprise, sympathy, all manner of reactions other than the one she actually received. Lord Isaac shot her an incredulous look, then threw his head back and roared with laughter.
‘I am glad you find the situation so amusing,’ she said primly.
‘My apologies.’ Lord Isaac brought his laughter under control and traced the curve of her face with his forefinger, his gossamer light touch causing the tremors in her spine to reignite and spread through the rest of her body. ‘I am not amused, but I am challenged.’
‘Whatever do you mean by that?’
‘I mean you mistake the matter, and I intend to prove it to you.’ He shook his head, sending blond curls dancing across his face. ‘A less likely candidate for frigidity I have yet to encounter.’
Eva was willing to concede he had managed to briefly make her doubt what she knew to be true. If even hal
f the books she had read on the subject were to be believed, then some women actually look upon their marital duties with pleasure.
Some women. Just not her.
Why would so many married ladies risk everything by engaging in affairs if there was no carnal pleasure to be had from them? Eva hadn’t considered the matter before, simply because it didn’t interest her and she had never been tempted.
She was tempted now.
Passion was supposed to overcome common sense in such situations, but Eva had never believed that. Not for the first time, she wished she had a close female friend with whom she could discuss the matter, but William forbade close friendships. Her mother had told her nothing at all about what to expect from the marriage bed other than that it was her duty to do everything her husband asked of her. The reality had come as a brutal shock.
She returned her attention to Lord Isaac, who was regarding her with an intense expression, almost as though he understood her inner turmoil. But how could that be? Besides, words were cheap, and this compelling gentleman was impossibly arrogant. He knew nothing about her or the torment her life had become, so how could he possibly know how she would react in such a situation? And what was she doing, even thinking about his proposition, if that was what it was?
‘Would you prefer to discuss the weather?’ he asked with a disarming smile.
‘You assume too much,’ she replied, looking away from him. ‘You know nothing about me.’
‘I disagree.’ He reached out a hand and his fingers worked their way lazily down the length of her neck, distracting her, just as they were probably supposed to. It was an inappropriate gesture but she didn’t have the strength of will to move out of range of those questing fingers. ‘It is a very long time since I met a more sensual woman. It was the first thing that struck me about you when you arrived here today.’
Eva shook her head. ‘You are quite wrong about that.’
Lord Isaac’s slow, intimate smile continued to play havoc with her emotions. ‘There’s an easy enough way to prove that I am right.’
She tossed her head. ‘I hesitate to ask what that might be.’
‘Since you claim to be frigid.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Excuse me, but this situation calls for plain speaking. I assume you have never received any pleasure from sexual relations with your husband.’
Eva shuddered. ‘Absolutely not. I find the entire business abhorrent.’
‘And yet, talking about it with me excites you.’
She offered him an arch smile. ‘There’s a difference between theory and practise.’
‘Then let us turn our minds to practise.’
Eva shook her head decisively. ‘I am not sharing my bed—or should I say Lord Torbay’s bed—with you.’
‘I am not inviting you to.’
‘Oh, but I thought—’
‘It’s what I would like to do above anything,’ he said, his voice a soft, persuasive drawl, his smile taking the sting out of his rejection. ‘But I am willing to demonstrate that you are not frigid without going that far and, at the same time, I shall make you see just how passionate your nature actually is.’
Eva felt her cheeks heat. ‘That is impossible.’
‘Then you cannot lose,’ he replied, removing his hand from her neck and leaning casually into the corner of the settee again, legs stretched out in front of him, elegantly crossed at the ankles. How could he possibly look so unruffled, so sure of himself, when she was a bundle of uncertainty and embarrassment? It was most vexatious. ‘You are bound to receive satisfaction of one kind or another. Either I will succeed in exciting your passions, which will give you just reason to reassess your frigidity, or you will have the satisfaction of proving me wrong.’
She opened her mouth to decline but the full force of his tantalising gaze, focused and intent as it seared into her, caused her treacherous body to develop a mind of its own. An alien heat spiralled through it and suddenly her stays felt too tight, her breasts too sensitive. She didn’t want to even think about the sensation she felt lower down. A sensation she had never known before and which ought to have shocked her.
She was experiencing sexual desire. There could be no other explanation. Her curiosity was now well and truly piqued but still, she couldn’t possibly accept Lord Isaac’s challenge.
Could she?
‘I know you have great confidence in your abilities,’ she said in a voice that sounded far huskier than her own. She cleared her throat, causing Lord Isaac to smother a smile, and tried again. ‘That is hardly to be wondered at since I feel persuaded you receive a great deal of attention from members of my sex, but we are not all easy conquests. In fact,’ she added, pleased with her restraint, ‘some of us find your charms easy to resist.’
Lord Isaac’s throaty chuckle was deep and compelling. ‘Liar,’ he said.
‘Really, you are the most arrogantly self-assured person it has ever been my misfortune to meet.’ She tossed her head, causing Lord Isaac’s chuckle to develop into a rumbling laugh. Clearly she was fooling no one, especially not herself.
‘You really are the most hopeless liar, Lady Eva.’
She bridled. ‘I beg your pardon?’
‘You don’t feel the least bit unfortunate to have made my acquaintance.’ The ensuing pause was more eloquent than his words could ever be. She ought to have taken advantage of it to give him a good set down. Instead she remained mute, her thoughts too hopelessly tangled to allow for articulation. ‘Quite the reverse,’ he added softly. ‘And now you are unsure what to do about my offer. Slap my face, which I undoubtedly deserve.’ She nodded decisively, fighting the urge to smile. ‘Leave the room or take me up on my offer, just so you can prove me wrong.’
‘Since I hate to be predictable, I shall do none of those things,’ she said, finding the courage from somewhere to play him at his own game. ‘No, indeed I shall not. Instead I shall ask you a question.’
‘You may ask me anything you wish.’
‘Very well. Why are you plaguing me with your attentions?’
‘It is not my intention to be a nuisance. If my interest in you is unwelcome then we shall indeed talk about the weather.’
‘Your attentions are nothing to me other than a convenient means of passing the time.’ His smug smile told her he wasn’t deceived. Wretched man! ‘What I wish to know is why you feel the need to hone your seductive art on me. I feel persuaded there must be a whole bevy of welcoming recipients patiently waiting for you to call upon them.’ Eva tossed her head. ‘Don’t feel the need to entertain me, Lord Isaac. I shall be perfectly content with a book and will gladly excuse you.’
He leaned towards her and fixed her with a probing look. ‘You are afraid.’
‘Not in the least.’
But Lord Isaac’s satisfied smile told her he probably understood her better than she understood herself at that moment. Eva tried to ignore his offer—an offer which she found tempting simply because it was challenging and she would enjoy proving him wrong. It had been a long time since she had been at leisure to do anything of a spontaneous nature. Even so, it wouldn’t be wise to start a game that might slip beyond her control.
‘Where do you reside when you are in London?’ she asked in a deliberate change of subject.
‘Are you planning to visit me?’ he asked, quirking a brow in evident amusement.
‘Perhaps I am intending to avoid you,’ she replied playfully.
He didn’t respond, probably aware from her breathlessness that she had no real interest in changing the subject. He fixed her with a sensual look that caused her to give serious consideration to his nebulous suggestion. He had said it wasn’t his intention to actually seduce her and as a gentleman she could depend upon him to keep his word, could she not? Technically that would mean she remained true to her husband, even though the thought of being unfaithful to him didn’t especially concern her. If she did finish up beneath his roof again he would accuse of her of disloyalty, whether she had done anythi
ng to deserve that label or not. It had happened often enough in the past. William’s possessive jealousy was legendary and so she might as well earn the punishment she would ultimately receive at his hands.
Lord Isaac continued to observe her but made no further effort to persuade her, which is when something inside of her changed and she was filled with a capricious need to rebel. She had spent her entire life being dutiful, putting the concerns of others ahead of her own, and the reckless desire to behave wilfully suddenly consumed her. Hundreds of married women had dalliances, which is all this would be.
Desire? Is that what spurred her on? Could it really be? Was it her or was the room overwarm? She opened her mouth to ask the question and then closed it again without speaking. It was definitely her. Her core temperature had increased for no reason other than that she had secured the attention of a sophisticated gentleman who was anxious to help her compensate for all the time she had wasted with regrets.
Making up her mind so quickly she shocked herself, she nodded decisively.
‘Very well,’ she said. ‘I cannot believe I am agreeing to this. I don’t know what has come over me, but I shall be happy to prove you wrong. What do you require me to do?’
Chapter Eight
Triumph surged through Isaac, even though he was well aware he ought not to have made the suggestion to Lady Eva. Not because he didn’t think he could make his point, but because he was unsure if he could stop when he achieved that objective. He had never met a beautiful woman less sure of her own femininity and it would take a better man than he would ever be to resist the temptation of proving it to her.
It had not been his intention to proposition her, especially since she was a guest in this house and might feel obligated to accept. Heavens above, he had known her for less than a day. To have acted upon his desires so quickly was a record, even by his standards. There was just something about the charged atmosphere when they found themselves alone together, about the increasingly powerful draw he felt towards her, that had made him act on impulse. Even so, he might still have left matters as they were, until she claimed to be frigid, at which point the die was well and truly cast.
Saving Grace (Victorian Vigilantes Book 1) Page 8
