For a Lady's Lust: A Historical Regency Romance Book

by Lucy Langton

  Isaac’s eyes lingered upon Louisa once more before he turned and went down the hall towards the dining room. Louisa couldn’t help feeling her spirits being buoyed. While she knew she was in a terrible state of affairs with Stephen, it was so wonderful to see her parents getting to know Isaac and his family so well. Had her circumstances been different, she would have been overjoyed at the thought of both her parents having now had a meal at the home of the young man who she had her eye on. But as that situation belonged to another world entirely, Louisa had to simply be happy that they were here with him now. She did not dare think about the future, lest that spoil the mood of the evening.

  As she and her mother walked down the hall behind Isaac, Martha leaned over to her daughter and asked, “Now, do remind me. It is Mr Quince’s brother, not his father, who is the current duke, is that correct?”

  Louisa nodded. “Yes, that’s right.”

  “I always get that confused,” Martha said. “When I first saw Gregory after the title had been passed on to him, I thought he was his father. All I could think was, ‘goodness, the duke has certainly found the fountain of eternal youth, for he looks far younger than the last time I saw him! And why is he only kissing his wife on the cheek in public? He’s treating that woman as if she were his mother!’ And then lo and behold ... she was!”

  That’s more like it; it seems that Mama has returned to herself, Louisa thought, somewhat reassured by her mother’s insistence on saying the oddest things at the wrong time.

  However, before Louisa could say anything in response, they came upon the dining room and were quickly seated. Louisa sat beside her mother, and Isaac sat across the table. Louisa looked around the room as she had when she and her father had been seated for breakfast, and in comparison to the hall she’d been in inside Stephen’s estate, this was ... paradise. Where Stephen’s home felt hollow and unwelcoming, Isaac’s home was overflowing with warm, inviting feelings.

  “This may seem like an odd question, Mr Quince,” Martha said, taking her napkin and placing it upon her lap, “but has this always been the dining room?”

  Isaac raised an eyebrow at Martha, and then a bemused look crossed his face. “Why do you ask, Mrs Pelham?”

  Oh no, Louisa thought, here we go. I knew that Mother would say something queer at some point in the evening, but I was not expecting it to be so soon! Why is she asking about the dining room? I must stop her!

  “I’m sure that Mama was just …” Louisa tried to interject, but Martha was bent on finishing what she had to say.

  “I believe I dined in this home with your father when he was a young man, but I do not believe that we ate in this room. Has the dining room been moved, or is my memory deceiving me?” Martha asked.

  Louisa turned to her mother, stunned. How on earth had she had dinner with Isaac’s father and not mentioned it to her before this? Why had she been invited here? Why was she bringing this up now?

  Isaac chuckled and placed his hands on his lap. “You are most definitely correct, Mrs Pelham. The dining room was once down the hall to the right, but there was an issue with the foundation of the house, and so we had to move the dining hall here for fear that it would crumble in the position that it was before. Might I ask what the occasion was that you attended here with my father? My mother has kept surprisingly quiet about my father’s formative years, and so I am always delighted to hear whatever I can.”

  Martha leaned forward and stretched her arm out to Isaac, as though she wanted to hold his hand. However, she simply placed it on the table with her hand in her fist so that she was still reaching out for him but not asking him to meet her halfway.

  “Your father was an exceptionally charitable man. I believe he invited myself and Archibald here along with some other members of the community who had fallen on hard times. He discussed our situations with each of us, and then provided us with the bursaries that we required to be able to continue. It was thanks to his generosity that we were able to keep our home and that Archie could accept his position at the bank. We would be nothing today if it weren’t for your father,” Martha said seriously.

  This was all brand new information to Louisa, and so she was just as overwhelmed by this revelation as Isaac. Isaac, however, had a far more emotional response to hearing this, as one would when discovering this side of their deceased father, and Louisa noticed that he had to fight to keep his tears at bay. “I so much appreciated hearing that, Mrs Pelham, thank you. I knew that my father was a great man, but to hear it from someone else’s perspective ...”

  Isaac trailed off, and in a very uncharacteristic move, he took Martha’s outstretched hand and gave it a quick squeeze before retreating. It looked rather awkward from where Louisa was sitting, but she could clearly see the sentiment that it communicated.

  From there on out, the conversation remained in the ‘pleasant small talk’ location for the remainder of the meal. While this would have enraged Louisa in other circumstances, she didn’t mind it one bit right now. She loved how easily Isaac and her mother were getting along, and if this was the style of talk that they enjoyed partaking in with each other, then that was just fine with her.

  As the dessert was removed from the table, a comfortable silence fell over the three guests. Louisa allowed her attention to drift from the spot on the tablecloth that she had tried to concentrate on for most of the meal so that she did not admire Isaac too much, and in doing so, caught Isaac’s eye.

  When they saw each other, Louisa was transported back to the moment yesterday, when it had certainly seemed as though Isaac was about to kiss her. Just the thought of it was enough to send chills down Louisa’s spine, but the fact that she was also staring into Isaac’s eyes made it all the more tantalizing.

  As she looked at him more deeply, however, she felt as though she was looking inside of him. She started noticing details about him that she hadn’t before, like the fact that he had a small scar at the far left corner of his upper lip, or that one of his eyebrows was slightly longer than the other. She also saw something ... more in his face. At that time, she couldn’t place her finger on what that was, exactly, until she realized that it was not something innate in Isaac, but rather a feeling that she was putting on him. And that feeling ... was guilt.

  Louisa closed her eyes. She had done so well so far this evening not thinking about her promise to Stephen and the way she was set to destroy Isaac, but the moment she recognized what she was projecting onto Isaac, it all collapsed.

  She was overwhelmed with shame, panic, and fear, and she could feel her throat beginning to close up at the thought of all of that. She tried taking in a few deep breaths to calm her racing heart, but it did not help. She knew that she had to get out of that room if she was not going to give herself up.

  When she opened her eyes, Isaac was still looking at her, but her mother was completely consumed with dabbing at a spot of something that she’d got on her dress. “So sorry to abandon you two for a moment, I just need to ... I forgot something in my cloak,” Louisa improvised.

  Without waiting to hear their responses, Louisa fled from the room and raced down the hall back towards the front entrance. If I can just make it outside and get some fresh air, I know that I won’t faint, Louisa reassured herself. She began running faster and faster towards the door until she saw a set of French doors in a room as she raced past. As those were closer than the front door, Louisa ran into the room and burst through the doors, gasping for air as she did.

  As soon as the fresh air hit her lungs, Louisa began to feel far better. She blinked her eyes many times to adjust to the evening light and placed her hand over her heart to make sure that it slowed down. Thankfully, it behaved, and in a few moments, Louisa could breathe normally.

  That was until she heard a voice behind her say, “Was it as suffocatingly warm in there for you as it was for me?”

  Louisa spun around but was not surprised to see Isaac standing behind her. “Yes,” she replied hastily. “The warmth
...heat, yes, it was very warm in there. It feels much nicer out here.”

  Isaac smiled in a way that made her heart flip-flop, as it had many times before around him. “Also, just to be perfectly clear, I did not follow you. Your mother became concerned about you, and so she asked me to check on you. I ... I do believe she knows something that neither you nor I have managed to say out loud as of yet.”

  Louisa’s brow furrowed; she could hardly believe what she was hearing. “I’m sorry … I don’t know what you’re getting at,” she responded innocently. Of course, she knew what he was insinuating, but if he felt like saying it right now, he had to be upfront about it.

  “I ... well, I mean,” Isaac stammered, running an anxious hand through his hair on the side of his head. “I believe your mother has seen that ... that there is something between us.”

  “Between us?” she prompted Isaac. “Does that mean ...”

  Now Isaac was looking truly panicked. Louisa did love watching him squirm but decided that she had done enough of that for tonight. She had a feeling that they both knew exactly what he was talking about, so for the time being, it could be left unsaid. And while she could still feel Stephen’s claws slowly closing in on her, she thought that she might as well have some fun with Isaac while she still could.

  Louisa allowed Isaac to stew for a moment longer, until she finally said, “I don’t mean to interrupt this, but I do believe I should check on my mother. She tends to wander when she is left alone in a fine house for too long.”

  Isaac let out a relieved laugh and said, “Then we should return to her. We would not want her thinking that anything improper was going on, now would we?”

  Isaac said the last part of that sentence with a smirk on his face, and Louisa applauded his bravery in her head. To reward him, as she walked past, she allowed her hand to graze him ever so slightly. The game between them had begun, and this was an unplanned part of Stephen’s plot that was going to bring Louisa a great deal of delight.

  Chapter 15

  Everything at dinner had gone according to Isaac’s plan. He’d had time to get to know Louisa’s mother better, and although she was an unusual woman, he found her to be very pleasant. They had also briefly discussed the price of the house, but only in vague terms, which Isaac was fine with. Talking about that in more detail would give him an excuse to call upon Louisa more.

  And finally, he’d got to have a moment alone with her. Best of all, she seemed to want to engage in the same type of playful flirtation that he had. Isaac may not have been skilled in social circumstances, but he excelled at playing games, and so if he just thought of courting Louisa like a game, it was the easiest thing in the world.

  Louisa and Isaac next saw each other two days later when he came to her home and they spoke in hushed tones in the sitting room, mostly about the house. But at one point, Louisa had left her chair to fetch some water for them both, and so Isaac seized his opportunity to get back at her for grazing her arm against him the other night upon leaving the room. When she passed by him, he simply allowed his upper arm to flop down against the arm of the chair, which caused his hand to run along her skirt as it fell. Louisa looked back at his arm to see what had just happened, but when Isaac did not turn to face her, she said nothing and walked out of the room. The next move was now hers to make.

  When the pair met again the next day in the garden at Isaac’s home, he could not wait to see her. Issac thought he was on guard for whatever she was going to do to him today and kept trying to guess when she would make a move. However, when they had discussed the price of the home enough, and it was time for Louisa to return home and she had not done anything, Isaac began worrying she might not make any moves.

  But then, when they were passing through the library on the way to the front entrance, Louisa suddenly stopped in front of Isaac, and he almost bumped into her. “Oh, I’m sorry,” Louisa said, “I didn’t mean to stop so suddenly, it’s just ...”

  And then she trailed off and became entranced by something on Isaac’s face. It took him a moment to realize that she was once again gazing longingly at his lips and then looking away quickly. Isaac’s breath caught in his throat because he thought she was actually going to kiss him. But then, her eyes unfocused, and she jauntily said, “You have something on your face. Here, let me get it for you.”

  She quickly rubbed something off of Isaac’s cheek very near to his lips, and he could have smacked himself. Not everything has to be about how badly she wants to kiss you, you fool. Sometimes it is just that you have something unfortunate smeared on your face, and she wants to save you the embarrassment of having someone else discover it.

  But when Louisa drew her hand away, Isaac could very clearly see that she had wiped away nothing at all. “Thank you so very much for taking care of that; I’m rather embarrassed. What was it that I had on my face?” he asked.

  Louisa didn’t miss a beat. “It was just a spot of dirt from the garden. I’m not sure how it got there, but you have nothing to be embarrassed about! It happens to me all the time,” she replied, not-so-subtly slipping her hands behind her back.

  Isaac, however, had caught on to what she had done. “Oh, really? Then you certainly won’t mind if I just ...” Isaac reached behind Louisa’s back and gently took her wrist in his hand. He drew it towards him, but she kept her palm closed. “Now, why won’t you let me see what you took off of my face?” he asked coyly.

  “I am doing no such thing!” Louisa mockingly protested. “I wiped it on the back of my dress so that you did not have to see it. And now ... my hand is just seizing up.”

  “Oh, is it?” Isaac teased. “So you’re saying that you’re sure that there was something on my face and that you weren’t simply ... gazing at it?”

  As he watched, Louisa’s cheeks went bright red. “Absolutely not!” she said defiantly.

  “Well then, how about we focus on doing something to relax your hand?” he said gently. The teasing tone was gone from his voice, and he now looked rather adoringly at Louisa, and she could certainly tell that the tone had shifted. Isaac was not sure what confidence had seized him, but he brought her hand up to his lips and then kissed the soft underside of her wrist.

  When his lips touched her hand, it instantly relaxed, as did her face. Isaac looked up at Louisa with his lips poised to kiss her again and said, “Is that better? Shall I try once more?”

  Louisa said nothing but nodded with her eyes wide with arousal. Isaac maintained eye contact, and this time, he kept her hand in his left, and with his right, he pulled back her sleeve the smallest amount and kissed further up her arm. This time, Louisa made an audible sound of pleasure rather similar to the one she had made when he walked up behind her in the forest. That was altogether too much for Isaac to take, and so he whispered, “Miss Louisa?”

  “Yes?”

  “Might I …” but Isaac didn’t even have time to ask to kiss her, for she took his face in her hands, and their lips met hard and fast. They kissed desperately, feverishly, as though the other’s lips were their salvation, and they wanted nothing more than that. Isaac pulled Louisa close to him so that he could feel her tiny body pressed up against his, and when he felt her breasts pressing against his lower chest, it took all of his self-control not to pull her into a more secluded room and have his way with her.

  But he was a man of honour, and Louisa was the kind of woman who he did not dare rush into anything with, feeling that he might very well be falling in love with her. As they continued kissing, it slowly turned from kisses of intense passion into slower, more meaningful ones.

  And then, Louisa pulled herself away and looked at him, horrified. She placed her hand upon her lips, as though she could not believe that what they had just done was real. Isaac began to panic. “Did I do something wrong, Miss Louisa? I apologize most profusely if that was not what you wanted, for I would never …”

  “No, no,” Louisa stopped him, placing her hand upon his arm. “I began that. And I ...
I wanted to do that. It is just that ...”

  “What is it? What is bothering you?” Isaac gently pressed.