Rogue Countess

by Amy Sandas

  The action was making the other woman nervous.

  Anna decided to use the woman’s misplaced sense of danger to her advantage. She slapped the whip against her leg once more and the woman stiffened. Anna wasn’t capable of lifting her hand in violence against anyone, but if this woman believed she was, Anna wasn’t going to worry about convincing her otherwise.

  Anna narrowed her gaze and tried to put on an expression of cool detachment though her blood ran hot, not only in reaction to Jude’s thievery that morning, but now also because of this new stark evidence of his arrogant infidelity. He had brought his exotic mistress back to England with him. His complete lack of discretion astounded her. She took a slow and deliberate step toward the other woman.

  “How long have you known my husband?” she quizzed.

  The mistress’s eyes flew back up to her face. Though the rest of her remained completely composed, her eyes showed her surprise.

  “You are his wife? I did not know Lord Blackbourne was married.”

  Anna’s smile was tight. “Have you known him long?”

  “No. Not long.” The woman tensed as Anna took another step closer. “We met on the ship.”

  “Do you have a permanent arrangement with him?” Anna pressed, somewhat amazed that the woman was so willing to disclose the details of her relationship with Jude.

  “No, no arrangement,” she insisted, shaking her head and causing a rippling wave down her hair. “We got along well and simply decided to continue our association once we arrived in London.”

  “You have family here in England?” Anna asked. She didn’t want the woman to be left without any resources. It wasn’t her fault Jude was a philandering bastard.

  The companion lifted her chin a bit now, seeming to understand where Anna’s interrogation was heading. “I have many friends.”

  “I recommend you gather your belongings and go to them. Immediately.” Anna’s tone indicated that her recommendation was really more of a command.

  The two females stared at each other for a few moments. One of them quiet, wary, considering. The other angry, hurt and determined to extract retribution.

  After a breath, the other woman replied with calm dignity. “I will go. I have no wish to come between the sacred bond of husband and wife. I give you my apologies for my part in your pain.” Then she turned and walked into the bedroom.

  Anna’s stiff pride almost demanded she call after her to refuse the apology and the sympathy. But it would be useless. Finding the woman here had aggravated the ache in Anna’s long-bruised heart.

  She stared at the closed bedroom door with envy and confusion. She wished she had such impeccable composure. If she were so sure and confident, Jude’s actions wouldn’t hurt her so badly. In truth, if she had had an ounce of that woman’s self-assurance, she would never have allowed her father and sister to browbeat her as they had for so many years, and never would have ended up as Jude’s wife in the first place.

  Well, she was making up for all those years she had lacked a spine now, she thought.

  The woman was leaving. Anna had no doubt of that, and she smiled as she turned to leave the hotel room. She considered sticking around to see Jude’s face when he returned to find his lady love gone. He was going to learn very quickly that Anna would not stand to be bullied anymore. Especially not by him.

  He may have stolen her mare, but she had gone one better. She had chased away his mistress.

  Chapter Eight

  After a long ride in Hyde Park the next morning, Anna returned to her townhouse feeling optimistic and refreshed. She was still basking in her triumphant retaliation over Jude’s theft of her coveted mare and was quite confident in having proven herself to be a formidable opponent in the little tug of war he had initiated between them.

  However, her mood took a sharp downward turn when she recognized the coat of arms on the brightly painted carriage pulling up in front of her door. This was one visitor she had not anticipated, but probably should have. She took her horse round to the stables and cared for him herself before entering the house and making her way to the morning room where her guest would be waiting.

  Years ago, Anna had been banned from calling upon the Duchess of Clavering at her residence either in town or in the country. It was not seemly for a duke and duchess to have a close relation involved in such a menial and indelicate trade, especially when that person was a woman determined to encroach into a world better reserved for men. The pretentious mandate didn’t bother Anna much since she seldom had cause to seek out her sister’s company.

  It had been nearly six months since she had been graced by a visit from her illustrious sibling. And that visit had not ended well after Anna refused to loan her sister any more money. In the years since Anna had become financially independent, Olivia had gotten into the habit of coming to her for personal loans to cover numerous gambling debts. The requests had started out small enough, but Olivia’s luck at cards never held for very long. As her debts increased so did the amount of money she needed to stay in good faith with her more substantial moneylenders.

  At her last visit, she had come to Anna with a request for an exorbitant amount and Anna had declared she would no longer contribute to her sister’s wasteful habits. When she had suggested Olivia go to her husband for assistance, her sister went into a fit. Her face had turned red and she’d accused Anna of being petty and rapacious and then stormed from the house in a huff.

  Anna hadn’t heard from her since.

  Seeing the distinctive carriage waiting in front of her house brought to mind two possible reasons for why Olivia would deign to call upon her now.

  The Duke and Duchess of Clavering kept very late hours and rarely left their London home before three in the afternoon. Anna doubted it was a desire for light conversation that had prompted Olivia to rise so early this morning. Either she was in need of another loan and had decided to take her chances with another refusal, or she was on a mission of a more personal nature.

  Olivia sat in the middle of the damask sofa, as always, looking immaculate and beautiful. The soft skirts of her pale pink gown were spread to the sides so as to avoid unnecessary wrinkles. Her pale golden hair was arranged in large rounded curls on top of her head and her gloved hands rested in her narrow lap. To the casual observer, the Duchess of Clavering would appear to be everything one would expect of a lady with her elite social standing. She was poised, confident and stylishly lovely.

  But Anna, who had years of practice reading her sister’s more subtle signs of tension and irritation, could see the stiffness in Olivia’s perfect posture and could detect the hint of anxiety in her light brown eyes.

  Taking a deep breath, Anna entered the room.

  “Good morning, Olivia.”

  The duchess turned her head at the casual greeting. She had insisted a hundred times that she be addressed properly as your Grace, but Anna refused to use the respectful term. It was a petty thing, but worth it when she saw how much it bothered her haughty sister.

  Olivia’s eyes squinted with familiar indignant annoyance as her gaze swept over Anna’s riding outfit. She sniffed as if her delicate nose had been assaulted by an offensive odor and she pursed her mouth in a manner that pushed her artificially pinkened lips into a full pucker.

  “Is it?” Olivia finally returned in response to Anna’s greeting. “Yes, well, the sun at this particular time of day doesn’t quite suit my temperament, I suppose. Too crude and direct. It ages the skin. I much prefer the soft glow of candlelight. It is a shame so many people are switching over to that ghastly gaslight. Such brightness is not kind to the delicate sensibilities of a gentle lady.” She waved a gloved hand toward the chair placed opposite her position on the sofa. “Are you going to sit? It is not polite to hover over your guests like a poorly trained footman. Just because you choose to dress like a man of the lower classes, does not mean you can behave like one while in my presence.”

  Anna did not move from her position a fe
w steps in from the doorway. She allowed the derisive comments to pass with little notice. There was a time when her older sister’s barbed words had the strength to pierce her delicate self-esteem and had often drawn blood. But Anna’s hide had toughened considerably since then.

  She glanced at the clock. She would give the mighty duchess fifteen minutes to come to the point of her visit before she showed her the door.

  “Olivia, you did not come here today to try to steer me back toward the path of social propriety. And I think we both know I am not about to change the tiniest thing about myself for your pleasure and comfort.” Anna’s smile was unconcerned as she returned Olivia’s narrowed glare.

  “You always were a selfish and disagreeable child,” Olivia snapped in high dudgeon. “How Father and I managed to put up with you is an amazement.”

  “You found a way to solve that problem, didn’t you?” Anna returned in a quick and deliberate reference to the subject she suspected was behind the unwelcome visit.

  Olivia sighed then, and the sound was an expression of deep disappointment. Her tone became soft and cajoling.

  “Come now, dear. Admit that you have come to realize how fortunate you were in the path Father and I arranged for you. You are a countess after all. Even you cannot deny that you never would have made such an advantageous match if not for our assistance.”

  “Assistance? Is that what you call it?” Anna stared down at her sister with raised brows. Could she really be so deluded?

  “Oh, stop it, Anna,” Olivia chided with growing impatience. “You have nothing to complain about. If you weren’t always trying to be so difficult, you would realize you have cause to be grateful.”

  “I imagine you have heard news of Jude’s return?” Anna’s reply was stiff and cold.

  “Of course I’ve heard of his return,” Olivia snapped. “It’s all over town, isn’t it? As is your newly discovered relationship to him.” She shook her blonde head with disapproval and her words were delivered in sneering little jabs. “You sure know how to bring the wrong kind of attention upon yourself. Everyone is talking about how the Countess of Blackbourne is a horse breeder. It’s just disturbing. I cannot imagine how devastating all of this must be to Jude.”

  “I have a feeling he’s endured much worse. Waking from a drug-induced sleep with a child lying naked in your bed, for example,” Anna stated with a flash of temper. “I imagine that might be a bit more disturbing.”

  Olivia’s head whipped around to pin Anna with a glaring look. “Must you speak so crudely?”

  “Do I offend you?” Anna asked with mock innocence, already knowing the answer full well.

  “Yes! Nearly everything about you offends me.” The duchess shouted. Olivia paused then to pull a small medicine bottle from her reticule and take an enthusiastic swig. Anna was aware that her sister occasionally took laudanum to calm her nerves, but she hadn’t realized she had started carrying the potent stuff around with her.

  The medicine did the trick as Olivia slowly bowed her blonde head in a pose of gentle despondence.

  “I don’t know why you chose to shape your life in such an inappropriate and vulgar manner, but it didn’t bother me as long as few knew of the connection between us. I still see no reason to publicize our relation. And I don’t see any need to revisit details of the past.” She lifted her head and looked at Anna with a gaze that was slightly unfocused from the laudanum. “Especially not with your errant husband.”

  “What are you worried about, Olivia?” Anna couldn’t help goading her sister just a bit. “What do you think Lord Blackbourne would do if he discovered how instrumental you were in the breaking of your betrothal? Do you think it would upset him to know how you so maliciously threw him over for a duke?”

  Olivia flew to her feet, all pretense at tranquility gone in an instant. Her hands were fisted at her sides and her eyes blazed with a wrathful light.

  “Jude will never know anything more about what happened than he does already. What purpose would such disclosure serve? None.” She answered with sharp and heavy conviction. “If word of my part in that ancient scheme ever got out, I would be ruined. Clavering would be forced to desert me. I would be exiled, left with nothing.” Olivia shook the haunting thoughts from her mind and took a menacing step toward Anna. “The only reason you would have to start filling Jude’s ears with tales of the past would be for your own selfish gain.”

  Anna stared at her sister, stunned by the abrupt turnabout in Olivia’s reactions. But even her surprise could not distract from the black swelling fist of outrage that pushed up through her throat.

  “Selfish?” she asked with an incredulous gasp. “It is selfish for me to claim my own innocence?”

  “Of course it is,” Olivia answered with an impatient snap, “selfish and wicked when claiming your innocence damns others.”

  “Others who are guilty!” Anna shouted in frustration. “I am supposed to just carry the stigma and shame of something I never did? It was you and Father who devised the plan to force Jude into breaking his betrothal so you could be free to enjoy Clavering’s courtship. It was you who brought the warmed milk up that night and drugged me so I could be left in his bed. I was a child, Olivia!”

  Olivia waved away Anna’s impassioned words.

  “Don’t be so dramatic, Anna. You were sixteen, hardly a child,” she replied in a dismissive tone. “And as I pointed out earlier, you have not ended up any worse for wear, have you? You have what you want. You are content with your lot, are you not?” Her light brown eyes flashed with sly intelligence and malice. Her smile was frigid and she continued. “Just how badly do you wish to keep this lovely little life, my dear?”

  Anna’s heart froze and the black pressure expanded to nearly close off her throat.

  “What do you mean, Olivia? There is no point in being coy.”

  “No, I suppose there isn’t,” the other woman sighed. “I came here today to let you know I am prepared to go to whatever lengths are necessary to ensure you keep the details of the past where they belong. Clavering is a highly respected member of society. His word carries quite a lot of weight amongst the ton.” She paused to ensure she had Anna’s full attention. “Your little business venture relies on keeping a wealthy clientele, doesn’t it? A clientele that happens to move in the same social circles as the duke and myself. If word were to get around that you conducted your business in a dishonorable or an unlawful manner, it could be rather detrimental, couldn’t it?”

  Anna shook with the fury that swept through her as Olivia finally got to the point of her visit. She clenched her teeth against the growling scream of outrage that threatened to escape. After several deep breaths, she responded in deadened tone, devoid of emotion or hope.

  “You would ruin me.”

  “Just as word of what happened eight years ago would ruin me.” Olivia smiled. “See. It is clearly in both of our best interests to let the past lie dormant.”

  “Clearly,” Anna muttered through clenched teeth, knowing Olivia expected some acknowledgement of agreement. She had no choice now. Olivia had effectively blocked the truth of the past from ever coming to light. Anna would never risk what she had worked so hard to build.

  “Excellent,” Olivia stated, pleased with the outcome of her visit. She turned and walked around Anna’s stiff form. When she reached the door, she paused to give one final warning.

  “Only three people know the truth of what happened. Father is dead.” A cold little laugh flew from her lips. “And I obviously have every reason to keep the past buried. So, if even the slightest whisper on the subject caresses my ear, I will know that you have betrayed me and the life you now enjoy will be forfeit.”

  Chapter Nine

  The visit from Olivia left Anna feeling deeply disturbed. She almost cancelled her plans to go out with Leif that night, but then realized a night with her old friend might be the perfect thing to put her thoughts back into perspective. It had been a while since he had been avail
able to play escort to her. Whatever woman happened to be his lady love of the moment typically kept him pretty busy most of the time.

  As children, Anna and Leif had been inseparable.

  Anna’s mother had died giving birth to her, and she always suspected that fact contributed to her father’s and sister’s animosity toward her, though it didn’t explain everything. Leif had been her confidant and safe harbor when she needed to escape from her family’s harsh treatment. And when she’d developed tender feelings for her Olivia’s betrothed, Leif had immediately recognized the stars in her eyes for what they were. He had teased her mercilessly but had been the only person she wanted to reach out to when her father kept her locked in her room those days preceding her wedding.

  In turn, Anna knew how difficult it was for Leif to watch powerless as his father held to family tradition and wasted every penny wrung from the Neville estate on drink and cards. Leif had grown up virtually parentless on the grand ancestral lands that neighbored the Lockes’ property. His mother had run off when he had barely been out of swaddling clothes, and his father stayed in London almost all year round. The servants were indulgent with the tow-headed child, but they had not loved him. Anna had been his only constant.

  Leif was in high form as they rode over to Lord Fitzherbert’s soiree in Anna’s carriage. As if sensing her need for an amusing diversion, he filled the duration of the drive with a story of the latest mischief he and his friends had created during a particularly dull musical concert at Vauxhall the night before. The night ended with one of his friends losing his breeches when he fell from a tree, while another ended up with two black eyes from the swinging reticule of his extremely annoyed mistress.

  “And how did you fare?” Anna asked in the midst of a fit of laughter that left her breathless and grateful.

  Leif leaned back against the cushions and spread his arms to rest them along the top of the carriage bench. He shrugged with nonchalant grace and his smile was devilishly smug as he replied. “Someone had to soothe the poor lady’s ruffled feathers.”