He kissed her again, gently, slowly, a kiss filled with all of the emotions that rose in him at her words. He was honoured by her trust… but… what did he truly feel? Was this just lust on his part? He was ashamed to admit that he did not know. He drew back from the kiss, and met her eyes.
“Thank you for your trust. But because of that, it is even more important that we stop, now. We need to be sure that our desire for this is not simply born of the rather… heating… effect of spending our days focussed on erotica. I would not want to go to the point where you were irrevocably ruined, only for you to regret this later.”
“I am not sure that I believe, any more, that what society sees as ruination actually matters. And I cannot imagine regretting this, or anything we might do together. But… yes, perhaps you are right, perhaps we should stop… for today… I do not promise, in any way, not to wish to do such things again, another day, should you be… persuadable.”
Her fingers slipped down and gently caressed his aching cock again, before she carefully rose from his lap, and restored the bodice of her dress to order. Dash felt his heart pounding, so loud and hard that he wondered she couldn’t hear it. For the idea of this happening again was beyond appealing – even if completely wrong. He swallowed hard.
“I begin to suspect, Mariel, that there is very little which you could not persuade me to, if you tried hard enough.”
“I will remember that.”
Her violet eyes were full of mischief. Dash decided to move the conversation away from what had just happened, in the hope of achieving some semblance of comfort.
“I gather, Mariel, that you naughtily took advantage of my absence to explore? That you could no longer stand to not have seen the rest of the collection?” She nodded. “And now that you have seen it – some of it, at least, are you repelled by the depth of my depravity, as society believes you rightly should be?”
“Dash, if collecting such as this is a sign of depravity, then I am willingly as depraved as you. I would have such a collection if that was easily possible for a lady, and the idea of exploring your collection is quite the most exciting thing that I have ever contemplated in my life. Now – show me more of it, and tell me what every item is.”
~~~~~
Their carriage drew up before Lady Phyllida Wormington’s home, Kirkwold Hall, directly behind Dash’s. Mariel looked at Selina, as they waited for the footman to open the door and let down the steps.
“Are you concerned that this evening will become… difficult?”
Selina gave a little shake of her head, but Mariel noted that she held quite firmly to Alex’s hand.
“I am determined that it will not. No matter how Lady Phyllida and Lord Hockingmoor may treat us, her parents invited us, so we will put a good face on it.”
Alex smiled at her words.
“Lord Kirkwold is not such a bad man to deal with – he was my father’s closest friend for many years. It would have been disrespectful of me not to come.”
Mariel nodded.
“I will find it interesting to watch people this evening, although I am sure that everyone will present their best polite behaviour.”
Beside her, the Dowager Duchess sniffed, as if none of it was worth contemplating – she, for one, would rather forget the events of the previous few months, and the scandal which had resulted in her son marrying Selina, instead of Lady Phyllida. It was, Mariel thought, going to be a long evening, and probably an unpleasant one.
They descended from the carriage, and proceeded into the house. Mariel was glad that Dash was present as well – it at least guaranteed her another person to talk to, whom she actually liked. In the foyer, Lord and Lady Kirkwold were greeting their guests, with Lady Phyllida and Lord Hockingmoor standing beside them.
It was a tense moment, as Alex and Selina approached them, and Mariel suddenly found herself hard pressed not to laugh, for the expression on Lady Phyllida’s face was a mixture of vitriol and attempted superiority – and it was matched, perfectly, by the expression on Lord Hockingmoor. Selina and Alex carried their entry off beautifully, remaining serene and calm in the face of it all.
The greetings were spoken, albeit through gritted teeth on Lady Phyllida’s part, and they passed on into the parlour, where the other guests stood talking with pre dinner drinks. As other local nobility came to speak to Alex and Selina, and to the Dowager Duchess, Dash appeared quietly at Mariel’s side. His voice was barely above a whisper when he spoke.
“One day, Mariel, you really must tell me more of what happened, in the days before the scandal that allowed Alex and Selina to marry. For one look at certain faces as we arrived tells me that there is much more to the story than I know.”
Mariel laughed softly.
“Oh there is – it would make an excellent comedy for the stage, should anyone ever dare to perform it.”
Chapter Eleven
The dinner progressed steadily, and Mariel spent the entire time torn between the urge to laugh, and the urge to simply run from the room to escape the pretentious falseness of it all. When, after the desserts had been cleared, Lord Kirkwold rose in his place and called for everyone’s attention, she sighed with relief. The sooner he made the announcement, the closer they were to being able to leave.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure this evening to announce the betrothal of my daughter, Lady Phyllida, to the Earl of Hockingmoor. They have not known each other all that long, but their… affinity… for each other became obvious very shortly after they met. I am delighted to welcome Lord Hockingmoor to the family. Please raise your glasses in a toast to the newly betrothed couple.”
Dutifully, everyone did, and then Lord Kirkwold called for the gentlemen to retire to the billiards room for port, and the ladies to the parlour for tea.
Lady Phyllida and Lord Hockingmoor held back, as her parents led everyone from the dining room – perhaps they wanted a moment alone? Mariel turned to Selina with a mischievous smile as they entered the parlour.
“Who shall we talk to, Selina? For I doubt that any lady here is prone to the sort of conversations in which we usually indulge…”
“Well… we could shock someone… but perhaps it is best if we don’t. Lady Chaston seems the safest option – she is obsessed with the hounds she breeds, and will talk of little else.”
They crossed the room to Lady Chaston, and Mariel steeled herself to tolerate the conversation regardless.
~~~~~
Dash allowed most of the gentlemen to leave the room before moving towards the door. Lord Hockingmoor pressed a rather chaste kiss to Lady Phyllida’s cheek as he passed them, and the Lady turned and left the room, following all of the other women. Hockingmoor reached out a hand to bring Dash to a halt.
“Longwood… a word, if I may?”
Dash halted, and turned to the man, curious.
“Certainly, Hockingmoor, what can I do for you?”
The man looked a little nervous, and put a finger to his cravat, as if it had suddenly become too tight.
“Ah… that is to say… I believe that you… have a… collection… of a rather… scandalously interesting nature?”
Mentally, Dash cursed Lord Manderforce with creative intensity.
“I do have a collection of interesting items, gathered during my travels.”
He left it at that – this was not something he wanted to be discussing at the man’s betrothal dinner party. Certainly not before the London building was ready, and he had forewarned his own father. Hockingmoor cleared his throat nervously.
“Is it, as I have been told, of an… umm… erotic nature? Because if that is the case, I would be… most intrigued to know more of it, one gentleman to another, of course.”
Dash sighed.
“My Lord, I am not, at this point, willing to discuss my collection in detail. If I reach the point where I am willing to make it… more visible… to others, I will be sure to let you know. But after many years abroad, where I shipped crates of ite
ms home, much of it still remains in those crates, and is not ready to be seen, or discussed.”
Hockingmoor drew back a little, as if annoyed at being rebuffed, however politely, but Dash had the feeling that the man would not give up so easily, even if he abandoned the topic for the evening.
“I see. Well then, let us join the rest of the men for port.”
~~~~~
Lady Phyllida had almost passed into the hallway, when she heard Hockingmoor address Lord Longwood, behind her.
Curious, she stopped, allowing the dining room door to almost, but not quite, close. She stood close by it, and listened, completely unashamed at her own eavesdropping – if she was to marry Hockingmoor, she wanted to know all she could of him. She had not thought that he knew Longwood – so this conversation, so privately arranged, was intriguing.
And it became far more intriguing when Hockingmoor uttered the words ‘scandalously interesting collection’ and more shockingly interesting again when he uttered the word ‘erotic’ – and Lord Longwood did not deny that description of his collection.
Lady Phyllida knew little of Lord Longwood, beyond the fact that he was a neighbour, but had been out of the country, in Italy and beyond, for a number of years. He had seemed, during dinner, to be quiet and a little dull, but this put a new context on the man entirely. She should have expected it, really – after all, he was the Duke of Southolton’s friend, and after the scandal at Christmas, she knew the Duke to be quite reprehensible in his tastes – just look at the hussy he had ruined, then married!
Perhaps there was more to all of it than just that scandal – what if it was the smallest indicator of a seething hotbed of vice, right here in her home district? And… why did her husband to be want to know more of such a scandalous collection? All of this needed more thought. At that moment, Hockingmoor suggested that he and Longwood join the other men, so Phyllida turned from the door, and sped off towards the parlour – it really would not do to be caught eavesdropping!
~~~~~
Lady Chaston was exactly as Selina had said – an inoffensive woman with a singular focus on her dogs. But after fifteen minutes of her rambling on, Mariel was quite ready to risk more complex conversation. In the end, that conversation came to her, in the form of Lady Phyllida herself. The woman crossed the room to where Selina and Mariel stood with Lady Chaston, a patently false smile pasted onto her face.
“Lady Chaston, Your Grace, Lady Mariel – thank you so much for attending this evening. I hope that you are enjoying yourselves?”
Lady Chaston beamed cheerfully at her.
“Of course my dear. I am always happy when I hear of a love match. I’ll leave you to talk to these young things – I fear I need the necessary more often, now I’m older.”
The woman wandered off, leaving a silence in her wake. Lady Phyllida turned her false smile upon them, and spoke, her voice pure venom coated in sweetness.
“I hadn’t met Lord Longwood before this evening, but I gather that he is a close friend of the Duke’s? I always like to know something of our neighbours in the district, and he seems an intriguing gentleman – so well-travelled.”
Mariel allowed Selina to answer, being completely unsure of what she might say, without exposing the fact that she knew Dash rather more closely than would be expected.
“I don’t know a great deal about him, Lady Phyllida – he has only been back in England for a few months, if that. But Alex knew him in Italy, and they became friends there. From what I have seen, he is well educated, and rather studious.”
Mariel almost laughed at Selina's choice of words – for they were the truth, but simply left out the topic that Dash so obsessively studied.
“Oh? What does he study? Most men of the ton that I have met do not ever study after they leave Eton.”
So much for avoiding that little detail.
“I don’t actually know, really. He doesn’t talk about it much at all. All I know is that he collected related things whilst he was abroad.”
Mariel winced internally – Selina was skating on the edge of danger now. Lady Phyllida glared at them both, as if certain that they were not telling her everything – which, of course, was true.
“That seems quite strange. Most men can’t stop talking about the things they know most about. Unless, of course, there is something about what he studies, or what he collected abroad, which is so scandalous that it can’t be mentioned in polite company?”
Lady Phyllida’s eyes glittered, and Mariel’s heart sank. This required a diversion of sorts, and probably absolute denial of knowledge. She spoke into the silence, as Selina seemed a little stunned by Lady Phyllida’s words.
“Really, Lady Phyllida, you do have quite the imagination, don’t you? The poor man probably studies the design of Greek and Roman bathing rooms or something equally dull – not exactly suitable dinner table conversation, but not exactly scandalous either.”
Mariel almost held her breath, watching Lady Phyllida.
The woman stared at her, then her eyes narrowed, and her lips tightened.
“Imagination? I think not. Where something seems odd, it usually is. And I have the sense that both of you know far more about this than you are telling me. Shall we say that my past experience with you leads me to suspect you of duplicity? But then, I would not put it past you to be deeply entangled in anything scandalous. I will discover more – and if this is a polished surface over a seething hotbed of scandalous vice, I fully intend to reveal the truth – and all of those involved. I do hope that you enjoy the rest of the evening.”
With that, she spun, and walked off, leaving Mariel and Selina rather stunned. After a moment, Mariel turned to Selina.
“Was that… do you think that was a threat? Because it seemed so to me.”
“It seemed so to me as well. But… whatever gave her the idea that there was something to find? How did she know to ask? Who might have been talking?”
“I can’t imagine – unless… surely none of the staff, at either house?”
“We shall have to investigate.”
~~~~~
The following morning, as they walked in the gardens of Kirkwold Hall, Lady Phyllida turned to Lord Hockingmoor with a simpering smile.
“Might I ask you a question, my Lord?”
Hockingmoor beamed at her – for he truly cared for her, appreciating her desire for all things proper, and seeing that as a sign that she would make an excellent Countess.
“Yes, my dear Lady, of course you might.”
Lady Phyllida paused, carefully considering her words. They walked through the still winter bare garden slowly. She did not wish to cause discord with Lord Hockingmoor, but she needed to discover the truth about Lord Longwood.
“My Lord, I have heard… whispers… which confuse me a little. They speak of Lord Longwood having some secret. Some collection of… something… which he brought back from the continent. I do not understand why a collection would be something to whisper about, as if it was scandalous. Surely, many people collect things, from insects, to porcelain pieces – so why is nothing said in company about Lord Longwood’s collection?”
There, hopefully that sounded disingenuous enough that he would not suspect her of eavesdropping. She watched his face, maintaining the innocent look on her own. He frowned, and looked into the distance for a moment, as if uncomfortable, then turned to her, patting her hand gently where it lay upon his arm.
“My dear, it is nothing to trouble yourself over. I believe that Lord Longwood collects… certain items which gentlemen find of interest, but ladies do not. Items which are, perhaps, not at all suitable for a lady to pay any attention to.”
He was prevaricating. Lady Phyllida maintained her smile, but the annoyance within her grew. Men kept so many secrets! She would need to push a little harder.
“But my Lord, what type of items might they be? For I confess, I cannot imagine something collectible, which would be completely unsuitable for a lady to be aware of.�
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“My dear, I would not wish to shock you…”
“Oh, but what might do that – I am not so very fragile, my Lord?”
He sighed, and she knew that she had won, that he would tell her at least a little. He was so very easy to encourage.
“I am not sure that I should say this, but as you insist, my Lady… I believe that Lord Longwood collects items which might be best described as relating to what goes on, between a man and a woman, in the bedchamber. Items which might, by their very existence, lead to rather improprietous thoughts.”
Delight filled her – it was as potentially scandalous as she had thought – and no wonder, when the man was a friend of Alex – Alex, who she had been promised to for so many years, and who had betrayed her, with that hussy! Well, perhaps this was a chance for her to ensure that his scandal was not forgotten, that he, and that dreadful wife of his, continued to suffer society’s disapprobation for what they had done to her, and to dear Hockingmoor. And if Lady Mariel suffered too, by association, Lady Phyllida could not say that she would be distressed by that circumstance. As for Lord Longwood, she had no care – she barely knew the man, and if he had been fool enough to collect such scandalous things… well then… he deserved whatever happened.
She pushed aside her own curiosity about what such items might possibly be, or look like, and chose to forget that Hockingmoor had asked Longwood if he might see them.
The potential for a degree of revenge for her shame this past Christmas was too great to ignore.
“Oh my! I can see why that would cause whispers! But… why on earth would a gentleman collect such… dreadful things?”
Hockingmoor looked at her, and sighed, as if disappointed, then shook his head.
“Only God can answer for the reasons that any one man finds a thing interesting, my dear. It is best to simply ignore such things.”
She nodded, and allowed him to lead her back to the house, but her mind was churning with ideas. This afternoon, she had some letters to write, letters which would begin a chain of events to see her previous shame avenged.
Lady Mariel's Scandalous Love: Regency Romance (Regency Scandals Book 2) Page 9
