by Darcy Burke
Miriam froze as the petite figure in pale green muslin turned. “Hello, Miri.”
“Lizzie,” she gasped. Shock hazed her vision into a pinpoint until all Miriam could see was the face of the woman who’d tried to steal her life.
“You know one another?” asked Harper, her mossy hazel eyes scanning Miriam’s face with concern.
“We were friends once,” Lizzie replied. A small smile like a satisfied cat’s flickered over her lips. Her cool blue gaze locked on Miriam’s and wouldn’t let go.
“Before you stuck a knife in her back and twisted it,” Mrs. Kent seethed. Her thin body radiated tension.
“Enough.” Miriam waved her companion into silence. She swallowed. The astonished ladies watched them face off like dueling rakes with pistols at dawn. If she didn’t end this now, Lizzie would haunt her for the rest of her life—and likely attempt to cut it short.
But how?
Miriam scanned her former friend from top to bottom, thinking. An empty wine glass dangled from her fingers until a servant plucked it from her grasp. Lizzie’s gaze never left hers.
Don’t make a scene. You’ve only just met them. Miriam was in no position for a confrontation—which meant Lizzie had planned this interaction, too. She moved among people like the queen on a chessboard, outmaneuvering everyone until she kicked them down and out of the game.
Because it was all a game to her. Lizzie had never been her friend. She’d only pretended to be. Miriam had been so desperate for friendship, for affection, for her cursed adventure that she’d foolishly played into Lizzie’s hands.
So had Richard.
The icy glacier that had encased her heart ever since she’d found out about the depths of his betrayal cracked.
“How’s the baby?” she asked lightly.
Lizzie’s lips quirked up in a strange smile.
“There’s no child, is there?” Miriam asked.
“This is hardly a discussion to be held in front of our new acquaintances,” Lizzie commented. She raised the glass in a mocking toast. Beside her, Harper’s eyes widened.
“I don’t mind,” the countess interjected. Her lace shawl had crumpled into a pile on her skirts. “It sounds as though the two of you have some personal business to sort out.”
“That would be putting it mildly.”
Lady Adele winked conspiratorially. “Tell me how you know one another.”
“From New York,” Miriam responded with as much neutrality as she could muster.
“I came here looking for a fresh start,” Lizzie said in clipped tones.
“Oh? Does Arthur know?” Miriam seethed. The pain this woman had wrought. On her. On Arthur. On Richard. For what? Did she have a motivation beyond flitting from moment to moment, pursuing whatever she thought she wanted? Money, of course. Sex. Status, by any means she could get it.
The reason Lizzie had gotten away with so much outrageous behavior is that she was completely amoral. No one expected her to be so outrageously exploitative. Look at how long her friend had fooled Miriam.
Lizzie examined her wine. She cocked one hip. “What is that supposed to mean?” she asked slowly. Her nostrils flared.
The other women waited with bated breath.
“You’ll have to excuse us,” Miriam said shyly. Her gaze darted to Harper. Her sister-in-law. Her friend. A genuine friend. Harper nods her support. “I need to speak freely with Lizzie.” She licked her lips. “It won’t be a pleasant conversation. Please don’t leave.”
A gasp of shock is quelled with a glare from Lady Adele. “Go on. Do you prefer us to give you privacy?”
“Thank you. No. That won’t be necessary.” Miriam needs witnesses however this plays out.
“You married to escape your family’s control without ever intending to be faithful.” One of the women gasped. Miriam never took her eyes off her nemesis, but she knew it wasn’t Mrs. Kent. “You took advantage of him, the same way you took advantage of Richard, and tried to do with me. Is there no one you won’t betray for your own ends?”
Lizzie’s smirk faded into a sneer. “Such harsh accusations, Miri. It hurts my heart to hear a friend say this. I suppose you weren’t much of a friend after all. Always clinging to my skirts, waiting for something to happen in your pathetic, closed-off life. Ever unwilling to take a chance.”
Miriam inhaled sharply. Her anger surged. “Lizzie, I thought you were my friend. I would have given you what you needed. You needn’t have concocted a plan to kill me.”
A collective inhalation from the ladies.
“I never forced your hand, Miriam. It isn’t my fault that your lifetime is liable to be shorter than most.” Lizzie’s eyes narrow. “I gave you what you desired more than anything else in the world.”
“And what is that?”
“The chance to live before you die.”
Miriam turned her back on her enemy and faced the rest of the women. Strangers. Potential friends. True friends, if she had the courage to reach for what she wanted.
They regarded her warily, intrigued but unsure which side to take.
Her eyes prickle. Her enemy is right. Lizzie is brilliant in her way, with a knack for ferreting out a person’s deepest pain, their greatest yearning—and exploiting it ruthlessly.
“You went into the marriage willingly. You were never meant to know,” Lizzie drawled. “I’m not cruel.”
Debatable, Miriam muses.
“What are you thinking, Lizzie? That Arthur will divorce you, and you’ll marry Richard? He hates you for what you have done to us. To me. Because despite his many flaws, Richard…loves me.” Miriam choked on the words as their truth crashed through her.
Miriam watched the expressions flicker over the ladies’ faces. She didn’t know these women, but she needed them badly. Disbelief bloomed over the other women’s faces. Lady Adele’s ’s brow furrows over the bridge of her nose. Whatever she had expected, this is clearly not the scene she had envisioned. Viola’s mouth pulled as if she’d tasted rancid food. Only Harper’s expression remained impassive, although she took in the scene with keen interest.
“Richard adores me, Miri. Just as Arthur does,” Lizzie declared smugly.
None of it made sense. Miriam was beginning to believe it never would. But at least by being so open with the truth about Lizzie’s history today she had spared the other women present from the mistake of thinking Lizzie could be trusted.
Suddenly the tension made a nearly imperceptible shift. “Well, this has been a lovely visit, Mrs. Van Buren,” Lady Adele said briskly. “I believe it’s time for you to be going.”
Lizzie’s face crumpled. Then it twisted into a feral, frightening leer. It’s a startling transformation that chills Miriam’s blood. “Please, call me Lady Northcote. Once he comes to his senses, Richard will come back to me. It’s only a matter of time before I become a viscountess.”
Miriam froze. There was something deeply, deeply wrong with her friend. Harper exchanged a speaking look with her sister.
Before she could react, Lady Adele took Lizzie by the elbow and propelled her unwanted guest in the direction of the front door.
“What is wrong with her?” she demanded when she returned a moment later, without Lizzie.
“Delusional,” muttered Mrs. Kent darkly.
“Have you seen anything like it, Harper?” asked Viola with a questioning glance at her sister. “From your time in the asylum?”
“You were confined?” asked Lady Adele in astonishment.
“I worked in one as a doctor’s assistant, not as a patient,” Harper clarified. “Without knowing more specifics about her case, my best guess is that Mrs. Van Buren suffers from delusions of grandiosity and narcissism.”
“You’ll have to explain to us what that means,” said Viola. “For those of us without your education.”
“The doctor I worked for believed a narcissist was incapable of empathy and often exploits the people around them,” Harper explained. “It isn’t a medically recognized condition
, but we had a man at the asylum who exhibited similar traits. He was unbelievably difficult to manage for he believed nothing he did was wrong. Not even after he ruined his family’s business by cheating every supplier and customer while claiming to build an empire. It was very sad.”
“How is Lizzie’s behavior different from Richard’s?” Miriam blurted. Her heart pounded. What if she were simply a magnet for narcissists?
“Richard knows when his actions are wrong,” Harper said reassuringly. “There have been times when he didn’t care, but he always knew.” The countess patted the chair next to her. “No wonder you’ve been so quiet about your relationship with Richard. It sounds terribly complicated. Sit. Tell us everything.”
And for the next hour, Miriam did.
Chapter 28
The scrape of metal in the lock was Richard’s only warning before Miriam’s slim white-clad form appeared, ghost-like, in his room. He stilled in his chair and laid the book he’d been reading aside.
“Miri,” he whispered, his heart pounding. What was she doing here? In his bedroom?
“I saw Lizzie today,” she said in a tone full of emotion he could not parse.
“I am sorry. I have wondered what she’s been up to.”
“Something about her is not right. Harper called her a narcissist.” Miriam smiled tightly. “I think that if I had had better friends—real friends—I would’ve known sooner that Lizzie never valued me for myself. The other girls at school figured it out. I was an easy mark. As was Arthur, her husband. He wanted to be in love so badly.”
“I, too, was an easy target for her,” Richard observed. “I felt so ashamed, Miriam, after causing the fire. I was friendless but for Howard. I knew courting you was wrong. But then you looked up at me with your wide, innocent moon goddess eyes, and I couldn’t stop myself from wanting you.”
He reached for her hand. Miriam clasped his gently with her elegant fingers. “I am sorry,” he whispered. Miriam allowed him to draw her closer.
His wife came near enough that his knees brushed her skirt. “I forgive you. Let’s place the blame squarely where it belongs—on Lizzie.”
He stood up and brushed a curl back from her cheek. Miriam turned to meet his touch. “Agreed,” she murmured. “I wish to begin again. Starting now. Tonight
She nipped the pad of his thumb. Richard’s entire body shuddered with delight. He traced the upper arc of her lip, lingering over the little bow at the top. He felt lightheaded with desire as though all the blood in his body had shifted south. The familiar sweet ache of desire pooled in his belly.
He captured Miriam’s face gently between his palms. She inhaled which pushed her pert breasts against his chest. Their tips brushed teasingly against him. Richard slanted his mouth over hers as she tilted her face up to meet his. He gave her the kiss he’d yearned to give her for weeks. Unreserved. He licked her lower lip. Impatient with his gentleness, Miriam moaned and opened to him.
Richard plundered the warm heat of her mouth as he’d dreamed of doing every night. It was glorious. “Miriam,” he whispered against her. “Stay with me tonight.”
“Yes,” she murmured as she slid her hand beneath the loose hem of his shirt. “That is, after all, why I came here.”
Richard’s chuckle was silenced by her renewed kiss. “I had hoped as much.”
“I never want to leave your side,” she whispered. Richard found the soft mound of her breast and palmed it through the voluminous soft white fabric. “I don’t wish to request an annulment. I want to work this out with you the same way we have been working through the business. As partners in everything.”
“I love you, Miriam,” Richard ground out. “I love you far too much to permit you to risk your health.”
“Then help me manage it,” she demanded, pulling back. “At Briarcliff I found your conservatory. The air inside was lush and green. I always feel best when I am working in my garden. I must choose the plants carefully, but I know that living in the city would be manageable if I had a…a place to rest my lungs and recharge every day. I made my father add windows and plants to our house in New York. It made so much difference. Why couldn’t it work here?”
Richard chuckled. “My little hothouse flower.” He kissed her forehead and wrapped one forearm around her back to pull her closer. “It’s worth a try.”
“I also want to consult with doctors here to see if there are other treatments to help me. I loathe blacking out the way I did a few days ago.” Miriam’s nose crinkled. Richard’s heart swelled. He rubbed the bridge of her nose with the tip of one finger.
“Not to mention the severe fright you gave everyone.”
“That too,” Miriam grinned. “I do apologize.”
He kissed her. “Don’t leave me.”
“Take me to bed,” Miriam pleaded. Richard scooped her into his arms and crossed the few steps to the large bed curtained in red velvet. Her white gown spilled out across the cover. She sat up with a smile.
“There,” Richard teased. “Are you happy now?”
“Not yet,” Miriam smirked. She dragged her night rail up to reveal creamy calves. Her thighs appeared next, followed by the patch of tight curls at their apex. Richard’s breath hitched. If he’d felt lightheaded before, he was now on the verge of collapse.
“Miriam,” he gasped.
“Do you want me to stop?” she asked deceptively.
“No, keep going. In fact, do it slower. Torture me.”
Her eyes widened. Her movements slowed. Next came the indentation of her waist. She dropped the material as she struggled to raise the garment higher. Then there was a glimpse of the full bottoms of her breasts. Richard’s mouth watered. He groaned.
“Do you wish to see more, husband?” Miriam asked breathlessly.
“Everything, Miri. I want to see it all.” He gripped the bedpost so hard that the carved wood bit into his skin. Miriam let go of the bottom of her nightgown and for one heart-stopping second, Richard thought she was refusing him.
“I can’t get the buttons in the back undone,” she said softly. “Help me.”
Miriam shifted onto her knees, back facing him, and held her thick curls to the side. Richard fumbled with the tiny buttons.
“Do you remember the last time I touched these?” he asked.
“You stole the ribbon that gathered the front. It took me a full hour to thread through its replacement,” she sighed. “I thought about your kiss the entire time.”
“Did you?” Richard chuckled. The placket gaped, and he pulled the voluminous material up and over Miriam’s head. As he tossed it aside, Miriam whirled around and lay back against the pillows, fully naked. “You are gorgeous,” he mumbled hoarsely. His gaze zeroed in on the pink tips of her breasts.
“And you are wearing far too much clothing,” Miriam grinned. She shuffled forward on her hands and knees. Artless and unashamed of her exposed body, Miriam pushed his shirt down his shoulders.
“I have dreamt of seeing you like this ever since the day I came to the warehouse,” she whispered as Richard helped her by discarding his shirt. “So strong.”
“I couldn’t believe you did that,” he mumbled into her hair as he pressed her back onto the bed. “That was the day I knew that nothing could stop me from making you mine. I’ve never known a woman who was willing to risk her safety and reputation to come and find me. I was always disposable. With you, I felt needed. Essential.”
Miriam’s hands were everywhere, exploring his chest and arms and driving him crazy. Richard pressed her body into the soft bedding. She squeaked then as he palmed her breast.
“Yes,” she sighed, arching into his touch. Impossibly soft skin slipped beneath his hand. Richard tasted the taut bead of her nipple. Miriam groaned. The feminine sound went straight to his cock.
He skimmed his hand down her side and lazily explored the heated triangle that hid her sex. Gently he urged her thighs apart. Miriam yielded as she dropped her hand to his trousers and fumbled with a button
on his falls.
“All in good time, Miriam. Let me please you first.”
“I want this,” she whimpered.
“As do I.” He sank his fingers into her sex. Richard drank in her satisfied, half-astonished cry as he found the nub hidden between her slick folds and tortured it.
“Oh, please do that more,” Miriam panted. Her fingers scrabbled at his arms; whether feeling them or seeking purchase he didn’t know. All Richard knew was that he had never wanted to please a woman as badly as he did tonight. He refused to find his satisfaction until she had known hers. He complied with each soft, half-intelligible command.
“Stay still. Does this feel good to you?” he murmured against the tickling cloud of her curls. Richard kissed a path down the planes of her stomach. He flicked his tongue into her belly button. The tension between them built higher. He reached her sex and kissed her where her pleasure went deepest. She tasted of sea and salt and woman. The tiny nub begged for his quick licks and a slow, hard suck. Richard buried his fingers to the knuckles inside her as Miriam gripped his hair and writhed. She broke in a storm of incoherent murmurs.
“Yes. Oh, yes, Rich, I didn’t know, I didn’t know…”
“You didn’t know what?” he asked as he inched up the counterpane to lay beside her. A smug smirk pulled the corners of his mouth upward. He traced a lazy pattern over her belly.
“That it could feel this good,” she whispered. Miriam levered herself up onto her elbows, radiant with relaxed pleasure. “But, what about you?”
“Are you ready for me?” Physically she was, yet there was more to this joining than the enjoyment of the act. This made her his wife in truth, irrevocable. Tonight, they made private vows with their bodies. To trust and to hold safe. To protect and to love.
“Yes.”
A single word was all it required. Richard discarded his trousers and smalls with alacrity. Naked, he lay down and pulled Miriam over him. She sat on his thighs, gingerly stroking his manhood.
“Am I to put this where your fingers were a few minutes ago?” she asked in a low growl.
“That is typically how it’s done,” Richard gasped. “There are other options, but generally this is what people mean when they say intercourse.”
