Pleasuring the Lady (The Pleasure Wars) (7 page)

Her brow wrinkled. “You do?”

“Mother.” He spat the word like it was a curse. “We will now need to manage her differently.”

“What do you mean?” Portia asked, her heart beginning to race.

He smiled very slightly. “With your marriage, you will no longer live with her, so she will have no one to look after her regularly. You recall Mr. Raysome from the other night?”

“The one who runs the madhouse?” When Hammond looked at her in surprise, she nodded. “Yes, I know who he is. You cannot mean to send her there! I have heard stories about that horrible place.”

Hammond’s eyes darted away from hers at that accusation. “Well, what other choice will I have, sister? Do you think Miles will take her in? A madwoman who humiliates her family on a regular basis?”

“She is far more than that!” Portia protested.

Her brother ignored her interruption. “Especially after you have already trapped the man into wedding you.”

That stopped her. Miles wouldn’t even look at her the night before. He had to despise her.

“You are lucky, in truth, that he will even take you,” Hammond finished with a shake of his head.

She stared at him. “Why do you hate me? Hate her?”

For a moment, her brother held perfectly still, as if he was trying to manage his reaction. But she saw tiny cracks that showed anger, despair, that showed her how powerfully he felt about their situation, even if he covered it all up.

“You are lucky, Portia, not to have to deal with the consequences of our father’s irresponsibility with money. With our mother’s outbursts that are so public and so frequent. And with a sister who cannot seem to help by marrying a damn peer.”

Portia’s jaw tightened and she shoved to her feet. “If you think I have not suffered as many consequences as you have for all those facts, Hammond, you are a fool of the highest order. I’m going home. I think we have nothing else to say to each other that will not only make this situation worse.”

He stared at her, apparently taken aback by her sudden ability to say no to him. He shrugged.

“Very well. I will join you there at two for our meeting with Weatherfield. Do try to keep Mother from ruining everything, will you?”

Portia fought a sudden urge to scream at her selfish brother and instead turned on her heel and went to her carriage. She felt a strange sense of satisfaction that she could walk away from Hammond with little consequence to herself now that she would not live under his rules or punishments any longer.

But the problem was that her mother still would. And she had no idea how to save her.

Chapter Five

“Great God, Miles!”

Miles flinched as his sister once again paced across the carpet in her parlor.
 

“Darling, won’t you sit?” her husband, Viscount Richard Brinforth asked, watching her as closely as Miles did. “At this rate you shall wear a rut in the carpet.”

Tennille shot her husband a dark glare, though Miles was certain there was a smile twitching at her lips. They had been married for five years now and had a child, so he was always taken aback when he saw the quick flashes that proved their enduring love for each other.

That was something he had convinced himself could not exist.

“What were you
thinking
?” his sister pressed, taking her seat as she had been asked.

Miles squeezed his eyes shut, and immediately images of the woman at the masquerade flooded his mind. Thoughts of the softness of her lips, the passion of her response and the horror of the realization that it had been Portia he had been seducing all along.

“I had no idea who she was,” he said, his voice rough.
 

His sister’s lips pursed and she sent a highly disapproving look in the direction of her husband. “I suppose that is meant to make me feel better?”

Richard lifted his eyebrows. “It certainly means you brother had no intention to ruin a lady, Tennille. You must give him that credit.”

Miles smiled at his brother-in-law, grateful for anyone on his side.

Tennille sighed heavily. “I suppose that is true. But, oh, Miles. Forced into marriage by scandal!”

Miles shrugged. “You have railed on me so often about the choices I make in my life, I am surprised you haven’t expected this outcome all along.”

Tennille drew back at the bitterness in his tone. She softened her own considerably when she murmured, “My dearest brother, I know you. You are decent despite your every attempt at being a libertine. I
always
expect the best from you.”

He frowned at her warmth and love. He appreciated it, but it did make this situation cut all the deeper.
 

“Then you must be highly disappointed,” he said, lifting his hands in mock surrender.

“It could be worse,” Richard offered, pouring Miles a sherry that made his sister huff out her breath in frustration. Her husband ignored her. “Lady Portia seems a nice-enough girl.”

Miles arched a brow as he took the drink. “High praise indeed.”

Tennille sank into a chair and shook her head. “You cannot judge Richard for his tepid compliments. She has left little impression beyond that. She keeps to herself and seems happy with her wallflower status.”

Miles pursed his lips, thinking of how many times he had watched Portia sink against the wall, trying to make herself invisible. She had never seemed happy to him.
 

“She has her reasons,” he said softly.

“Her mother, you mean,” Tennille said with a slight shake of her head. “And the troubles her father had and brother seems intent on continuing?”

Miles felt anger rising in him as he recalled Cosslow’s cruel words and demeanor toward Portia. He was furious with her, himself, but she had not deserved such censure.

“Yes,” he managed to grind out past clenched teeth.

“What I wonder is why a lady of high breeding would be seen at such a scandalous place at all,” Richard said with disbelief in every syllable. “It seems so outside of the quiet, reserved character she has always presented to the world.”

Miles frowned. It
was
against Portia’s character to go to the hells. But she had a reason, didn’t she? A man she admitted she cared for. The Earl of Windbury,
Liam
.
 

His mouth was flooded by a sour taste and he shook his head. “I assure you, all these questions will be addressed by me.” He glanced at the clock. “But for now I am meant to meet with Portia and her brother to finalize the terms of the marriage.”

Tennille caught her breath as she got to her feet. “Oh, Miles.”

He leaned over to press a kiss to her cheek. “I am sorry, my dear, for any shame I have caused you.”

His sister’s expression softened and she reached out to catch his hand. As she squeezed his fingers, she said, “When everything is arranged, bring Portia here for supper.”

Miles stared at her. “Truly?”

“Of course!” Tennille laughed. “She is to be my sister, no matter the circumstances. Richard and I will welcome her with open arms into our family.”

Miles looked at his brother-in-law, who was smiling and nodding in total agreement.

“Thank you,” he said softly as he released Tennille’s hand. “You are kind.”

“We are family,” Tennille said as she and Richard escorted him to their front door. “That means something.”

But as Miles moved to his waiting horse, he couldn’t help but think of how different the concept of family was to Portia. And wonder how things would change now that his hand had been forced and his future determined with one searing kiss.

When her carriage pulled into the drive after she had left her brother and their heated exchange, Portia tensed. There was a fine carriage already waiting there.
 

“Now what?” she muttered as she climbed down without the help of her Judas of a driver and strode toward the house. Quickly she recognized the seal on the side of the rig.

“Ava,” she breathed, happy for the first time since the greatest nightmare of her life had begun the previous evening. She rushed inside, waving a hello to Potts before she burst into the sitting room.

Ava was perched on the edge of Portia’s worn settee with a pot of tea before her and a few small cakes. Poor Potts, those were probably all they had for later in the day, but Portia didn’t care about being hungry at the moment.

“I’m so glad to see you,” she burst out as her friend got to her feet. The two women embraced and Portia only barely stopped herself from bursting into tears right there and then.

Finally they pulled apart and Ava motioned for Portia to join her on the settee.
 

“Tell me everything,” her friend said without preamble.

Portia took a deep breath and then launched into her tale. Ava said nothing as she spoke, but leaned back. Her only reactions were the occasional lift of her eyebrows in surprise and tiny smiles at certain, very wicked interludes in Portia’s tale.

Finally, Portia flopped back against the settee, almost as exhausted by the retelling as she was by the experience itself.

“You went there to find my brother, didn’t you?” Ava said softly.

Portia turned her face. She had left out that part so that Ava wouldn’t feel responsible for this strange turn her life had taken. Plus, she hadn’t wanted Ava to guess the feelings she had long kept to herself. Feelings for Liam. Ones she had been so very willing to set aside in order to put herself in the arms of another man.

What kind of person was she?
 

“I’m afraid I did,” she admitted, shaking away her troubling thoughts before Ava questioned her further about them. “After our conversation, I very much wanted to help you.”

“Then I am sorry my troubles had a hand in the consequences you now face,” Ava sighed. She lifted her gaze. “Did you—did you find—?”

Portia reached across and covered her friend’s hand gently. “No. I thought I saw him last night, but he vanished into the crowd too quickly to confirm it. It may not have been him at all.”

Her friend’s face crumpled with disappointment. “Then it was all for naught.”

“No, not all,” Portia reassured her. “After all, I also went to that place and did what I did for—for other reasons.”

“Which were?” her friend pressed, tone undecipherable.

Portia huffed out a breath for she was about to make a most shocking confession. Already heat flooded her cheeks.

“You kept telling me I deserved wickedness and my mother was talking about me having fun and even Miles said something to me at a ball about what I should and shouldn’t do. I don’t know. I thought I
could
do something wild and unpredictable. But I should have known I would be punished for such thoughts.”

Ava let out a gasp. “Is that what you think this is? Punishment?”

“Indeed it is. The world is raining down a heap of pain for my sins, isn’t it?”
 

Ava shook her head. “Is it so terrible? I thought you and Miles were friends as children.”

“We
were
, though I am certain he now hates me. And why wouldn’t he? I have stolen his future with my impulsive behavior.” She shook her head. “And the talk…well, it must be very bad.”

Ava shifted. “What makes you think that?”

“You were here without my calling you to me,” Portia said with a shake of her head. “Which means you heard of my plight from some other source. Likely one that very much enjoyed sharing the details with you.”

Ava swallowed hard and her pale face told Portia all she needed to know. “I won’t tell you untruths. Yes, the word of your shocking appearance at the Donville Masquerade and your brother catching you in the arms of the Marquis Weatherfield are spreading like wildfire through our circles.”

Portia covered her face. “Damn. Then I really have made an utter cock-up of everything, haven’t I?”

“Perhaps not entirely. There are some who seem to hold you in high regard for catching a man after all these years,” Ava said, trying to have a bright tone.

Portia rolled her eyes at her friend. “As if I went into the place looking to get caught this humiliating way?” She hesitated and her heart sank as a new terrible thought entered her mind. “Great God, you don’t think
Miles
believes that, do you?”

Ava shrugged. “There is no telling what he believes. You should ask him, it is the most direct way of determining such things.”

“I’m having a difficult time picturing that conversation,” Portia sighed. In truth, she was having a difficult time picturing Miles in any scenario except for one where his mouth and hands were on her.
 

A wanton, she had surely become.

“What of your brother?” Ava said, shattering any pleasant wayward thoughts in Portia’s mind.

She shook her head in surrender. “Hammond continues to despise me, though I believe he revels in the rich brother-in-law he will receive. I’m certain in his mind he has already gambled away whatever settlement they will come to. But even still he threatens punishment.”