Regency 02 - Betrayal (7 page)

“Lord Nobody? Very clever, I must say,” Adam
responded dryly.

“Is everything all right?” Raven poked her
head into the room, her dark eyes bright with curiosity. “Have you
need of anything?”

“A straitjacket, perhaps?” Adam said beneath
his breath. He smiled at his mistress. “No, Raven, we’re fine. But
have a tea tray sent up in about an hour.”

Raven threw a worried look at Bri, nodded and
left.

When Adam returned his attention to his
guest, he noticed her face was drained of color and she was
trembling. Her hands were wreaking havoc with the counterpane and
she seemed to be staring at nothing. What the devil was wrong? He
was out of his chair and beside her on the bed within two
heartbeats. He reached out to touch her and she flinched away from
him.

“That was not amusing,” she whispered.

Adam sat on the bed beside her, nonplussed by
her comment. “What wasn’t amusing?”

“Straitjackets are horrible things. I
couldn’t move and I couldn’t get away. It was horrible.”

Adam took her by the shoulders and turned her
towards him. The thought in his mind was too terrible to
contemplate. Her eyes held more than just the horror of being alone
and wondering where the next meal would come from and when. She
looked lost in a memory too traumatic for words. She reminded him
very much of Verena Northwicke when that young matron had told him
of her rape. He shuddered.

“Bri, what are you saying?” She remained
silent. He shook her a little. “Tell me!”

She met his gaze unblinkingly and loosened
her clenched hands to grip the lapels of his riding coat.

“Oh my God,” Adam breathed. “They locked you
in a madhouse.” He saw the truth in her eyes and he drew her
against his chest, rubbing her back soothingly. He felt her start
to shake then her arms went around his waist and she held him so
tight he found it difficult to draw a deep breath.

He didn’t want to believe it was her family
that had done such a hateful thing. He was unsure exactly who
they
were, but someone had done a terrible disservice to
this vibrant, lively girl. They had destroyed her innocence and
taken away every dream a young girl has about her life and the love
she will one day find.

She was crying. Not wrenching sobs, but quiet
weeping that cut right to his heart. She was genuinely distressed.
It wasn’t a ploy to gain his sympathy or sway his decision. It was
fear and terror.

“Bri, you’re okay now, love. Don’t cry,
please.”

With the tears finally abating and the fear
receding, Bri was able to regain control of her rioting emotions.
She was disgusted with herself for losing control but she hadn’t
thought of that time in the madhouse for so very long. She’d had no
idea the mere thought would freeze her back in time.

She pulled out of Adam’s arms and only then
realized when she looked into his worried countenance that he had
been very comforting and tender. Her heart gave a little leap in
her breast.

She took a deep breath. “I apologize for that
unseemly display, Adam. It was unlike me.”

“Yes, it was,” he replied thoughtfully,
making no move to leave her side. He found the bed a good sight
more comfortable than the hell-chair and decided he wasn’t moving
unless she actually asked him to do so.

He wasn’t going to move, she thought. She
wanted him to move. She didn’t like his concern. It made her think
things she had no business thinking about. Like how good it felt to
be held by him. And what it would feel like to have his lips
pressed to hers. Her body responded to the thought and she cursed
it roundly for being such a traitor. Adam Prestwich was the
enemy.

She wanted to tell him to move. She wanted to
tell him to get out. Of her life, preferably. But there was really
nothing she could do. If he wanted to sit on the bed, so be it.

“Now, where was I?”

“You were supposed to marry Lord, uh,
Nobody
, I believe,” Adam supplied helpfully. He turned so he
was facing her, crossed his arms over his chest and prepared to be
amazed at her powers of invention.

She smiled faintly. “Lord Nobody, yes. Well,
I couldn’t do that. I told them I wouldn’t do that. Corning held a
counsel of war with the rest of the family. They told me it was
Lord…Nobody or he would put me, he would…he would send me away.”
She looked down at her tightly clasped hands, unable to meet his
eyes.

“Put you…where?” Adam asked.

“Exactly where he did put me, in a
madhouse.”

Her voice was blank, her face was blank, but
that haunted look was dawning in her wide eyes again. “No, love.
Stay here with me. What happened next?”

It was the endearment that snapped her out of
it. Her eyes narrowed as he watched her. “My cousin succeeding in
freeing me. Then he had to leave and I was again on my own. So I
ran away and here we are,” she ended on a derogatory note.

“Yes, here we are. And you spent the
intervening time working where you could and doing what you had to
in order to survive, correct?”

She eyed him suspiciously. “Yes, why?”

Adam smiled blandly. “Just trying to
reconcile a few things in my own mind, that’s all.”

“Why don’t you just ask me if I was whoring
on the streets to keep from starving?” she snapped angrily.

His curiosity got the better of him. “Why did
you not just set yourself up as some man’s mistress? You have the
beauty and the spirit to be a first-class courtesan.”

“Thank you for that assessment of my
character, Mr. High and Mighty. I didn’t take a protector because I
couldn’t stand the thought of what I’d have to do with the bloody
bastard. Men are all disgusting pigs.”

Adam peered closely at her, moving his head
from side to side as if looking for something. His intense look was
making Bri decidedly nervous.

“What?’

“I am sure there is a lady in there
somewhere,” Adam responded with a thoughtful frown. He shook his
head sadly. “No, perhaps not. She must have died some time ago, I
should imagine.”

“She did,” Bri retorted dryly. “I killed
her.”

Adam had to smile at that. She certainly was
an interesting young lady.

He sought to bring their discussion back to
the subject they needed to explore. “If you couldn’t stand the
duties of a mistress, how did you, to use your own words, sell
yourself on the streets?”

“I didn’t. I’ve been raped several times but
I have never consented to having relations with any man.” Her voice
was dead and her eyes were closed as she said this.

He was amazed at her calm tone. He felt his
own heart stop and then speed up alarmingly. He wanted to destroy
every bastard who ever touched her. He was disgusted by his own
intense feelings and further disgusted by his readiness to believe
her protestations.

He stood and bowed. He had to get away from
her before she managed to make him believe the whole sordid tale.
“I have some business to attend to this afternoon, my lady. I will
leave you in Raven’s capable hands.”

“What was that all about?” Raven asked as she
directed the maid with the tea tray.

Bri shrugged but said nothing.

“Very well,” Raven replied equably. “Would
you like tea, my dear?”

“I think I would like to rest,” Bri answered
wearily.

She did sound tired, Raven thought
compassionately. She wondered what Adam had been thinking to tax
her about her past at such a time. Raven would swear that sometimes
the man was completely oblivious.

“Would you like to eat something first? You
really must if you are to regain your strength.”

“Oh, very well,” Bri replied ungraciously.
“Just so you leave me alone.”

Raven complacently placed a tray over the
young lady’s lap and handed her a spoon. “Do you think you can
manage on your own?” she asked with quiet concern.

“What the devil is this rot?” Bri exclaimed
as she examined the bowl before her, ignoring Raven’s inquiry.

“That rot, as you so quaintly put it, is
cook’s never-fail remedy for ailing strength. She says you are to
drink every last drop or you’ll have her to contend with.” Raven
smiled brilliantly. “And I reckon Adam will be back in here to put
a bug in your ear as well.”

“Let him, I’m not eating that slop,” Bri
responded querulously.

“If you don’t get your strength back,” the
actress retorted slyly, “then how do you suppose you will be able
to escape Adam again?”

Bri shot her a penetrating look. Then she
grinned. “You’re right, you know. I wouldn’t want him to get lazy
and fat just because I neglected to give him a run for his
money.”

“That’s the spirit! Now eat it all. Can you
manage?” she asked again.

“Yes, you can go beard the lion in his den as
I know you are itching to do,” Bri replied with a smile.

Raven smiled back and that was the start of a
most unconventional friendship between a titled lady of good birth
and upbringing and a confessed lady of the night.

Adam was in his study going over his accounts
when Raven entered the room. Her wool skirts swirled around her and
he wondered why she still insisted on wearing her “governess”
costumes when everyone knew who she was and what she was to
him.

“To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?”
Adam asked politely as he rose from his chair.

“I’m curious,” his mistress commented as she
came around to his side of the desk and put her arms around his
waist. She looked up at him with a benign expression on her
beautiful face. “Do you want her dead or do you just delight in
tormenting her?”

Adam placed his hands on Raven’s shoulders.
His voice was calmly inquiring when he replied but his eyes held
dangerous sparks. “What business is that of yours, my dear?”

“I like her, Adam. I won’t let you destroy
her.”

“As I’ve destroyed you?” he asked
quietly.

Raven felt a lump in her throat. Did she
secretly blame Adam for her own lack of moral conviction? She
supposed she did, somewhat. But how on earth would he guess such a
thing?

Adam tensed his hands on her shoulders. Her
black eyes met his with a look of such bewildered sadness that he
was taken aback.

“You do believe that. You think I destroyed
you.” It was not a question. Adam felt hurt that she would blame
him. If she had simply said something, he never would have taken
her on.

“Please don’t change the subject,” she said
in an attempt to draw his attention away from her. “I want to know
what you plan to do with that poor girl.”

“And I want to know why you accepted my offer
of protection when it wasn’t what you wanted,” he countered softly.
His eyes held an implacable look of determination. “Who do you
think is going to get their way?”

Raven found herself weakening under the
onslaught of tenderness she saw in his eyes. She was not naïve
enough to believe he was in love with her. She knew it was nothing
more than a pleasurable arrangement for him to keep her. She even
knew he liked her most of the time. But she never considered he
might actually care for her as anything more than a release for
pent-up emotions.

Raven squeezed her eyes tightly shut against
the tears that threatened.

Adam regarded his mistress steadily. He
reached out and wiped away a tear that escaped her tightly closed
eyes. He wondered if she was in love with him.

He knew he wasn’t in love with her. He
realized his world would be just as painful and barely tolerable
with or without her in it. But he did care about her. He imagined
love went much deeper than mere caring.

If she were to tell him right this moment
that she had found somebody new, he would let her go with nothing
more than a thought as to if the man would treat her as she
deserved. If so, he would be happy to let her go. It was a strange
realization to have about the woman one was holding so closely in
one’s arms at the very moment the thought occurred.

Her eyes opened and her pain was visible and
deeply touching. Why had he ever agreed to take her on? he wondered
again. He had known beforehand that she was innocent. All he’d had
to do was tell her he had no dealings with virgins.

You didn’t believe her,
a voice
taunted him.

Of course, he hadn’t believed her. She was a
woman, after all. All women lied to achieve their goals. Look at
Lady Rothsmere. She was a prime example of scheming womankind. And
he didn’t believe a word she said about her family.

Or so he told himself.

“Do you love me?” he asked abruptly.

Raven started. “Do I love you?” she repeated
numbly, her emotions still whirling from his unusual kiss. “I
suppose I do, in a way. Why?”

“I don’t know,” Adam replied thoughtfully.
“It just seemed important to ask, that’s all.”

Raven laid her head on his shoulder. His hand
came up to rest on the back of her neck and just stayed there, his
thumb stroking the side of her neck in a comforting pattern. They
stood like that for a while before Raven sighed and stepped away
from him.

“I am very disappointed in myself,” she told
him tartly. “I came here to beard the lion in his den and then
allowed said lion to distract me from my task. Shame on me.” She
smiled.

Adam steered her to a chair and then sat down
himself. “Beard away,” he replied with a little less than his usual
cynicism.

“What are your plans for Miss Bri?”

“Miss Bri? Has she still not told you who she
is, then?”

“No she has not. But I think she will, given
time.”

“What makes you think that?” he asked, truly
perplexed.

Raven favored him with an amused, mysterious
grin. “Just a feeling I have.”

Adam quirked an eyebrow at her and his lips
curled into a half-smile. “Indeed?”

“Indeed,” she replied confidently. “I have a
feeling we are bound to be friends.”