A Matter of Sin (13 page)

“I am being a complete libertine and watching you dress,” he said, his voice rough. “I find it is quite pleasurable.”

Isabel glanced down. His erection was outlined against his breeches. She shivered at the sight.

“You
do
appear uncomfortable, my lord,” she said softly. “Perhaps I shouldn’t go after all.”

He shut his eyes briefly, and the desire on his face was patently clear.

“Such temptation. But no. We
must
part, no matter how little I wish for it. But I swear that I shall save all my desire, all my passion, for our next meeting.”

Isabel blinked. Their next meeting. She hadn’t been certain he would desire one, but her heart soared at the thought that this night would be repeated.

“I-I look forward to that,” she whispered, then put her mind to slipping into her gown.

Facing him fully, she made a slow show of buttoning her dress.

“Minx,” he growled when she finished, his expression sensual and rather dangerous.

Isabel laughed and took the arm he offered. Awareness crackled in the very air around them as she touched him. He led her to the cottage door.

There he faced her, and the teasing between them faded. Isabel stared as he broke the privacy of their temporary sanctuary by opening the door to the outside. To reality.

“Thank you for tonight,” Seth whispered as he dropped a kiss to her forehead.

Isabel could scarcely respond as she looked up at him, reliving all the heated moments they had shared in one passionate burst.

“Tomorrow,” he whispered. “After the night’s gathering has ended, you will join me here again.”

She nodded as she pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “Yes. But if you are going to ‘save’ all your passion for me, then it seems only fair that this time
you
shall choose something from the book to indulge in during our time together.”

His eyes went wide at her suggestion, but she didn’t allow him time to respond. Instead she slipped from the cottage and hurried back toward the main house. For the first time in as long as she could remember, she felt giddy and young and filled with shy and hopeful passion.

And she never wanted it to end.

Chapter Fourteen

“Be careful who you share your passions with. An ill-placed word could lead to impossible consequences.”
—The Ladies Book of Pleasures

By the next evening, Isabel’s giddy pleasure had faded and all the worries and fears Seth had soothed away with his touch returned in full force. She questioned everything they had shared the night before, from the moral to the social implications. Every time Seth spoke to someone and then glanced her way, she irrationally wondered if he was speaking of his conquest.

Those worries were certainly not eased by the fact that she hadn’t spoken to him directly all day. He had been busy with various concerns and had made no move to interact with her. Her mind was active with all the things that could mean. None of the options she had struck upon were positive.

She turned so that she would stop staring at him and found herself face-to-face with a gentleman who, unlike Seth, had made
every
effort to seek her out during her time in the shire.

“Why, Sir Gregory,” she said with a friendly smile for the older gentleman who was approaching her with a wide and open expression on his kind face. “I wondered where you were—I had not seen you tonight.”

Sir Gregory Foxfire gave a flourished bow before he replied, “My invitation to the fete was delivered quite late, my lady. But I could not refuse it, despite the ill-timed arrival. There was too much here to tempt me.”

He inclined his head toward her and Isabel couldn’t help but blush at the implication that
she
was at least one reason for his eagerness to attend. Still, even as he flirted with her she felt no stir in her heart, nor in her loins.

She glanced over her shoulder and saw that Seth was now speaking to a small group of young ladies who were leaning in toward him like he had hung the moon. She frowned. Clearly she was not on
his
mind.

“Well, I am pleased you have come.” She returned her wayward attention to him with a slight smile. “I have enjoyed our conversations.”

“As have I, my lady.”

Isabel forced herself to settle into this one. “You’ve lived in this village a good many years, have you not?”

He nodded. “Oh yes. My father had a little home here, so I visited all my life. I love the simplicity of this place. And now my children love living here as much.”

“You have children?” she asked.

The older man smiled and it was clear his feelings toward his offspring were warm indeed. “Two. Adelaide is five and Hugo, seven. Their dear mother departed us two years ago.”

Isabel nodded with a proper expression of sympathy. She did feel for this man and his young children.

“I have heard you raised your sisters, did you not?” Sir Gregory asked as he motioned his head toward Serena in the distance. Her sister’s laughter tinkled through the hall, drawing warm smiles from all who heard it. “And a wonderful job you did of it. You are clearly a natural mother figure.”

Isabel’s smile fell slightly as she realized his implication. That as if by raising her sisters, she would be more attuned to raising the children of another woman.

“Thank you,” she said with forced lightness. “I do love my sisters, though I have to wish that circumstances had not forced me to play mama to them.”

“Of course.” Sir Gregory was serious. “I understand that wish entirely too well myself. But once we are forced into terrible circumstances, we either thrive or falter. It seems you thrived.”

The pretty compliments and the apparent reasons behind them were beginning to grate on Isabel. She didn’t
want
to be seen as a martyr who would rise to the occasion. Not by a man courting her, certainly.

She forced a smile and then looked over the gentleman’s shoulder in the hopes that she could find a means to escape his attention. With relief, she found Grace in the crowd.

“Oh, I see my friend motioning to me,” she lied. “I must excuse myself, but I hope we will soon speak again.”

Sir Gregory nodded. “Indeed, my lady.”

Isabel slipped away with a sigh of relief and made her way to Grace’s side.

Her friend sipped her drink before she asked, “Is Sir Gregory on the lookout for a new wife and mother to his babes?”

“Indeed, it seems so.” Isabel sighed. “And apparently I have the characteristics he requires in a new wife.”

“And what are those exactly?”

“I raised my sisters and they survived,” Isabel said as she took a glass of her own from the table behind them and sipped from it.

“Well, if you took on his charges,
you
might not.” Grace glanced at him. “I have heard his children are little hellions. He cannot keep a governess for more than a week at stretch. A wife cannot escape so easily.”

Isabel couldn’t help but giggle at her friend’s dry delivery. “Oh, he is a good man, though. And his love for his children is admirable. Only I’m not on the hunt for a good man or to be a replacement mama.”

“You want a little fun,” Grace suggested.

With a nod, Isabel said, “Yes, indeed.”

“And
that
is why your eyes keep moving in Lord Lyndham’s direction.”

Isabel froze. She had very purposefully avoided the subject of Seth in her recent conversations with Grace in the hopes that her friend would believe she had lost interest. Apparently not.

“You exaggerate,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “I look no more at Lord Lyndham than I do at any man in the room.”

Grace stifled a very unladylike snort. “Well, now I
know
you are pretending since your denial is far too obvious. I have eyes in my head, you know.”

Isabel glared at her friend. “You look for things that aren’t there. I was attracted to Lord Lyndham when we arrived, but I’ve found it was a passing folly. Nothing more.”

To her surprise, Grace was utterly silent. She stared at Isabel for a long, charged moment and then turned her attention back to the dance floor. “If you say so, my dear.”

Isabel shifted. It seemed she had dodged a huge problem, at least for the moment, but somehow she felt less than satisfied by that fact. Especially since when she allowed herself to look for Seth from the corner of her eye, she found he was still in deep conversation with young ladies with far fewer years and far more appropriateness than she herself possessed.

When Seth’s mother approached him with Sir Gregory Foxfire at her side, Seth had to suppress the urge to glare openly at the other gentleman. The man had been a neighbor to his family for as long as he could recall. In fact, Seth had always liked him, but now he could hardly stand to look at him. Not when he recalled the gentleman standing with Isabel, laughing with her, holding her attention for far longer than was necessary for mere polite conversation.

His mother, oblivious to her son’s feelings, smiled as she asked, “Seth, my dear, did you say hello to Sir Gregory?”

Seth extended a hand in greeting and forced what he hoped was a smile, not a grimace. “Sir Gregory.”

As the man said hello, Seth seethed. In truth, he had tried to keep Sir Gregory from this party, holding back his invitation until the very last moment.

“Will you gentlemen excuse me? The footmen are doing something odd with the seating by the dance floor edge,” his mother said as she disappeared toward the offending servants.

Once she was gone, Sir Gregory turned toward Seth with an expression that was nothing but friendly. Seth almost felt sorry for hating the man.

Until Sir Gregory said, “I must admit I’m happy to have your ear privately. I have something I wish to ask you about.” He shook his head. “No,
someone
.”

Seth clenched his fists at his sides. There was only one
someone
he could think of that both he and Sir Gregory shared an interest in.

“Oh?” he asked, unable to keep his voice from being thin and angry.

“Yes,” Sir Gregory continued, apparently unaware of Seth’s feelings, for his smile never faltered. “During your country gathering I have had the pleasure of speaking to Lady Avenbury several times.”

Seth barely maintained his composure. “Indeed.”

“Yes, and
what
a lady I have found her to be.” Sir Gregory’s eyes grew distant, as if he was picturing Isabel even now.

“Have you?” Seth asked on the barest of breaths.

His companion nodded. “I am most impressed not only by her beauty, but her poise and grace and overall manner. I would be interested in perhaps pursuing her company beyond this party, and yet I wanted to know a bit more about her. I
would
ask your mother or one of the other ladies, but you know how they talk. I wouldn’t wish to cause the lady in question any embarrassment by creating gossip. I have the impression she wouldn’t like that kind of attention much.”

Seth pursed his lips. The man didn’t know it, but he was asking
far
too much.

“I wouldn’t really know, sir,” Seth said with a shrug.

“Oh.” Sir Gregory’s face fell slightly. “Ah, well, I thought since she was invited that perhaps she had an intimate relationship with your family.”

Seth flashed to a powerful image of Isabel spread across the bed in the gatehouse. He could still feel the paradise of sliding into her hot and heavenly body. And he could still taste her earthy flavor on his tongue. Certainly
that
was intimate.

“No,” he finally managed to grind out past clenched teeth. “Not with the family.”

“Oh, of course,” Sir Gregory said with a shake of his head and a wave of his hand across the room. “How silly of me. You must have an interest in her sister—
that
is why Lady Avenbury is here. An excellent choice, my lord. Lady Serena is a lovely girl.”

Seth looked in the direction Sir Gregory had indicated and found Isabel’s sister amongst the partygoers. She was wearing a pale blue gown that was very flattering and her hair was done in a pretty style that accentuated her lovely face.

And with all that, she did nothing to move him.

He shot a side-glance toward Sir Gregory, who seemed to be waiting for him to respond. He could have been honest, but there would be no use to that. In fact, it would likely only encourage the other man to continue his line of questioning about Isabel.

“Who would not think her lovely?” Seth asked with another false smile.

“She is with another suitor now—you might think of approaching her,” the other man suggested helpfully.

Seth ground his teeth. The last thing he wanted to do was dance with Isabel’s sister as if he had designs on her. But now he was caught in this lie and he had to follow it through or risk raising suspicion.

“A fine idea,” he said, “I thank you.”

Sir Gregory waved him on toward Serena, and Seth slowly walked in the young woman’s direction. As he drew nearer, the girls around her noticed his approach and began to titter with unfettered excitement. His heart sank. The giggling younger women often grated on his nerves.

“Good evening, ladies,” he said as he reached their group.

The young women said their hellos with a breathlessness that revealed their excitement as much as their flushed cheeks and bright eyes did. They were so different from Isabel and her more subtle attractions and reactions. And yet,
she
was considered inappropriate for him, despite their more well-matched temperaments and interests.

He sighed before he asked, “I wondered, Lady Serena, if you have an open spot on your dance card?”

Serena’s eyes went wide, but she recovered herself swiftly and nodded. “Indeed, my lord. I have the next dance free.”

Seth stifled a groan. How could that be possible? He had so hoped she would have her entire night filled.

“Wonderful,” he said with forced lightness. “Then may I?”

She nodded as she took his offered arm and followed him to the dance floor. As the music lifted again, they moved. Seth looked for Isabel as they spun around the floor, but couldn’t find her in the milling crowd.

“Thank you for asking me to be your partner,” Serena said, dragging him from thoughts of her sister. “I shall be the envy of my friends.”

Seth smiled at her honesty. It made him like her a bit more. “I’m certain you already are, Lady Serena. I never hear anything but good about you.”

She blushed rather prettily. “Oh, if that is true, it is all because of my dear sister.”

With a start, Seth looked again at the girl. He had been forced into this dance by circumstance and societal expectation, but now he realized it could play in his favor. Who knew Isabel better than her beloved younger sister? If he tried a few subtle questions, he might have a whole new insight into the woman he had made his lover.

“She raised you, did she not?” he asked with caution.

Serena nodded and for a brief moment Seth glimpsed what kind of lady she would grow up to be. Something more like her sister, he thought. More serious. More thoughtful.

“Yes,” she said softly. “After our parents died, Isabel and her husband took my sister and me in and raised us just as though we were their own.”

“And what kind of man was Lord Avenbury?” Seth asked. The curiosity he felt about the last man who had been in Isabel’s bed was overwhelming, and she refused to answer questions about him. “I admit, I don’t recall him very well.”

The young woman’s face became troubled by sadness. “Oh, he was the very best of men. I’m sure it was a burden for him to take us, but we never felt it. He was so kind.”

Seth frowned. He had only been thinking of Isabel’s late husband as her lover. He hadn’t thought of the other parts of their marriage. Now he wondered if she had loved him. If she still did.

He saw Sir Gregory alongside the dance floor, watching the two of them with a satisfied, knowing smile. There was no doubt the other man would court Isabel in every way proper. He wasn’t interested in a lover, but a bride.

“Do—do you think your sister would wish to marry again?” he asked Serena.

She drew in a quick breath. “Oh my goodness,” she burst out. “Wouldn’t that be wonderful? How I would love to see her married a second time.”