Chapter 2 #2
“I…” She bit into her lip, withdrawing into herself. “No reason. I just… I did not wish to.”
“Come now,” he purred, resisting the urge to reach for her hand. “There is no need to be shy. Personally, I rarely come to these things myself. I am a simple man with simple needs. If you are the same, tell me now and win me over.” He laughed. “I have a feeling that you and I might have a lot in –”
“Iris!” From across the balcony, the voice cracked through their conversation like a whip splitting stone.
Iris’s eyes widened and they both turned just in time to see a young lady storming toward them.
One look at the angered woman told Victor she was Lady Iris Hawkins’ sister; she had the same pale skin and dark hair.
But she was curvy where her sister was lithe, her face was round where her sister’s was long and drawn.
Not as typically beautiful as Lady Iris Hawkins, and certainly not as pure and innocent.
“Ev – Eveline!” Lady Iris stammered. “I… I was just coming to find you.”
“I was worried,” the other woman, Eveline, apparently, said when she reached the two, ignoring Victor entirely while focusing on her sister. “Do not scare me like that.”
Lady Iris pushed her lips together. “I was not trying to scare you. I told you I…” She scrunched her face tight. “I wished for some time alone.”
“I am sorry, Iris,” Eveline said. “What happened earlier, I did not mean to be so…” She clicked her tongue. “Defensive. But you must know, I only want what is best for you. That is all I ever…”
“I know,” Lady Iris said softly. “I just wish you would not be so controlling. I get enough of that from Mother.”
“I know,” Lady Eveline laughed. “And please, if I am ever turning into our mother, you must warn me. I’ve had nightmares less terrifying.”
The two sisters laughed together, and Victor eyed the exchange curiously. Lady Iris is the one. Softer of the two, more easily commanded and controlled. This Lady Eveline… why does she look so familiar? And why do my hackles rise just to hear her speak?
“Excuse me,” Victor cleared his throat. “I do not mean to interrupt, but your sister and I were having a rather engaging conversation just now. Perhaps we might continue it?”
Lady Eveline stiffened as if she had only just now noticed Victor standing there. Then, slowly, she turned and fixed a look at him that he recognized well as she was far from the first lady to offer it to him without comment. “Your Grace, I did not see you standing there.”
“I presume you are Lady Iris’s sister?” he asked politely.
“You know I am,” she said sharply.
He frowned. “Do I? Forgive me, but have we met?”
“Why am I not surprised that you do not remember?” She rolled her eyes. “Oh, I know. The only women you pay attention to are those you plan on luring into bed like a witch luring children with candy.”
“Eveline!” Lady Iris cried.
Victor chuckled. “My reputation proceeds me. Albeit I do take umbrage with the characterization.”
She scoffed. “A tiger might hate his stripes, but they are his whether he wants them or not.”
Despite himself, Victor laughed. Oh sure, a part of him rose to anger because he was not used to being spoken to that way, but that was why he laughed when he should have snarled.
I do not think I’ve ever been spoken down to with such venom from someone I do not know… and few who I do, for that matter.
He stood himself up and remained calm, even cocky, as he flicked his eyes over Lady Eveline Hawkins.
He did so slowly, purposefully, letting her see the way he studied her.
Closer now, her face fully in the light, he decided that she was attractive like her sister, but her features were sharper and more pronounced; like a rose with thorns spearing through the petals.
It was the curves of her body that his eyes stayed on the longest, and he licked his lips so she could see the way he drank them in.
Better how her lips curl with disgust to see it too. Oh, she hates me!
“Let me guess…” He clicked his tongue. “You are somewhere in your early twenties. Possibly a younger sibling – older than Lady Iris, however. And where you have seen friends and family around you marry, you for reasons I can only guess at, have somehow remained unattached this whole time?” He laughed derisively. “Not that I need to guess too hard.”
Her eyes flashed with fury. “Easy to guess when you know well enough who I am.”
“I really do not. Frankly, I consider this a boon. Something tells me I have been blessed in my life so far for having not heard of you.”
Her lips curled further. “Lady Eveline Hawkins.” A pointed look. “My sister is Aurelia Hawkins, now married to His Grace, the Duke of Sutherford.”
That was when it all came together.
Victor might have remembered the name, but he could not remember the face that went with it. Odd that, as I rarely forget a pretty face.
Lady Eveline was, from memory, one of six children?
Her older sisters were married, one of whom was married to his closest friend, Gerald.
Victor had met the sisters a few times each, never bothering with committing those moments to memory because the sisters were all chaotic firestorms and strong-willed to a point of absurdity.
And clearly, this Lady Eveline was the same.
Ironically, this only made Lady Iris more interesting to Victor. She is a diamond in the rough, somehow managing to escape the trappings of her wild siblings.
“Lady Eveline Hawkins…” He laughed and shook his head. “Yes, now I remember. Just as I remember why I don’t remember you. Let us call it self-preservation.”
“A theme I pray continues,” Lady Eveline shot back as she snatched her sister by the hand. “As I will do everything I can to forget this little interaction also.” She went to pull Lady Iris away.
“Eveline, no…” Lady Iris attempted to pull away, clearly not wishing to be led.
“I understand your objections.” Victor moved to intercept, blocking off their retreat. “But as I was saying, I was having a pleasant conversation with your sister. One I would very much like to continue in.”
“She does not wish to.” Lady Eveline glared at him as she tried to step around his body. “Now, if you do not mind…”
“But I do.”
“Perhaps you would care to join us?” he added. “I know how it must look, your sister and I alone out here as we are. I assure you, that was not my intent.”
Lady Eveline snorted. “Oh, somehow I doubt that.”
“Shall we adjourn inside then?” he pressed, but only because he thought it might appease her. “I am happy to.”
“I do not care if you are happy to or not. We are going.” Again, she tried to pull her sister away.
“Eveline…” Lady Iris said again, pouting furiously as she looked to Victor with apology. “Please… I wish to stay…”
“Forget it, Iris. And you…” She stood up to Victor. “Will you please move. Or do I need to scream?”
Victor was standing before her, using his body to block her from leaving. Lady Eveline was mere inches away, much shorter than he, but with her chin pointed up so she could glare directly into his eyes. She held that glare on him, unblinking and fiery. And Victor… he enjoyed it a little too much.
A moment passed between them. What felt like energy pulsing so that he could feel her heart thundering in her chest. Or maybe that is my own?
The world dissolved around them. Fire engulfed them both.
And Victor could not recall a time when he had been so damn drawn to someone before.
A flare of heat rushed through his body, his pulse lit with it, and his heart nearly leapt from his chest so that he gasped.
Victor started and pulled back in surprise. What was that? He breathed heavily as he tried to catch his breath.
“Thank you,” Lady Eveline said, thinking that he had chosen to let them pass. “Pray we do not see you again.”
“Eveline, please…” Lady Iris was still pulling on her sister’s hands.
“No, Iris. Not this one.”
Victor came back into himself quickly, giving his head a shake as she spun about to see Lady Eveline pulling her sister away. “Pray that I do see you again, Lady Iris. I will count the days!”
Lady Iris’s eyes widened with glee, and her face split into a besotted smile. Lady Eveline, however, scowled at him a final time before dragging her sister back into the ballroom.
Alone now, Victor gave his head a shake, dispelling whatever that was that had happened between him and Lady Eveline.
A moment of surprise and nothing more. So rarely did anyone stand up to him like that, that it had caught him off guard, accounting for the tempestuous reaction. One that will not happen again.
What mattered was Lady Iris. Victor had come here tonight to find for himself an innocent, subservient bride to marry.
If he didn’t miss his guess, he had just found her.
Lady Iris would be his, and there was no force in this world capable of stopping him once he fixed his attention on it. Crazy sister or no.
“I told you, Mother, I am taking care of it,” Victor said as he stormed across the foyer and toward the front door. “And I do not appreciate being hounded like this.”
“Hounded! Ha!” His mother, the Dowager Duchess of Blackwood, cried as she followed him. “You will know when I am hounding you, Victor. I prefer to think of this as gentle pestering.”
“Call it what you will, the point remains, it is none of your business.”
“It is entirely my business!” His mother was in her fifty-sixth year, a tiny thing that looked frail and past her prime but possessed of the kind of strength that mountains might be jealous of.
She moved quickly through the foyer, stepping around Victor and blocking him off at the doorway.
“Now tell me, where are you going? And whom will you be seeing?”