Chapter 6
Vaughn had been too shocked to deny Evelina her kiss, and the entire endeavor ended too swiftly for him to really feel it.
She released his neck and tucked her arm around his waist, pulling herself up close to him.
He looked at Southwater, his former friend, his most hated enemy, and he saw the bright anger and jealousy in the duke’s stare.
Oh, how he loved to see it. Loved to see even a fraction of the pain that this man had created in his selfish wake be revisited on him. He put his arm around Evelina in return and smiled broadly.
“You said you were a courtesan,” Southwater hissed out, his voice a little sharper.
He seemed to have more emotion about this than what Vaughn had overheard when he was dismissing Evelina with such cruelty.
It was why Vaughn had felt driven to intervene.
“But I think I’d call you far worse based on this.
Don’t send for me again, either of you.”
The duke pivoted on his heel and stomped from the room.
The front door slammed just seconds afterward and immediately Evelina shrugged from Vaughn’s embrace and paced to the window, watching her former lover’s carriage leave.
When she looked back at Vaughn, her hands were shaking and her cheeks were pale.
“I’m sorry, my lord. I shouldn’t have sprung such a thing on you.”
“Well, we did talk about it before,” he said softly, still trying to process what had just happened. “It was even my idea.”
She shook her head. “But we never agreed to it. It was a violation of your consent and I know better than most what a betrayal that is.”
He wrinkled his brow and wondered what had happened to her in her past. Had Southwater violated her consent or someone else?
He cleared his throat because the answers to those questions were none of his business.
“Did you see his face, though?” She hesitated and then a small smile just barely tilted her lips, like she was fighting any pleasure.
He leaned a little closer. “He was furious, Evelina. Seeing us together drove him mad.”
The smile on her face grew wider. “Oh, I’m the worst person, but I admit seeing him finally moved after everything that has happened was satisfying. But perhaps I went too far. Did too much.”
“After the way he treated you?” When she began to shake her head as if to dismiss that, he continued, “Evelina, I heard everything he said to you. He deserved a little cruelty. More than a little, in truth. And you must admit I was right when I suggested we pretend a connection. He was bothered by you moving on and especially moving on with me.”
“He was,” she admitted slowly. “Almost in the same breath that he dismissed me as nothing, he was wound up that someone else would actually want me.”
“If we continued on, that feeling would only be worse, you know,” Vaughn said.
“He would think about it, even when he was with her. He would know people were talking about it, just as they’ve been talking about what the two of them did to us.
It’s not justice, not truly, but it is something, isn’t it? ”
She worried her full bottom lip. “You can’t really mean to continue.”
“Why not? You just told him we were together, didn’t you?
The lie is set in motion. Why not let it play out a little while?
Not for long, of course, just enough to make both Southwater and my wife uncomfortable.
Just long enough to make them stare at each other over a supper table and know that they didn’t win. ”
He could see Evelina pondering that. Perhaps even playing it out in her mind, watching the possibilities come to fruition.
Then she let out a long, shuddering sigh.
“As you say, I already set the wheel in motion. If we abandon the deception, I suppose it would only make it worse, especially for you.”
He flinched as he thought of the other thing he’d overheard a moment before. Evelina had chided Southwater for his behavior toward Vaughn almost more than she had about what he’d done to her. And it had…mattered somehow to have a champion. Which was entirely foolish.
“Don’t do it to protect me,” he said swiftly. “That isn’t your duty. Do it because…I don’t know…we’re both just petty enough to want the tiniest hint of revenge.”
“I will admit I’m feeling very petty after watching his reaction,” she said. She paced away, worrying her hands in front of her, shaking her head. He waited for her to decide and finally she stopped and faced him. “Oh…yes. I agree to continue. But we must come to terms.”
He almost wanted to crow, to pump a fist in the air like he’d won a hurling competition. But he calmed that reaction and tilted his head. “Terms?”
She nodded. “Yes. This is an arrangement that may not be exactly like the kind I normally come to, but certainly there is business to it. Coming to agreed-upon terms is one way to avoid disappointment or hurt when it ends.” She hesitated.
“Not that any terms I put in place did that when it came to Harry. But that’s different.
You and I aren’t talking about sex or love. ”
He felt a flicker of disappointment in his chest when she said that, but nodded. “You’re correct. As we discussed, this would all be an act, a falsehood. I have no expectations that you’d take me to your bed and I don’t think either of us is ready in any way to take someone to our hearts.”
“No, I’ll never do that again,” she said softly.
He wrinkled his brow, unexpectedly bothered by the idea that she would surrender any hope of love in her life so easily. Southwater didn’t deserve to have taken that from her. But it wasn’t his business.
“You are the expert and I’m sure you’re right,” he said.
“Very good.” He watched her walk to the bell at the door and she rang it. When her butler appeared she said, “Parsons, the earl will be joining me for supper.”
“Very good, Miss Comerford,” Parsons said with a slight incline of his head in Vaughn’s direction. “I’ll let the staff know. We shall serve in about half an hour.”
“Good.” When he left, she faced Vaughn again. “May I offer you a drink?”
He nodded and watched her move to the sideboard. Now that they had agreed to this odd arrangement, he felt something had shifted in her. There was something more sensual in her movements, something more certain like she was back in her own skin after wearing a costume for too long.
She really was lovely.
At the sideboard, she looked at him over her shoulder. “What do you like? I have cognac, brandy, a very fine whisky.”
He arched a brow. “He liked cognac, didn’t he?”
“He did.”
He smiled a little. “Then I’ll drink that. It would serve him right.”
“I asked what you like, my lord.”
He stared at her a moment, feeling her even gaze on him. She said nothing else, but waited for him. He shifted and at last said, “Brandy.”
“Very good.” She grabbed for a bottle and poured him a snifter. As she handed it over, she said, “Every part of this doesn’t have to be for revenge. You should have what pleases you.”
He broke his gaze from hers and found his voice was thick as he said, “Well, that would be something, wouldn’t it?” He took a sip of the drink and smiled at her as the flavor hit his tongue. “That’s lovely.”
“Good.” She poured herself a madeira and took a place on the settee. She motioned for him to join her and he did, watching her every move like she was a mesmerist in the park. It was impossible not to be drawn in.
“We’ll discuss the terms over supper shortly,” she said. “But I thought perhaps you’d like to know the kind of person I am. So that you’re certain you wish to affiliate yourself with me. After all, you told me some painful things about your marriage, it seems only fair.”
He flinched. He had done that. He tried to forget about it when he thought about Evelina. Tried to pretend like he hadn’t spilled himself out like that with a stranger.
“I cannot imagine I would think less of you no matter what you tell me. But I admit a curiosity about you. You are difficult to read, Evelina Comerford.”
She gave a flash of a smile. “The best courtesans are. I forgot that for a while when I pretended it could be more.”
Her smile fell and he reached out to cover her hand. They both stared for a moment and he pulled it away. “That wasn’t your fault.”
“Perhaps not, but I must correct it now,” she said with a sigh.
Then she shook her head. “Let me focus. My past, yes? I was born to Albert and Rebecca Comerford. I don’t remember my mother—she died when I was just two and a half, trying to have the son my father insisted she bear for him.
She had four pregnancies in just as many years and it broke her body.
Arabella recalls her a little—flashes, she says—but when someone says the word mother, I’m afraid Julia and I have just a blank there. ”
“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “What about your father?”
She stiffened. “He was a gentleman, but he never acted like one. My mother was nothing more than a broodmare to him, his daughters disappointments and convenient targets for his anger and occasionally his violence. Arabella took most of the brunt of it, trying to protect Julia and me. When she ran away, went to London to be a courtesan, I took up her role.”
He shook his head. “I’m so sorry, Evelina. That’s terrible. He died recently, yes? Wasn’t it an accidental shooting when he was in his cups?”
She hesitated a moment, like she was pondering that statement. He could see her deep discomfort and then she said, “That’s the story, yes.”
“It’s not true?” When she didn’t answer, he reached across and took her hands again. This time he didn’t let go because she seemed to need the comfort. “You don’t owe me any answers.”
She stared into his face a moment and then let out her breath in a shaky sigh. “I suppose I don’t. But somehow I want to give them to you, again so you can make the best decision for yourself.”
He watched as she downed the rest of her madeira in one gulp. “Take your time. I’m in no rush.”