Seduced (3 page)

“I know who you are,” she snapped, her cheeks filling with color, though he didn’t know if the reason was his blatant perusal or her anger or something else entirely. Ladies were harder to read than the women who circulated around men like him.

“I have never tried to hide it,” he responded.

Her lips pressed together hard, turning them into a thin line. He preferred them full. Kissable.

“You should leave innocents like my brother alone,” she said.

He arched a brow. “In favor of whom? Someone less innocent, like yourself, Letitia?”

She drew back at the use of her given name. “How do you know my name?”

“It is on the air tonight,” he drawled. “Like the smell of…” He took a long whiff of her scent. “Vanilla, honey. Sweet things to taste.”

Her eyes went wide, but her pupils dilated. He had shocked her, but also aroused her.
That
he could read.

“I am a lady, Mr. Blackwood,” she said, taking a step away from him. Her hands were shaking. Perhaps from outrage, yes, but also from something else.

He tilted his head in acquiescence to her. “Indeed, it is obvious. No one could say otherwise.”

She fisted her hands at her sides again. “Then you should behave accordingly. I am
Lady
Seagate
, Mr. Blackwood. And we have nothing else to say to each other.”

He laughed. When she was angry, her eyes flashed even more. The gold became more pronounced. Her cheeks grew flushed. When she gasped, those really spectacular breasts lifted in an enticing fashion. He found he rather liked goading her, even though he knew he shouldn’t.

“Words are overrated. I’m certain you would agree,” he said. “There are other, far preferable forms of communication.”

She turned her face, almost as if he’d struck her with
those
words. “You should not say such things,” she said, her voice soft and small this time.

“Oh, but I shall,” he murmured. “I have never been one to follow rules. So boring, wouldn’t you agree?”

She did not respond, but merely shot him a look filled with confusion and then turned and almost ran. Not just away from him, but from the room itself.

He watched her go, both amused that he could stymie her so and guilty that he had upset her far more than he had intended. One thing was certain—it turned out Lady Seagate was an interesting lady, indeed. And he felt a draw to find out more about her, even though it could lead to nothing.

Letty burst into the lady’s retiring room, praying it would be empty. She was pleased to find it was and rushed to the mirror before a basin of cool water. Her face was flushed, like she had been doing physical labor.

She peeled her gloves off and tossed them aside, then placed her hands into the cold water. She lifted them to her face, closing her eyes and letting her heated flesh cool. It seemed an impossible task, for her mind kept reliving the encounter with Jack Blackwood and kept the blood rushing to her cheeks anew.

The door behind her opened and she spun to face the intruders. Her cousin Audrey and her cousins-in-law Josie and Juliet entered as a group, laughing together. When they saw Letty at the washbasin, her cheeks dripping, their merriment stopped.

“Letty!” Audrey said, coming forward.

Letty smiled as her cousin wrapped an arm around her. This was Audrey’s first appearance in Society since the birth of her son just a few months ago. And yet the beautiful woman had already returned to being slender. Juliet waddled in next, largely pregnant with her first child. And Josie glowed as she rested her hand on the very small swell of her own belly.

Letty’s face filled with more heat, this time for a different reason, and she shrugged from her cousin’s embrace to return to the basin.

“Are you all right?” Audrey asked, this time keeping her distance as Letty went back to splashing her face.

“Fine,” she lied, drying the still-hot flesh with a clean towel. “Just flushed from the heat of the ballroom.”

“It is quite a turn out,” Josie said, beaming with pleasure. “Especially considering the gossip surrounding Claire’s disappearance and reappearance and her marrying War when he has no title or family name for Society to crow about.”

“We have the Duke and Duchess of Hartholm to thank for that, I think,” Juliet said with a soft smile that made her beautiful face even more lovely. “They are such a popular couple, and what they and the Flynn family accepts goes nowadays.”

“Not to mention Edward and Mary,” Josie added. “They have also captured the attention of Society. When the Marquis of Woodley accepts his sister back into the fold, the rest of the
ton
has to think twice before they risk his ire.”

“Yes,” Letty managed to choke out, working to stay focused on the topic at hand so the women wouldn’t stray into more dangerous waters. “Claire and War are fortunate in both their friends and family. It has truly mitigated the scandal.”

“Still, despite this night Claire will
never
be accepted again,” Audrey said with a faintly sad frown. “I know that fact from personal experience. Those here tonight are interested as much in seeing the scandal firsthand as they are in acceptance. Tomorrow they wouldn’t ask her to tea.”

Josie’s face fell. “I hope that isn’t true.”

Audrey shrugged. “It is the way of Society. And in truth, I don’t think Claire cares. She’s been through so much that societal games hold little interest to her anymore. They could hiss at her and give her the cut direct and she’d laugh in their faces. It’s clear she is
blissfully
happy.”

Letty turned her face. “Yes, and I am happy for her.”

Those words were true. Looking at all her Woodley cousins, one couldn’t help but be happy for them with their wonderful marriages and new babies to grow their families. And yet there was still a twinge of jealousy that burned in her chest. A twinge of what should have been and yet wasn’t for herself. Would never be.

Audrey approached again, this time taking Letty’s arm and guiding her to a couch that had been placed in the room for ladies to rest on.

“I have wanted to say something to you for a while, Letty,” Audrey began, shooting a look to Juliet and Josie. “And this is a good time, I think.”

Letty forced a smile for Audrey even though her stomach felt heavy as a stone. “What is that?”

“I’m sorry we weren’t there for you as much as we should have been when Lord Seagate died.”

Letty closed her eyes and took a few breaths before she responded. “Noah died so suddenly,” she croaked out. “And it was only just after Claire disappeared. The entire family was in turmoil on all ends. I never faulted you for not rushing to my side when your own tragedy was unfolding.”

“You are kind, Letty,” Audrey said softly. “But I know we failed you. I’m sorry.”

Letty shrugged. In truth, she had been happy to keep her grief private. There was so much no one else knew. Those secrets had burned her to the ground when Noah died, and being alone was exactly as she wished it. She wouldn’t even be out in Society now, eighteen months after Noah’s death, if her mother hadn’t insisted upon it.

Why couldn’t she be a permanent widow and just hide away? Do charitable work like some of her fellow widows? Oh, they were older, of course, but still. It was unfair.

“The wonderful thing is, though,” Juliet said, easing toward the pair on the couch, “that now all is so much better. Claire is home, all the Woodleys are married. And you are back in Society, Letty. I know you must still miss Lord Seagate and grieve his loss, but you are young and there is a whole life ahead of you with new adventures and perhaps even love on the horizon.”

Letty couldn’t stop the scoffing noise that burst from her lips. It was Josie who responded to it.

“You and I were wallflowers together for a long time,” Josie said with a faraway smile. “It may not seem like it now, but I can attest to the fact that you never know what is around the corner.”

Letty got up from the couch and backed away from the other women. “You are talking about me remarrying.” Three heads nodded in unison, and Letty’s ears began to ring. “No, I think not,” she said softly. “It is simply not possible.”

Audrey exchanged a look with Josie. “You are completely ruling it out?”

“You and I were on the wall together, yes, Josie,” Letty said. “And both of us ended up with men Society saw as catches far above our reach. That only happens once. No, I shall be a widow forever, I think. And now we should return to the party—enough of this talk.”

Josie opened her mouth as if to argue, but Juliet caught her hand and squeezed. The beautiful healer smiled at Letty. “Of course you know your path better than anyone. I hope we haven’t pushed you too hard.”

“No,” Letty said. “I-I know you have my best interest at heart, all of you. And I appreciate it. I am so very happy to have all of you in my life on a more regular basis again and to spend time with you and your growing families.
That
is enough for me, I assure you.”

Audrey didn’t look convinced, but no one said anything else about the subject as they exited the retiring room and made their way back to the ballroom. But as the women fell into a discussion of the current cut of waists on gowns, Letty suppressed a sigh.

Her family
was
only trying to help. That was very true. But only she knew the truth about her marriage—and why it would be her only one. There was no other option.

Even if there was a stirring in her heart that told her she wanted more, it was a foolish notion. She had come to accept that. She had moved on.

“Give me the reports,” Jack said, trying to keep his expression neutral as he reached out to his right hand man, Hoffman.

The lined face of the older man was as blank as his own as he handed over a pile of paperwork. Jack sat down at his desk and flopped the stack down in front of himself. He stared without touching it for what felt like forever.

“You all right, Jack?” Hoffman asked.

Jack blinked. That was the material question, wasn’t it? Was he all right? The answer was complicated. In a way, he had never been
all
right
. Darkness, pain, loss had been his shadow all his life. But that wasn’t what Hoffman meant. He meant to inquire about Jack’s distraction of late.

There were many reasons for it. One being some very unexpected thoughts of Lady Seagate that had haunted his dreams in the three nights since he saw her last. He’d thought nothing of her until she came raging across a room at him and revealed herself to be more than he’d suspected. Now he couldn’t get her out of his mind.

But it was more than just that.

“I think I know how bad these reports are going to be,” he mused. “And I am making a lame attempt to pretend them away.”

“Do that and you’ll end up dead,” Hoffman said.

Ignoring the twisting pain in his chest, Jack forced a laugh. “Plainspoken as always.”

“It’s what you pay me for.”

Jack nodded. “Indeed it is. So tell me in the most plain spoken way what these reports say and I’ll read them in more depth today.”

Hoffman set his legs apart and his hands behind his back in the fashion of a military man, which was what he had been before an injury had forced him out of service and heavy drinking had nearly killed him. When War left him over ten years ago, Jack had found Hoffman, hauled him out of the gutter, sobered him up and eventually put him in charge. He’d never regretted that decision. Hoffman had saved his ass more than once and the men in the gang respected him as much as Jack. Probably more, honestly.

But Hoffman wasn’t War. That fact was always bitter.

“Aston was our main rival. Everyone knew that,” Hoffman began.

“Yes,” Jack said, steepling his fingers in front of him on the desk. Jonathon Aston had been a thorn in his side for years. The man had wanted to take Jack’s place ruling the underground, and he’d been willing to steal and destroy to do so. He’d also nearly murdered War, though that was over Claire, not a territorial dispute.

Putting a bullet between Aston’s eyes had been no difficult task for Jack.

“Now that he’s dead,” Hoffman continued, “it leaves a hole that almost half a dozen criminals have rushed to fill. They are doing
exactly
as we expected they would, Jack.”