Taste of Temptation (44 page)

Authors: Cheryl Holt

Tags: #Romance - Historical, #American Light Romantic Fiction, #General, #Romance, #Fiction, #Fiction - Romance, #Love stories, #Romance: Historical, #Historical, #American Historical Fiction, #Regency novels, #Regency fiction

BOOK: Taste of Temptation

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Tristan nodded as if the snotty comment was precisely what he’d anticipated.

“Michael,” Miriam implored, “why are you letting him treat us this way? He shouldn’t be allowed to.”

“Be quiet, Miriam.” Michael’s tone was even and restrained, but underneath, there was a hint of steel.

Tristan stared at Lydia.

“Who locked Lady Rose in her room?”

“I did, Captain,” she replied.

“On whose orders?”

“Mrs. Seymour’s, sir.”

“Who hid the emerald ring in Miss Hamilton’s luggage?”

“I did, sir.”

“On whose orders?”

“Mrs. Seymour’s.”

The interrogation went on in a similar fashion, with Lydia candidly giving an account of every task she’d carried out at Maud’s behest. Maud fumed, reflecting on how—when the examination was ended—she would have Lydia flogged, then fired.

Maud had known better than to trust Lydia, and she couldn’t fathom why Lydia would jeopardize her position with Maud. Maud had never taken her for an idiot.

Tristan’s inquiry concluded, but Maud was still in a dither, her thoughts careening between fury and dread, as she struggled to decide what her strategy should be. Defiance seemed best.

“What have you to say now?” Tristan demanded of Maud.

“Lydia is a liar. She always has been. She’s on probation and about to be terminated, and she knows it. This is her revenge.”

“None of what she’s just confided is true?”

“Not a word.”

“So everyone is lying?” Tristan queried. “The servants, Rose, Lydia, Jane Hamilton, Mick Rafferty. All of them are lying, but
you
—and you alone—are telling the truth?”

At hearing Rafferty’s name—how had the rogue been exposed?—she nearly blanched with astonishment, but she controlled herself and waved Lydia away as if she was a bad odor Maud couldn’t abide.

“You insult me by asking the question, Captain. May we get back to discussing the Hamilton sisters? After the scandal involving Jane, I refuse to have them in our midst.”

As if she hadn’t spoken, Michael scowled at Miriam, his rage palpable.

“You told Jane Hamilton that you and I were be-trotted.”

“I did not!” Miriam had the good sense to respond. “If she said so, bring her in here, and I’ll call her a liar to her face!”

“Several servants saw you wearing my mother’s engagement ring. You deny it?”

“No, I don’t deny it. Mother allowed me to. It’s a very beautiful piece of jewelry, and it’s wrong to keep it locked away.”

“You’re claiming it was a harmless prank?”

“Not a prank. It matched my dress, and it looked pretty on my finger.”

“Lydia, you’re excused,” Michael stated. “Go wait in the hall.”

Lydia slithered out, managing a quick glance at Maud as she passed, but Maud couldn’t decipher her expression. Was she gloating? Was she smug? Was she afraid? Was it a warning of even more trouble to come?

Lydia exited, the door closing behind her, and an awkward silence ensued. Maud rushed to fill the void.

“Now may we discuss the Hamiltons?”

“No, we may not,” Michael snapped. “We have more important matters to cover.”

“Such as?”

“My father was fond of you, so I have permitted you to live in my home. I have supported you financially and been your most steadfast friend, and this is how you repay me? With treachery and deceit?”

“Treachery!” Maud huffed. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Maud, I have grudgingly accepted your guidance and constantly acceded to your wishes, but the situation is ending. Right here. Right now.”

“What are you saying?” Maud was growing angry. “So what if a few disgruntled employees have made allegations? You can’t possibly—”

“Miriam,” Michael interrupted, “let me be perfectly clear: I will never marry you. You will never be my countess. Despite how long you’ve planned on ensnaring me, it will not occur.”

At first, Miriam simply gaped at him. Then she started to tremble, and she was shaking her head from side to side.

“No, no, you don’t mean it. You can’t mean it! Mother promised me! We’re destined to be together.”

“Tell me that you understand.” Michael was stoic, dispassionate, ignoring her emotional entreaty. “Tell me that we will have no further miscommunication on this issue.”

Miriam leapt up and ran around the desk. She fell to her knees and grabbed his coat.

“Please, Michael,” she begged, shaming herself. “I’ve been so patient. Whatever I did, whatever you think I did, I did it for you! Please!”

Michael was still as a statue, and Tristan leaned down and pried her away. She fought to escape, anxious to prostrate herself again.

“Miriam!” Maud scolded. “Remember yourself.” Maud wanted to intervene but wasn’t certain how. Michael was unreachable, and Odell intent on embarrassing them.

Odell wrestled Miriam out, and two footmen stood in the hall, as if the moment had been prearranged.

“Escort Miss Seymour to her bedchamber,” Tristan commanded. “See that she stays there. If she attempts to leave, prevent any departure and notify me at once.”

“You have no authority over me,” Miriam seethed.

“You may proceed of your own accord,” Tristan said, “or I shall bind your hands and feet and have you carried there.”

They engaged in a staring match that Miriam could never win, and she turned to Maud.

“Mother! You can’t let him get away with this!”

“Go to your room, Miriam. I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

“Mother!” Miriam tried again.

“Go!” Maud hissed.

Miriam stomped off, and Odell shut the door. He came back to stand behind Michael.

“How dare you, Odell!” Maud raged, rising, quaking with fury. “You lowborn scoundrel! How dare you disrespect my daughter! How dare you disrespect me! Michael Seymour, if I had a whip, I would use it on you for permitting such a disgusting display.”

Michael rose, too. He seemed different somehow, powerful and confident as he’d never been. Her mistake, she suddenly realized, was that she still thought of him as a malleable boy. Apparently, when she hadn’t been paying attention, he’d metamorphosed into someone she didn’t know.

“You’re leaving for the country,” he announced. “You and Miriam both. Immediately.”

“I am not. Your father charged me with watching over you, which I have done—thanklessly, it seems—for over a decade. You cannot be alone and at Odell’s mercy.”

“My father is deceased,” Michael roared, “and I am Earl of Hastings! You will obey me, or you will regret it till your dying day.”

“Don’t raise your voice to me, young man.”

Her bravado was forced. She was stunned by his behavior and wondering how to counter it.

Since the instant Odell had arrived on the scene, she’d battled him for Michael’s affection and deference. They appeared to be in the final skirmish, and Odell would not emerge the victor!

She was about to admonish and chastise, then coax and cajole, as she would have in the past, but before she could say a word, Michael spoke again.

“I have decided to marry.”

“What? No, that can’t be right.” When he said nothing, she frantically asked, “Who? Who have you selected?”

“Who would you suppose? It’s Jane Hamilton. We will hold the ceremony as soon as the Special License is deliveried.”

“No, no, I forbid it!”

“To my great relief, it’s no longer up to you.”

Michael rounded the desk and walked out.

Her head spinning, her knees weak, she sank into her chair. She felt dizzy, as if she might lose her balance and slide to the rug.

All the wasted years! All her plotting and scheming! For naught! She’d been so sure he would pick Miriam, and now that he hadn’t, what good was any of it?

“Although I advised a contrary approach”—Odell’s remark seemed to emanate from far away—“the earl is willing to be generous. Here is how he has commanded you to proceed.”

“I won’t listen to you.” She clasped her hands over her ears, as if she could block out her fate.

Odell came over, and he pulled her hands away, pinning them behind her back. He loomed over her.

“Your bags are being packed. You will depart—within the hour.”

“Bound for where? I have no money but for the tiny stipend I received from my late husband. What is to be done with us? Shall we be put out on the streets?”

“Had it been left up to me, that is precisely what would have happened. Instead, the earl is offering you the Dower House at his property in Yorkshire. But only the house. For your financial needs, you will have to survive on your stipend.”

Maud had been to the property once. It was a cold, dreary residence located at the end of the earth. She would be broke and isolated, with boring, fussy Miriam as a companion. The resolution was the cruelest one imaginable.

She wrestled away and stood.

“I won’t go.”

“Fine. You may fend for yourself, and if that is your choice, you should expect no compassion—or support—from Lord Hastings.”

“You are trying to be rid of us.”

“Yes, we are. We make no bones about it. We won’t have you on the premises and creating mischief.”

Maud teemed with rage. If she were a man, she’d pummel him into the ground. He’d stolen everything from her: her home, her authority, her position in the family. Most despicably, he’d diverted Michael’s esteem, and without it, all was lost.

“This is because of Helen Hamilton, isn’t it?” she sneered. “You’ve caused all this trouble just so you can lift her skirt a few more times.”

“Be silent.”

“I won’t be! She came here as a beggar, as a charity case, and you raised her up above everybody. She is a—”

In a flash, he grabbed her by the throat, his large palm applying pressure, cutting off her air. She scratched at him, struggling to escape, but she couldn’t fight him off.

“I haven’t implemented the punishment I wished,” he whispered in her ear, “because Lord Hastings asked me not to, but hear me and hear me well, Maud Seymour: If you ever mention Helen Hamilton’s name again, I will sneak into your bedchamber in the middle of the night and smother you in your sleep.”

He pushed her toward the door.

“You sicken me,” he said. “Get out of my sight.”

Maud staggered away and went into the hall, where she was irked to find Lydia dawdling. As Maud started for the stairs, Lydia followed, dogging her heels.

Maud swatted at her. “Leave me be, you wretched girl.”

“The captain ordered me to watch you pack—so that you don’t steal anything.”

Maud inhaled a sharp breath, and she glanced over to see Odell casually loitering in the library doorway, observing all.

“I won’t have this unfaithful tattle near me,” Maud declared.

“She is rather fickle in her loyalties, isn’t she?”

Lydia absurdly proclaimed, “I’m accompanying you to Yorkshire, too.”

“You are not. I never intend to set eyes on you again, and you are most certainly not welcome in my new home.”

Slyly, Lydia grinned. “Ask the captain. He’ll explain it to you.”

“I gave Lydia a choice,” Odell said. “I could have her arrested, or she could indenture herself to me for the next seven years.”

“I chose the seven years,” Lydia bragged. “It was a better conclusion than prison.”

“She’s indentured to you?” Maud was aghast.

“Yes,” Odell admitted.

“In what capacity?”

“She will be employed at the Dower House, where you will be residing, and her main duty will be to report on your conduct. I won’t have you meddling in Lord Hastings’s affairs, so her presence will guarantee that you’re behaving yourself.”

With Maud reduced to penury, there would be no way to sway Lydia, no way to bribe her. She would make Maud’s life a living hell.

“Seven years!” Maud wheezed. “She will spy on me for seven years?”

“Yes.”

It was the ultimate humiliation, the ultimate insult.

“No, absolutely not. She will not come; she will not report.”

“Then you will not have the house.”

Maud stared at Odell, wondering how she could ever have fancied him, how she could ever have assumed they might have had a future together.

“I’ll talk to Michael,” she threatened. “He’ll overrule you.”

“The arrangement was his idea.”

Odell strutted away, while Lydia gestured for Maud to hurry.