The Temptation of Laura (17 page)

The waiter nodded. “Anything else, sir? Madam?”

Annabel took her glass and waved her hand in dismissal. “Not at the moment, thank you.”

The waiter left them alone and Adam drained half his glass in a single gulp.

Annabel’s gaze bore into him as she delicately raised her glass to her lips. She sipped and smiled. “And so it all becomes clear.”

Adam frowned. “What does?”

“You want me to finance this girl’s career. Am I right?”

“It would be better if you looked on it as an investment.”

She huffed out a laugh. “You treat me like a bank and expect me to see anything you do as an investment.”

“That is not the case at all.”

“I do not care about money or profit or any of those things. I have money. I will always have money. What I do not have is a lover.” She drew her gaze over his upper body. “A lover who can touch me and make me melt with just the soft lick of his tongue.”

Self-hatred furled inside his stomach. He could not do this. Nothing was worth this. “Do you know something—”

“I will give you whatever money you need, my love. I will get the money for you today. But you will not get a penny unless you return to our previous arrangement.”

Frustration burned like wildfire in Adam’s chest and he shook his head. “The arrangement will not be reinstated. I hoped you would deliver on your words. You once spoke about your belief in my play and me. I hoped you would view an investment as a sound business decision. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“I see.” She slowly placed her glass on the table between them. “Then we have nothing else to discuss. I am not a charity. If you want something from me, you have to be willing to offer something in return.”

“Annabel, for crying out loud.” He squeezed his eyes shut and took a long breath. “Why will you not listen to me?”

He opened his eyes.

She elegantly rose from her seat and stood above him, her eyes dark with fury and her cheeks flushed. “It is not difficult. I want a lover and you want money. Now you have a decision to make. I am neither blind, nor stupid. I see the change in you. I spoke to Monica before I left. She told me an orange seller has caught your eye and you believe she is your Lucinda. Do you really expect me to believe this girl can act? Can star in a play you hope to take to the West End?”

“Why is that so hard to believe?”

“You are passionate. Ambitious granted, but ultimately passionate. Something about this woman has affected you enough that you are not seeing the whole picture. Now, I suggest you get this girl out of your system in any way you see fit and then come back to me when you are ready to be serious about what you want to do in regard to your future.”

Adam glared. “I am serious now.”

She laughed. “This girl is nothing more than a strumpet. Admit it.”

He stood, his body trembling with suppressed anger. “She is Lucinda, Annabel. I know she is. With her in the starring role, the play will succeed. That much I can promise you.”

“Then you have wasted my time by asking me to meet you. I thought you would have come to your senses and wanted to take your play forward. Instead, I learn the rumors are true and you have become fixated with a pauper girl. My God, even Monica and her uppity ways were preferable to that. At least she has a modicum of talent.”

“How do you know Laura hasn’t without at least meeting her?”

Annabel smiled. “Laura? That’s her name? Laura who?”

Goddamn it
. “Why is it important? Why don’t you meet her when you return to Bath? Let her and I play a scene for you and then you will need no further convincing I am right in what I am saying. She is everything I have been looking for.”

Her smile dissolved and two spots of color darkened her cheeks. “Get rid of her. Your eyes contain nothing but blind lust. With Monica it was different. You had seen what she could do and wanted her to continue to act. This is nothing more than a girl who has stirred your loins. My God, how could you be so foolish to think she did not target you?”

Adam glanced around the lounge. People talked and laughed, oblivious to the atmosphere between him and a woman who possibly held the future of his play in her hands. She was his final point of call. He could think of no one else from whom to beg, borrow, or steal.

He stepped toward her. “Annabel, please. Do this for me and I will never forget it. I promise you.”

She stared at him for a long moment before she narrowed her eyes and shook her head. “How dare you think you have anything other than sex to offer me.” The words were whispered from between her clenched teeth.

“All I’m asking—”

She jabbed her gloved hand into the air, cutting him off. “My money is mine to do with as I will. I saw your potential and supported you so you could keep acting. Now you think I will do that again, for one of your
friends,
for nothing but risk in return. How dare you.”

“Laura is not a friend.”

Her eyes flashed with knowing and her mouth twisted in contempt. “As I said. Lust, not the appetite for success, mars your common sense.”

Rare heat warmed his cheeks. It was undoubtedly obvious how Laura affected him. How he wanted to hold her every minute of every day. Look into her eyes and feel the soft sensation of her skin against his lips. How the hell was he supposed to hide that from a woman who knew him so intimately?

Annabel’s eyes widened with knowing. “My God, you have already slept with her, haven’t you?”

“No.” He clenched his jaw.

Her smile turned wolverine. “Oh, Adam, it is written all over your puppy-dog face. You are besotted.” She lifted her purse and pulled out a key. “Here.”

“What is this?”

“A spare key to my room. You know where I am when you have come to your senses and realize you have a decision to make. What is it you
really
want? A piece of strumpet on the side and a lowly role in a small play in a backstreet Bristol theater? Or do you wish to see you and a real actress starring in the West End? The future is entirely up to you.” She took his hand, opened it, and curled his fingers around the key. “I will invest if you come back to me. You are supposed to take care of me.” She leaned close to his ear. “You are supposed to take me where and when I want, fuck me like you mean it, and enjoy every damn second.” She pulled back and smiled demurely. “The decision is yours.”

“Annabel—”

“You know where I am.” She whirled away and sashayed toward the lounge exit.

His heart raced as she disappeared through the gilded double doors. He slumped into his chair and picked up his glass. The liquid trembled within. He drained his glass and put it back on the table with a clatter. Damn Annabel. Damn his parents. Damn his entire situation. He glanced toward the doors once more.

The faint image of Annabel reflected in the glass of one; Laura in the other.

For the first time in his life, his heart was split between the stage and something—or someone—else. How was he to know which would last?

Laura smoothed her trembling hands over the skirt of her black dress and glanced along the deserted street. As she stood in the doorway of Adam’s home, the ache in her chest wouldn’t abate, and her eyes were sore from crying. It was as though the whole world had gone into mourning since Bette’s passing. The last remaining red and gold leaves had fallen from the trees across the street, leaving the branches bare, and the sun hadn’t shone for days.

When footsteps sounded behind her, she drew upright and turned. Dr. Penders placed his hand gently at her elbow. “It appears Mr. Lacey has decided to stay longer in Bristol than originally intended. When you dictated that letter to me, you should’ve let him know where you’re going. It’s not fair the man has to scour the city looking for you upon his return.”

She smiled wryly. “It’s likely he’ll not feel the need to look for me.”

“I am reluctant to agree. He’s done so much for you and Bette. It’s inevitable he’ll be hurt by your leaving.”

“It’s better this way.” She lifted her chin. “Mr. Lacey has his life to get on with and I have mine.”

“You’re stubborn not to grab the chances the man is offering you.” He frowned. “Don’t you want more than the life you have now?”

Tears burned her eyes and Laura closed them. “Without Bette, I just want to get away from Bath and everything in it. The city was only my home because I shared it with her. There’s nothing here for me anymore.”

“How can you say that?”

She opened her eyes, her heart quivering under the concern in the doctor’s gaze. “I’m not saying I haven’t met some good people. I have. Like you and Mr. Lacey, but I don’t want to stay in a place filled with memories of the bad, or even the good, if I’m to endure them alone. Everything will remind me of the dearest, kindest, and funniest woman in the world. I couldn’t bear that.” She struggled to keep her eyes on his as the thought of not seeing Adam or Bette again threatened to suck the air from her lungs.

“But Mr. Lacey—”

“Is a star of the stage, Doctor. His notions I might be a part of that are based on nothing but fantasy. Real life doesn’t happen in the way of stories and scripts. You, more than anyone, should know that.” Easing her arm from his grasp, she brushed past him into Adam’s hallway and picked up her bag. “Now, let’s go. I’m afraid I have many hours of struggle ahead and there’s little point delaying them.”

“And what of Mr. Lacey’s delay? Don’t you think something might have happened for him to be held up like this?”

Laura swallowed.
Please, God, don’t let anything bad have happened to him
. “I hope and pray Bristol has opened its doors of opportunity and he’s enjoying what it has to offer for a few days. I would’ve most likely left Bath much sooner than this had Bette not died. My intention was always to leave, but I’d hoped with Bette beside me.”

“I see.”

The doubt in the doctor’s eyes forced Laura to look away along the street. “Plus, I refuse to lessen Mr. Lacey’s good fortune by sending him a message of Bette’s demise. Neither she nor I should be factors in his life. We barely know him.”

“I’m confident he’ll make his way home when he’s good and ready. I won’t be the one to end his time in Bristol prematurely.”

The doctor sighed. “I would be happier if you waited to see what he has to say. The man doesn’t strike me as one who would torment a woman’s aspirations . . . or feelings without genuine care on his part.”

Pride warmed her cheeks. “My feelings have nothing to do with this. I’ll always be grateful to him for confronting Malcolm Baxter and letting Bette and I come here, but that’s where our association ends. Once Bette is buried on Tuesday, I’ll leave Bath and find work elsewhere.”

“What work? I can’t bear the thought of you having to resort to what you did before, now you’ve worked yourself out of that world.”

She stared as a knot tightened in her chest. The man looked weighted down with worry and it was all her doing. She clasped his hand and forced a smile. “That won’t happen. I’ll get a coach into the country and see where my luck lies. There’s always work to be had at farms and the like. Everything will work out just as it’s supposed to. Now I’m alone, I don’t need as much money as I did before.”

He shook his head, the worry in his eyes turning to frustration. “You’re a city girl through and through. You belong here.”

“I’m whatever I choose to be.” She drew her hand from his and pulled back her shoulders.

He shook his head. “If it were up to me, you could stay with my wife and I until past the funeral, but unfortunately, Mrs. Penders rules the roost. She said until the funeral only.”

Laura smiled. “And that is more than generous of her. A doctor’s wife taking in two whores, one living and one dead? The woman deserves a medal. Come. Let’s go. Mr. Lacey will no doubt be relieved to have his house to himself when he returns. Whatever has kept him in Bristol can only be good news.”

She descended the steps to where Dr. Penders’s carriage and footman waited, smiling her thanks to the footman when he took her case to store at the rear. Stepping aboard, Laura focused her concentration through the opposite window. The carriage tilted as Dr. Penders joined her. The door slammed and Laura winced.

Her constitution teetered on a knife’s edge. One minute in control, the next she wanted to throw herself into the path of an oncoming train. Bette was gone. Adam was gone. The pain was twice what it should be. If only she hadn’t allowed her barriers to weaken enough that Adam pushed through them and into her heart. Hadn’t she and Bette sworn they’d never let a man close enough to mess with their minds, money, or emotions? Yet, she’d fallen headlong into Adam’s arms as though she belonged there.

She let him touch her, kiss her, make love to her until she’d believed in his stupid, magical dreams of them making a play together.

“Right, then.” Dr. Penders’s soft voice cut through her reverie as he settled on the opposite seat. “We’ll speak to the funeral director and then head back home. I want you to try and get some sleep. I’ll ask Cook to give you a light lunch and then you must try to relax. You have a hard few days ahead.”

Laura smiled. “You’re very kind to worry about me.”

“I worry about all my patients, but you and Bette . . .” He shook his head. “She deserved a happier ending than this, and now I pray yours will make up for it.”

“So do I.” She turned to the window once more and the view blurred.

She prayed the next three days until Bette’s funeral passed without incident or indictment. She needed to get away from Bath and Adam if she had any chance of surviving the loss of her dearest friend in the whole world.

Her friends were limited and her funds low. It would cost money to start again, as well as survive. The country was a foreign land where she knew no one or no place. Unless . . .

Laura’s heart beat a little faster.

She knew of only one person with connections in the country. One person she’d helped by testifying in court the last year past. Testimony that unraveled her and Bette’s livelihoods but ensured another’s life entirely. Emily. Hadn’t she said Laura could call on her help anytime, night or day? Surely a lady such as Emily Darson would know of someone wanting employment within the many estates surrounding the city?

Hope sparked and Laura clasped her hands tightly in her lap. All she needed was a place to start. The rest would be up to her.

The only question remaining was whether she was important enough for Adam to come looking for her before she fled the city and, thus, eradicated the chance of him finding her.

The spires of Bath Abbey passed the window and the haughty, superior stature of a man in its courtyard reminded her of the ever-present threat of Malcolm. If he wasn’t already thinking of his next approach toward her, he undoubtedly would within a day or two. She narrowed her eyes as her fierce sense of survival erupted.

It was imperative she made her escape immediately after the funeral.

Now she no longer had Adam’s protection, she was as vulnerable and exposed to Malcolm’s anger as a waif on the street. Night prowlers sniffed out waifs from the most unlikely of places.

Laura turned and stared at Dr. Penders’s profile. Nothing was more unlikely than a friendship between a whore and a doctor, yet it had happened. She had no doubt things would get better, but she was no safer from Malcolm than Monica was whilst she was in the city, and Laura refused to risk giving him further reason to harass her newest ally.

The carriage continued through the streets toward the funeral director’s establishment. When it pulled to a stop outside, the doctor alighted before helping her onto the street. The city was busy with shoppers and businessmen hurrying to and fro. Life went on no matter what. She inhaled a deep breath and Bette’s spirit willed her on.

“Laura?”

“Yes?”

Dr. Penders waved toward the door. “Shall we go in and get the details finalized?”

She nodded. “Afterward, there’s a friend I’d like to see before I come to your home. Would you mind taking my case with you and I’ll come back to the house shortly?”

He frowned. “I really want you to rest, my dear.”

“I will. I know just the person to help me find work in the country. I can’t believe I didn’t think of her before.”

 

Royal Crescent was Bath’s most famous street and, no matter how many times Laura saw the semicircle of architectural brilliance, it never failed to take her breath away. Erected from Bath stone, the houses were three stories high with servants’ quarters at the top, with the kitchens and cellars below street level. The houses shone in all their butter-colored glory, the gorgeous sash windows glinting in the late-afternoon sun. Only the very wealthy could afford to live in such an abode, but she refused to let the street’s magnificence intimidate her.

Holding on to her resolve, she hurried along the pavement toward number twenty-four. Although conscious of the inferior state of her clothing, hat, and shoes, she kept her chin high, ignoring the condescending glances of the ladies walking arm in arm as they passed her.

She was on a mission and no one would stop her from completing it.

Reaching Emily’s house, she marched up the small pathway and knocked on the door. A pretty young maid answered the door. “Can I help you?”

Laura smiled. “Is it possible I could speak with Emily Darson, please?”

The maid frowned, suspicion immediately darkening her eyes as she appraised Laura from head to toe. “May I ask who’s calling?”

“Laura Robinson. Miss Darson will remember me from a year past.”

“A year? I’m sorry, but she is very busy at the moment—”

Laura’s smile dissolved. “Then I’ll not press you further if she hasn’t the time to see me, but I would very much appreciate you asking her all the same.”

Their gazes locked.

After another few seconds, the maid cleared her throat. “If you could just wait here, Miss Robinson.”

“Thank—”

The door closed, leaving Laura standing on the step.
Damn superior madam. Who does she think she is?
She turned her back to the door and studied the rich green grass of Victoria Park while she waited. On the maid’s head be it if she didn’t reopen the door, because Laura had no intention of moving until she heard from Emily she didn’t wish to see her.

She hadn’t survived by taking rebuffs and refusals.

A minute passed. Then two. Her patience stretched a little more with each passing second. At last, the door clicked open behind her and Laura turned.

“Laura? My goodness, it is you.”

Laura grinned. Emily was even more beautiful than she remembered.

“Emily.”

Emily opened her arms and Laura stepped into them. She squeezed. “You look so well.”

“I am.” Emily pulled back and slipped her arm around Laura’s waist, ushering her inside. “Come in. I am so glad to see you.”

They stepped over the threshold and Emily addressed the maid. “You don’t remember Laura, do you?”

The maid frowned as she stared at Laura.

Laura smiled. “I didn’t remember you either. The circumstances under which we met were more than a little rushed.”

“I’m so sorry, I don’t . . . yes, I do!” The maid grinned. “You’re the . . . the . . .”

Laura laughed. “Yes, I’m her.”

Emily laughed. “Annie, would you be so kind as to bring some tea and cake into the drawing room?”

“Of course.” Annie’s cheeks colored pink. “It’s good to see you again, Miss Robinson.”

Laura smiled. “You too.”

Annie turned and hurried toward the kitchen.

Emily squeezed Laura’s waist. “Come. Let us sit. I want to hear all that you’ve been up to. How are you? How’s Bette?”

Laura’s brief moment of happiness shattered and her shoulders slumped as they entered Emily’s luxurious drawing room. They sat on one of the plush settees. “It’s because of Bette I’m here.”

Her friend’s smile wavered. “She’s all right, isn’t she?”

Tears smarted Laura’s eyes to see such genuine affection in Emily’s gaze.

She shook her head. “She’s dead.”

“Dead?” Emily whispered. “She can’t be.”

Laura swallowed the lump in her throat. “Pneumonia took her yesterday.”

“Oh, no. I’m so sorry.”

“I need your help. I want to leave Bath as soon as Bette is buried.”

“Leave Bath? Why? If you need somewhere to stay, you are welcome—”

“I can’t stay in the city.” Laura shook her head. “It’s too painful.”

“Then what can I do?” Emily grasped her hand. “Do you need money?”

“I need work. If I go to the country, somewhere quiet where I can start again and nobody knows who I am or what I did before, I’ll have a new beginning.”