Page 34 of Seduced By a Scoundrel

“I…I have,” Jeremy confessed.

“And have you not touched that magnificent body of his?”

“Well, in a manner of speaking.” Jeremy flushed hotter and wished he had something to do with his hands, since the anxiety of her questions made him feel as though he needed to do something or perish.

“I’ve been given to understand that there is only one bed in that cottage,” Clary went on, her grin uncontrolled.

Jeremy gave up his flustered resistance and sighed. “Firstly, you should not know about these things, you are a lady.”

Clary laughed loud enough to startle some birds from a bush near the path where they walked. “Mr. Talboys said the same thing to me,” she said.

“It is Detective Talboys,” Jeremy corrected her.

“Ooh!” Clary exaggerated the sound. “You find that fetching, do you? That he’s adetective?”

Jeremy did not know whether he wanted to laugh or perish from embarrassment. “What is your aim in teasing me so?” he asked, choosing to think the best of his friend and to treat her teasing as the deepest form of platonic love. “You do realize that the things you are implying could cause a great deal of trouble for me and for Derrek, possibly including our arrest and execution.”

Clary sobered at once. “Your man reminded me of that as well. I did not mean it like that. And besides, you’ve been here in the country for over a month now, and I believe enough of the village folks suspect that you and Detective Talboys are not cousins to mean something. If they have not called the constable on you yet, I doubt they will.”

Clary’s words were meant to be a comfort, Jeremy was certain, but they had the opposite effect. He swallowed hard and glanced around him, as if a contingent of lawmen would march across the open fields to snatch him up and take him to be clapped in irons then and there.

Suddenly, the countryside they walked through seemed too big and too open. There were no places to hide should he need to escape capture. It was not like London, where there existed an entire network of men, many of them now formed into The Brotherhood, who might shelter him at a moment’s notice, should he need it.

Perhaps the countryside was not a good idea after all. Perhaps London was where he belonged. He knew the lay of the land in London, knew who he could trust and who he could not.

“I’ve upset you,” Clary said. “On a fine morning like this, that was not my intention at all.”

“I forgive you,” Jeremy said, sighing. “And I am wise to the purpose behind your teasing. But things such as love and happiness are not easy or simple matters for men like me.”

Clary hummed sympathetically and hugged his arm. “So you and Detective Talboys are not lovers?” she asked, curiosity and confusion in her expression.

If it had been anyone else, Jeremy would have been offended by such a direct question. Clary had become one of the closest friends he’d ever had in such a short time, however. It made him realize how desperately he’d longed to have someone he could confide in. He could never share the sort of thoughts he was having about Derrek with his clients, even the ones who understood the world like him, and to pour his heart out for the lads who worked for him would completely undermine his authority with them.

Clary was something of an answer to a prayer.

“I know my hesitation with Derrek makes me weak and pitiful,” he said, glancing down at the spring grass edging the dirt path they walked. “It is not considered manly to be so squeamish about amorous interactions, particularly among men like me.”

“Are you squeamish about it, though?” Clary asked. “Are you squeamish about letting Talboys touch and kiss you, and other things?”

“No!” Jeremy said too loudly, looking up and around him, then focusing on Clary. “I am not a fainting virgin by any means. I enjoy pleasure, really, I do.”

Clary tilted her head and narrowed her eyes slightly, as if she didn’t believe him.

Jeremy sighed, his shoulders sagging. “I was once far less careful than I am now. I indulged whenever I had the chance. But then a friend for the night and I were nearly caught by the police.”

“Gracious!” Clary gasped.

“It was a harrowing experience, to say the least,” Jeremy went on. “Perhaps I am merely cautious by nature, but I have a successful business to think of and many friends. I do not want to be hurt or to have anyone else be hurt because of me.”

Clary hummed again and nodded slowly. “I cannot say that I know what it is like to have my love and its expression threatened by the law, but I do know what it feels like to love and cross the law by doing so.”

Jeremy furrowed his brow in confusion and glanced to his friend.

“He was already a married man,” she explained. “And above me in station as well. Why do you think I have remained unwed all this time?”

“I understood you to say that the man you loved slipped your grasp or somehow allowed you to slip his,” Jeremy said.

“He did,” Clary confirmed with a nod. “Because he was someone else’s husband, and despite his insistence that he would run away with me someday, he chose her, exposing and humiliating me in the process.”

---