Page 66 of No Mistress Of Mine

“How could you do this to me?” she demanded. “How?”

“Well, it isn’t as if you don’t have the right to attend. It’s a public event, open to all. Even those of us in the lower classes are allowed to come,” she added, unmistakable bitterness in her voice. “They just don’t think we can afford to buy their outrageously expensive tickets.”

“It doesn’t matter that we’re allowed to be here. You’ve put both me and Denys in an impossible position, don’t you see that?”

“No, I don’t.” Kitty gave a toss of her head. “Somerton’s your business partner, isn’t he? Why shouldn’t you attend his precious mother’s flower show? Why shouldn’t you speak to him? Why shouldn’t he come over here and speak to you? Maybe he’ll escort us around.”

Lola groaned, realizing just how clueless Kitty was about the social nuances of high society.

“Besides,” Kitty added as she didn’t reply, “I told you before that I want one of our lot to beat the odds. Serve his snooty family right if you married Somerton,” she added, her voice bitter from her own heartbreak. “Knock ’em all into a cocked hat, it would.”

“For the love of heaven, I told you there’s nothing romantic between—” She stopped, that kiss in Denys’s office and her own erotic imaginings from last night flashing through her mind. She took a deep breath and changed tactics. “You had no right to play matchmaker when we both know you only did it out of a desire for revenge and some cockeyed sense of social justice. How do you think this makes me appear, showing up at his mother’s charity event?”

She could hear her voice rising with panic as she asked that question, and she paused to take a deep breath before she could speak again. “We have to leave.”

“So you intend to go scurrying off as if you have something to be ashamed of? Are you supposed to avoid all the other events of the season just because he might happen to be at those, too?”

“That is not the point, and you have no idea what you’ve done, and we are leaving right now.” She grabbed Kitty’s arm, but when she glanced around she realized escape was impossible. She was hemmed in by the elegant Georgian house and three walls of wrought-iron fencing, and the only way out was through the gate, which meant she’d have to walk right past his family.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, her quick survey of her surroundings revealed the awful fact that she’d been noticed. One by one, people were turning to look at her. She watched in dismay as, one by one, the people strolling casually about the grounds stopped walking and stared, their attention fixed not on the fine day or the flowers displayed, but on her.

Oh, God, they all know who I am,she thought in horror.Probably none of these people have ever met me, and yet, they know.

She felt as if she were watching a terrible street accident unfold before her eyes as she saw heads lean together, mouths begin to move. Every single pair of eyes in the crowd now seemed fixed on her, or on Denys and his family and friends, and as their gazes darted back and forth with avid interest, it was easy to read their thoughts and hear their whispered speculations. They were all wondering how Lord Somerton’s former—or was it current?—mistress had the gall to appear at his mother’s charity event, and what was the earl going to do about it?

Wondering if she could just bolt for the exit, she cast a desperate glance over her shoulder and froze, horrified to find the earl staring straight at her. His face, so pleasant and good-natured a moment ago, was now flushed purple with anger. His lips were pressed tight, and beneath his hat, his dark gaze seemed to blaze with repressed outrage. Their gazes locked, and he stiffened, raising his chin to the haughty angle so fitting to his rank. Then, with nearly every eye in the place watching the scene, he circled the group he was with, and with slow, deliberate intent, so that anyone watching her would see his action, he took several steps toward her, then stopped, and turned his back.

Lola sucked in her breath, the blatant snub like a punch in the stomach. She knew she should look away, walk, go... somewhere, and yet, she could not seem to move. She felt pinned in place by a hundred gazes, like a butterfly tacked up in a display case.

Denys and the girl suddenly seemed to realize something was amiss. They lifted their heads from their intimate tête-à-tête, and that was when Denys saw her. His eyes widened in astonishment, he glanced around, then he returned his gaze to hers. In his face, she could see shock, and when he pressed his lips together, he looked every bit as angry as his father.

Was he going to cut her, too? She couldn’t bear to see it happen, and yet, she could not seem to make herself turn away. And besides, where was there to go?

She stared at him helplessly, tears of mortification blurring him before her eyes. She wanted to die.An earthquake would be ideal,one that would split the perfectly manicured grass and allow the earth swallow her up. Unfortunately, despite what Denys’s family thought of her, she was no witch and could not conjure up earthquakes with a magic spell.

God help me,she thought.What am I going to do?

Chapter17

She looked like a stricken doe surrounded by hunters. And the hunters, he noted as he glanced around, were out for blood. A glance at his father’s face told him some of those hunters were in his own family. Denys moved, taking a protective step toward her, but a hand curled around his arm, stopping him.

He turned his head and found Georgiana staring at him, her gray eyes wide and appalled. “Denys, what are you doing?” she whispered. “You can’t be thinking to actually walk over and speak to that woman?”

He returned his gaze to Lola. He’d never seen her look this way—mortified and frightened. It was so unlike her, and he knew she was waiting to see what he would do. “Of course I shall speak to her,” he said, keeping his voice low and as matter-of-fact as possible. “She is my business partner. We discussed that fact only yesterday, Georgiana.”

“Being her business partner does not mean you can acknowledge her publicly!”

That sort of hair-splitting was so absurd he nearly laughed. “I see no way to be one without doing the other.” He glanced over to where Lola was still standing on the lawn surrounded by a sea of faces, avid and eager for scandal, and he knew all of them were wondering what he intended to do. “We can discuss this later. Everyone is waiting on my action, and I cannot allow her to be humiliated this way a moment longer.”

“Humiliated?” Georgiana tightened her grip on his arm before he could turn away. “If you speak to her, if you even acknowledge her, it is I who am humiliated,” she choked. “Do you not see that?”

He shook his head, knowing what she was expecting, knowing he could not do it. “I will not give her the cut, Georgiana. Even for you, I will not do that.”

She made a sound—surprise, outrage, pain—he didn’t know which because he hadn’t seen her display any of these emotions before, not since they were children. Without warning, tears welled up in her eyes. “I knew it,” she whispered. “I’ve always known.”

And then, Georgiana, admired by all for her self-control and restraint, began to cry. Her hand slid away from his arm, she ducked around him, and ran for the house.

Christ Almighty.

---