Page 49 of A Dark and Stormy Knight
The appearance of Farah’s husband had Prudence forcing herself to unclench her fists. She’d have to accept his hand, and it wouldn’t do to have her palms bleeding from where her nails had dug.
“This is my…wife, Prudence Good- er Morley.” He said the word wife as if it tasted strange in his mouth. “Prudence, might I introduce Lady Farah Blackwell, Countess Northwalk, and her husband, Dorian, the Earl.”
“Technically my son is the Earl,” Blackwell said. “I’ve titles enough, and I actually earned all of them.”
Of course! Prudence recognized him now. This was Dorian Blackwell, the Blackheart of Ben More. Who could care to be an Earl when you were once the King of the London Underworld?
The man was monstrous large and dark as a fiend. Despite the eyepatch, his gaze was keen and rapt, as he assessed her with undue intensity.
Pru thought she saw something like a comprehending approval in his smirk.
“Lady Morley,” Dorian Blackwell greeted as if he’d never before thought to utter those words together. He bent over her knuckles and pressed a kiss to the air above them, never touching the skin. “It’s been the cause of much speculation between Farah and me as to what prompted Morley to so hastily take a wife.” In an inappropriate show of public affection, he straightened to put his arm around his Countess, and rested his hand low on her waist just above her bustle as if it belonged there. “I think the mystery has been solved, my love.”
Farah turned her saintly smile upon Prudence. “You’re a beautiful woman on any day, Lady Morley, but in that lilac gown you’re a vision. Utterly glowing with maternal beauty.”
Glowing? Surely not. She’d been losing weight because of her inability to digest food. She was pale, wan, and her eyes sunken with dark circles beneath. She felt more like a shade than an actual person.
They were being kind, of course.
She had to pinch herself to stop gawking like an open-mouthed carp. “I-I thank you, my lady, my lord. What an honor to greet you both.”
An honor, and a horror.
The Blackwells were a sight unto themselves. He, dark as a demon with a demonic air of handsome ferocity, and she his unfettered radiant counterpart. It was plain as day Dorian Blackwell adored his wife.
The question was, did Farah return his affections? Or did she still covet Morley?
How could she not? Blackwell was a compelling man, if not specifically handsome, and he’d an air of vital masculinity few possessed, however he was a shadow in Morley’s golden presence.
At least where Pru was concerned.
She looked to Morley, who wore an expression of one in a dentist’s lobby awaiting a particularly unpleasant procedure.
The question was what? Did he not want the woman who owned his heart to meet the woman who now lay claim to his name?
The very thought was like a punch to the ribs, taking the wind from her lungs as well as her sails.
She didn’t know which would have been crueler, for him to tell her or not… she might have been tempted to like the Countess had she not known her husband had once desired her.
That he’d wished to share a home and children with her.
Had they kissed, she wondered.
Prudence had kissed a few men in her two seasons out, enough to know that kissing Morley was an experience that eclipsed all else.
“Carlton, allow me to purloin your wife whilst you and Dorian conduct your affairs. I’m dying to know her.”
Carlton?Even Pru, herself, wasn’t on such intimate terms with him. Moreover, every time she tried to pin the name upon him in her mind, it refused to stick.
“Lady Morley?” Farah Blackwell didn’t wait for her husband’s reply. “Let’s retire to your preferred rooms.”
“O-of course. This way, Lady Northwalk.” She gestured toward the stairs to her second-floor parlor.
“You’ll call me Farah, of course, all my friends do.”
They weren’t friends, but Prudence nodded as she turned to lead the Countess away. She moved as if quicksand sucked at her feet, a sense of doom washing over her as she climbed the staircase. This woman in her wake, would she be cruel or kind once they were alone?
Farah Blackwell knew who she was, and the circumstances of her marriage.
