Page 23 of The Love Potion
“Then someone tampered with the missive before it got to him.” Ras glared down at his tepid tea. “Did you get a look at the handwriting? Do you know—”
“No and no. I made sure at the beginning that the man would burn everything as soon as he had it set for print. The less evidence that ties it to me, the better.”
And that was why Nate had used intermediaries to deliver his writings to the paper. A primary requirement of being a secretgossip columnist was to remain secret. But that did nothing to solve the current mystery of who had attacked Kynthea in print.
“Who delivered that missive?”
Nate rolled his eyes. “We’ve been over this. I use street boys who cannot read, much less write.”
“But if you pay them, someone else could have paid them more to deliver a different message.”
“To what end?” Nate smiled as the waitress delivered a small tray of sandwiches, quickly grabbing some as he spoke. “Forgive me, Ras, but Miss Petrelli is hardly worth such effort. She’s a nobody companion from the country. Who would benefit from destroying her?”
Ras looked away. The world might see Kynthea as a nobody, but she was rapidly taking over his every waking second. It made no sense, but he couldn’t deny that he thought of her night and day. She’d even become Kynthea in his thoughts, instead of the very proper Miss Petrelli.
“Why do you care so much?” Nate pressed as he finished a cucumber sandwich in one bite. “You’ve shown your support. I’ll write another column that absolves her. It should all blow over soon.”
Good question. Ras had tried to rationalize his interest. After all, in the four days in which he had sat with her to show his support, he’d been impressed by her calm reserve. She had poise in a very difficult situation. It was no easy thing to sit there and listen to sly innuendoes as people tried to goad her into revealing a lack of character. Or suggest to her aunt that she should be dismissed.
His presence had kept the worst of it at bay, but he had heard plenty at his club. And he was sure that even more had reached her aunt and uncle’s ears.
And yet, simple poise did not explain his desperate need to be near her. He hadn’t felt this strongly for anyone before, noteven during his adolescence. In truth, it shook him. But that didn’t stop him from spending every afternoon in her parlor in a show of solidarity.
“I fear for her,” he finally said. “She is holding up remarkably well, but I see her shrink every day that this goes on. And her aunt and uncle are hardly immune to the innuendo. If thetonis not distracted soon, she will be dismissed. And then what will happen to her?”
“Nothing good,” Nate agreed. “How did you convince her aunt and uncle to keep her on?”
“I told them it would be a personal favor to me.”
“And how did you explain that interest?”
With a lie. “I said that it was clear that Lady Zoe has a strong love for her cousin. And since all the rumors are absolutely false, there was no reason to hurt both women by cutting their connection.”
Nate was quiet a long moment while he studied Ras to an uncomfortable degree. “You know they will see that as a statement of interest. In Lady Zoe.”
He knew, and it couldn’t be helped. “I won’t have a good woman destroyed simply because I walked outside with her for a moment.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “She took me out there to give me a dressing down! She was defending Lady Zoe, for God’s sake. Now I wished she’d slapped me or something. Anything to show people that she was not setting her cap for me.”
“You’re taking this quite seriously, Ras.”
“Of course I am!”
“Of course, nothing. There’s been gossip about you since the day you were born. About you and the people you associate with. Some of it was to their benefit, but just as often, to their detriment. This is the first time I’ve seen you this exercised over it.”
The truth of that statement hit a little too close to home. Why exactly was this bit of gossip harder to bear than any other? “It’s the first time I’ve destroyed a woman.”
Nate frowned, clearly thinking back. “What about that maid who claimed you’d fathered her child?”
“Aninnocentwoman,” he corrected. “Miss Petrelli has nothing. She’s the blameless daughter of a vicar who might have made a good life for herself had her parents lived. And because of me, her future looks very bleak indeed.”
“So it’s guilt?” Nate asked, his tone laced with doubt.
“Of course it’s guilt.” He said the words, even put force behind it, but in his heart he knew that wasn’t the full truth. There was something about Kynthea that drew him. Something compelling that he could not dismiss. And until he figured out just what she had that fascinated him, he would not abandon her to drown in society’s treacherous waters. He couldn’t.
“You know you cannot marry her,” Nate said, his voice very low. “At best, you could make her your mistress.”
“I will not!” He said the words to himself more than Nate. Lust had surged through his body at the idea of having her in his bed. Indeed, he’d fantasized about it every night since first meeting her. He’d pictured her mouth in places it should not be, imagined her naked body moving across his, and wondered what sounds she’d make when he entered her. “She’s a proper woman. I would not insult her that way.”
But he wanted to. Indeed, he worried what he’d do if he ever got her alone.
