Page 25 of Seducing a Frigid Lady
“Shall we continue then?” Lady Lyttleton said, gesturing them all to walk on as they had begun to block the flow of foot traffic around the pond. Lady Bishop was quick to agree and Priscilla was not at all surprised when her aunt released Lady Lyttleton’s arm where the two had been walking together and came to grip hold of her own.
They had barely begun to walk again, only waiting for all the others to take the lead before she hissed into Priscilla’s ear, “You could have at least attempted to make more of an effort with Lord Bessington.”
Priscilla opened her mouth to offer up a protest, but her aunt continued on.
“For your father’s sake at least,” the woman hissed under her breath and Priscilla gritted her teeth. She would not make a scene in front of half of thetonmoving around the pond, but nor would she allow her aunt to speak to her in such a way.
“My father would not have me forced into company with a fool,” she responded through gritted teeth, her voice carefully low so that only her aunt would hear.
“My dear niece, you are far more likely to come into contact with fools than geniuses,” Lady Bishop said, sighing deeply. “Especially if you are unwilling to give anybody a chance to get to know you.”
“And why should I do that?” Priscilla asked. “It is not as if any gentleman actually wishes toknowthe woman they are going to marry.”
Lady Bishop shook her head, looking more than a little flustered. “I shall never understand why my brother has failed to set you up for this time in your life when it is so important. Especially without having any brother to support you after he is gone.”
Priscilla’s teeth gritted even more painfully at that, her jaw threatening to break with how hard she clenched it.
“I have a brother, aunt,” Priscilla reminded her, the reminder striking painfully at her own heart.
Lady Bishop’s pace slowed slightly, and she looked at Priscilla with a pointed expression. Shaking her head, she replied, “As much as I sympathise with the loss of your mother and infant brother, neither of them can do you any good right now. You must be looking towards the future and not the past.”
Priscilla would have liked to rant at her aunt that she had no right to tell her what to do or how to go about doing it. She wanted to assure her that she had the thoughts of her own future well in hand, no matter what happened.
And she even wanted to tell her that she had no right to say whether or not the deaths of her mother and infant brother had any effect on her, but instead she simply forced a smile and said, “I shall do whatever I believe is necessary, Lady Bishop. My father has his entire trust in me, and I would think that as his sister, you would do the same.”
Lady Bishop did not look at all convinced, but it seemed to quiet her, at least for the moment.
Their conversation had barely ended before Priscilla realised that they had finally made it one turn around the pond. Lord Knighton, Sophie and the others were all awaiting them on the junction of the path where they had begun their walk earlier that day. Poor Lord Bessington had already collapsed onto a metal bench, looking as though he might well pass out from sun exposure or from the exertion of the walk.
But it was not any of them that truly caught Priscilla’s eye. Standing close by, just a few metres away from them, were Lord Sinclair, Lady Caroline, Lady Montgomery, and even Mr. Parr. The four of them were talking quite happily just across the way and although several people passed between them, Priscilla found that she could not take her eyes off the viscount.
The way he smiled when he laughed at someone Lady Caroline had said, how he reached up with a hand and brushed his dark hair back from his face when it started to fall forward with the effort of his amusement, how his hazel eyes shone almost amber in the warm sunshine. It all caught Priscilla’s eye and she could not bring herself to look away.
Almost as though he sensed her watching him, the viscount’s gaze twisted from Lady Caroline. It swept across the park and the moment that it met Priscilla’s; she felt her heart stop.
The look upon the viscount’s face the second that he saw her made it begin beating again, twice as fast. He looked almost as shocked as she felt to see him there, to be quite so close and yet so far away.
Get a handle on yourself!Priscilla ordered herself, clenching her hands into fists in the folds of her skirts and wrinkling her toes in her shoes until it made her calves hurt.
“Would you like to take another turn, Miss Lyttleton?” Lord Knighton asked, but Priscilla barely heard him or her friend’s response. She was too fixated upon the viscount who no longer seemed to have any investment in any of the people crowded around him. The way he looked at her, the way his gaze bored into her, made her feel as though everything else around them was simply melting away.
A short conversation passed through the group before Priscilla heard Sophie say, “Cilla, what do you think? Should we take another turn?”
She was just able to pull her gaze away from the viscount, forcing a smile as she told her friend, “I’d be happy to.”
“I’m afraid I don’t think I will be able to escort you any further, Miss Lloyd,” Lord Bessington said, his voice still quite breathless.
She opened her mouth, prepared to tell him that she was perfectly capable of taking herself on a walk around the pond, when she heard someone clearing their throat behind her.
“Perhaps I might be able to offer a little assistance?”
Priscilla did not dare to turn around. Just the sound of his voice made her skin crawl, and not entirely in a bad way. In fact, it continued to tingle as though he had touched her all over.
“Lord Sinclair, what a pleasure it is to see you again,” Sophie greeted the viscount, reassuring Priscilla that she had not mistaken him for somebody else. “I did not expect to meet you here today.”
Nor did I!Priscilla thought, finally bracing herself to turn around, careful to put her most ice-queen like expression upon her face as she did.What could he possibly do to try and seduce me in front of all these people?
Chapter 9
