Page 40 of Seducing a Frigid Lady
“Good evening, Lady Caroline, Miss Lyttleton, Miss Lloyd,” Lord Sinclair greeted them all one after the other and though Priscilla felt a small wave of jealousy that he had greeted the other women first, she knew well why he had done so. And as his hand slipped from the small of her back, a gentle gesture of intimacy that she hoped everyone else had missed, she felt a rush of a heat pool between her thighs just as it had in the study.
“Good evening, Lord Sinclair,” Lady Caroline said, offering him a smile and a gentle ascension of her wineglass.
“It is good to see you again, Lord Sinclair,” Sophie said, greeting him with a curtsey. “I was not aware that you were in attendance this evening. Where have you been hiding?”
“Yes, Lionel, wherehaveyou been hiding?” Mr. Parr asked, his eyebrow raised and for a moment Priscilla found herself wondering exactly how much Lord Sinclair’s cousin knew about theirrelationship. Though he quickly smiled and added in a playful tone, “I am certain that wherever you’ve been, you were up to no good.”
Priscilla’s jaw clenched, and she pursed her lips, holding her breath as she waited for Lord Sinclair’s response.
“I snuck off to go and have a look in the library,” Lord Sinclair admitted, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. “I found nothing interesting, so I thought I would come and see what these lovely ladies were doing.”
Priscilla felt herself blushing and hoped that the powder she’d applied that evening before the ball would hide the fact. Though luckily for her, Sophie and Lady Caroline looked just as flattered as she was feeling.
His closeness warmed her a little too well, and she gripped hold of the fan that she had tied around her wrist to flutter it before her face, hoping that she could hide some of her embarrassment.
“Are you warm, Miss Lloyd? Perhaps I could escort you outside for a little fresh air?” Lord Sinclair offered, turning his full attention to her before either of the other women could say anything about his flattery.
“Thank you, my lord, but I am well,” Priscilla responded.
“Curse it,” Lord Sinclair hissed with exaggeration, smirking as he added in a playful, jesting tone, “I was rather hoping to sneak you away and have my way with you.”
For a second, Priscilla was horrified, terrified even that the people around them might see a problem with what he had just said. And yet, in the very next moment, she was blushing even harder than before, laughter escaping her so violently that she had no way of hiding it, even behind her fan.
“My lord, you are too much,” Priscilla insisted, still smiling as she tapped him mischievously on the forearm with her fan.
And when she glanced around at the rest of her group, she saw that they were all staring at her, looking entirely astonished that Lord Sinclair had managed to get actual laughter from her.
“Cilla, are you feeling alright?” Sophie asked, still looking aghast.
“Oh, yes,” Priscilla assured her, reaching out with her free hand to squeeze her friend’s arm reassuringly. “Though I rather think the wine may have gone to my head.”
“It is quite strong this evening,” Mr. Parr commented and Priscilla felt the surprise in the group beginning to fade a little. “No doubt, Lord Sinclair definitely had a little too much with a comment like that.”
The warning glare that Mr. Parr gave his cousin relieved Priscilla only slightly.
“Oh, tosh! What is a little jesting between friends?” Lord Sinclair insisted and Priscilla found herself beginning to smirk all over again. For perhaps the first time in her life, she found she was entirely at ease socialising.
That was, until she glanced back in Mr. Parr’s direction and something odd caught her eye. Miss Kendall was no longer alone. Mr. Kenyon was standing at her side, quite close in fact, and the two of them were making no effort whatsoever to hide the fact that they were looking in Priscilla’s direction. Both wore suspicious expressions as though they, too, had overheard her laughter.
Are they jealous?Priscilla wondered, deciding that had to be it. What else could possibly make them have any emotion whatsoever towards her laughter? It was perfectly clear from the looks of both of them that they were not enjoying themselves.
Priscilla tried her hardest to ignore them, and she did so for the rest of the evening. With Lord Sinclair practically glued to her side the entire time, she found it growing easier and easier with every hour that passed by. And by the end of the night, she had almost entirely forgotten to worry about them at all. Though one question remained in her mind:since when were they so familiar with each other?
Chapter 14
“Thank you again for inviting us, Lord Frost,” Lionel said in greeting the moment that the lord met them in the entryway of his magnificent home.
“Oh, no need to thank me!” Lord Frost protested, shaking his head and waving his hand as if to waft Lionel’s comment away. “I have heard that you are often the life of the party, Lord Sinclair, and I do believe that we might be kindred spirits.”
Max scoffed beside Lionel and nodded. “I can see that.”
“I only hope that I can keep up with your expectations of me, my lord,” Lionel said, sure that he knew all of the scandalous things that had been said about him over the years. Though Lord Frost did not appear to be the kind of man to care for one’s reputation.
He had gained one himself for being eccentric and sometimes even quite mad, wealthy beyond belief and a grand fan of his art, a man who had never married much to the disgust of the rest of thetonthough none would ever admit so to his face due to his wealth, connections and his seemingly untouchable status.
“Oh, I am certain that you shall!” Lord Frost responded. “Please, come in. We are about to begin!”
With that, Lord Frost turned and began to usher them both through to the parlour, where several gambling tables had been set up for an evening of card games, business, and likely debauchery. There was not a single lady in sight, though there were several seductively dressed women dotted about the room, their painted faces, wigs and feathered decorations marking them out as women he knew well from the brothels around London.
