Page 53 of Seducing a Frigid Lady
I made no declarations of love to Miss Lloyd,he thought, gritting his teeth as he realised that the only thing left to do was save the reputation of an entirely innocent woman. Lady Caroline did not deserve the horror of being placed at the centre of a scandal with the likes of him.
Whether she had been sneaking around with his cousin or not, she would never recover from the talk of her having been seen in the presence of a rakish rogue like himself.But...he added silently to himself, not quite able to complete the thought. If he had been truthful with Miss Lloyd, perhaps he might have made several declarations.
It was always destined to happen at some point,Lionel reasoned with himself, remembering the desires of not only his parents but his aunt and uncle, too. Every single one of them had been adamant that Lady Caroline would be his perfect match. Now it seemed they would have what they wanted.
Chapter 19
Horrified by all that she had just overheard and witnessed, Priscilla allowed Sophie and her mother to take the lead on their way down the street to their carriage. She needed a moment alone to catch her breath, to fight back the tears that threatened to fall in a cascade down her cheeks.
No sooner had she brought herself to trust Lord Sinclair than she had felt the rug pulled out from beneath her. Over and over again, his words replayed in her mind. “Lord Montgomery, I shall marry your daughter.”
An admission of guilt if ever she had heard one and yet she could not stop from thinking of the day before when he had kissed her as though he meant for her to feel every single ounce of the affection he felt for her.
And the entire ordeal left her shivering with trauma. So much so that it was next to impossible to quicken her pace and catch up with her friend and her friend’s mother.
Yet it seemed that nobody had any problem catching up with her.
“Miss Lloyd, oh, please,” came the voice of a woman she loathed. “Do wait a moment!”
Whipping around to face Miss Kendall, she was even more astonished to find that Mr. Kenyon had followed her also. It was even more astonishing than it had been to find them both standing in the drawing room the moment she had pulled back the drapes, unable to listen to a moment more of Lord Sinclair’s and Lord Montgomery’s argument.
“What do you want?” Priscilla demanded, glowering at them both in an attempt to remain her usual icy self.
“We just wanted to apologise, Miss Lloyd,” Miss Kendall announced, looking quite contrite, though Priscilla thought that if she looked closely enough, she could see something worse hiding just beneath the surface.
It was only the sheer exhaustion she felt deep within herself that made her realise she didn’t have a care in the world for what either of them had to say. Nor did she have the energy to argue and so she was forced to stand and listen while Miss Kendall said, “I do hope this hasn’t put too much of a dampener on your littlefriendshipwith the viscount.”
Priscilla’s teeth clenched at her words, but she forced herself to remain silent, offering the woman a stony glare.
“I do like to think I warned you not to get too close to the biggest rake in all of London,” Miss Kendall continued to gloat while Mr. Kenyon looked on, seemingly quite amused by the whole thing.
What are the two of you even doing here together?Priscilla thought, but just as quickly, she realised she was too exhausted to even consider the options on that one. She would never quite be able to comprehend why either of them did any of the things that they did.
One thing she did know for certain: she was never going to allow either of them the satisfaction of seeing how much she had been affected by all that had just happened.
“Miss Kendall, I do not need your…” she began, but before she could finish her protest, Sophie’s concerned tone came from further down the street.
“Cilla, are you coming?”
Feeling more than a little relieved that her friend had interrupted whatever Miss Kendall and Mr. Kenyon had planned amongst themselves, Priscilla offered them both a nod of farewell.
“Good day to you both,” she stated in a clipped tone before turning back down the street to tell her friend, “I am coming.”
Priscilla struggled to ignore the smug, satisfied expression on Miss Kendall’s face as she walked away. Though she knew well enough that the two of them were likely up to no good, she quickly came to realise that she no longer cared. The aching in her chest was too much to bear already; she didn’t need to discover any more about the situation than she already had.
Yet she could feel the pretty blonde woman and the weasel-faced gentleman watching her even as she clambered into the carriage after Sophie and her mother.
“Are you alright?” Sophie asked the moment that they settled down together on the same carriage bench, opposite her mother.
Still feeling as though she was holding back tears, Priscilla forced herself to nod. “I am. I am just a little shaken by Lord Sinclair. He has been put in an awful position.”
Though every word was true, there was far more to her feelings than all of that. She just couldn’t bring herself to admit it, not to Sophie or herself, whether or not Mrs. Lyttleton was watching over the both of them.
“I hate to say it, but he has puthimselfin such a terrible position,” Sophie pointed out, and Priscilla’s stomach twisted even more painfully than before. It was abundantly clear from the look on her friend’s face that she believed all Lord Montgomery had said, not to mention the little that Mr. Kenyon had put in, though she still could not figure out why he had found the need or the reason for being there in the first place.
What did it matter to him or Miss Kendall what Lady Caroline had been getting up to? Though they had claimed to be her friends, Priscilla had never known such a thing. In fact, she couldn’t remember a time when she had ever seen the three of them together. Not to mention the fact that she could not imagine the likes of Lady Caroline even being an acquaintance of the likes of Miss Kendall with her terrible attitude.
“Enough, girls,” Mrs. Lyttleton declared, clucking her tongue against her teeth in a scolding manner. “The two of you must cease talking about this immediately. As far as we are concerned, nothing amiss has occurred today.”
