Page 16 of To Ruin a Rake

William’s Widow, everyone called her. Except that she wasn’t. Not really. She was, however, a damnable botheration.

Rich was arranging sets for the evening performance when he arrived backstage. “What are you doing here so early?” said his friend, smiling. “It’s hours yet before the show.”

“I have a problem,” Roland said, eyeing the new backdrop for Rich’s latest satire. “Did Hoggie do that?” he asked, pointing at a painting of a woman peering out of a false window. “Looks like his latest fascination, what’s her name? Lavinia?”

“Yes, he did. And yes, it is,” answered Rich, tying off the rope he’d been holding. He mopped his brow with a kerchief. “What sort of problem?”

“There is a woman I wish to be rid of.”

“I see. Mistress? Lover? Annoying marriage-minded chit?”

“William’s fiancée.”

Rich’s brows rose, and Roland reconsidered. Unless he wanted to see his personal life played out on the stage, it might not be wise to tell Rich every detail. The man tended to “borrow” material from everyone around him—without asking. A playwright’s prerogative, he’d always said. “I discovered her today during a visit to William’s charity,” he finally went on. “She’s managed to insinuate herself with the other governors and has been influencing matters there. Heavily. We have just now had a confrontation.” There. That sounded reasonable.

Rich’s eyes twinkled. “And her assertiveness has set you on edge, has it?”

“To put it mildly.”

“Almost as much as her attractiveness?”

Roland scowled at his grinning face. Damn the man. His ability to see through people was uncanny. “She was hardly attractive.” Not in the conventional sense of the word, anyway...“She is a puritanical pain in the arse—an interfering, overbearing female who has buried her nose far too deeply in matters she oughtn’t.”

“She’s quite firmly entrenched?”

He nodded.

“Perhaps a chat with her husband might be the t

hing.”

“She is not married.”

Rich’s smile spread. “Then why not take two birds with one stone? Get her out of your blood and out of your hair at the same time.”

The suggestion sent a flash of heat throughout Roland’s vitals, followed by a cold dousing of shame. “She would have been my sister-in-law, had William lived.”

“Ah! Then you don’t deny you desire her,” said Rich, leaping on his failure to answer the question.

“Rich...”

“So, let me see—she would have been your sister-in-law,” said Rich, raising a finger. “But as it currently stands, she is not actually any relation to you at all.” He waggled the digit at him. “Thus, that cannot in truth be the source of your reluctance to bed the wench. It must, therefore, lie elsewhere.”

“Our families were nearly united, Rich. Thus, I cannot simply ‘bed the wench’ as you so eloquently put it.” He frowned. “God, man. One might think you of all people would speak with a bit more grace concerning such things.”

His friend shrugged. “Flowery speech is reserved for the stage and for the wooing of beautiful women. Continue.”

It was pointless to try to evade the man. Roland sighed. “Regardless of the fact that she never married William, I feel obliged to treat her with a modicum of respect. Or at least I would if she ever bothered to treat me with any. The woman detests me.”

“Ah, now we come to it,” said Rich, his eyes gleaming. “I take it some past interaction of a disagreeable nature lies between you?”

“You might say that.”

“In other words, you were an ass, which is why she dislikes you. And she put you in your proper place, which is why you dislike her.”

“Why do you assume the fault lies with me?” Roland replied, indignant. Never mind that Rich’s assessment of the situation was uncomfortably accurate—there was such a thing as loyalty, after all.

“Because aggression does not come naturally to women,” answered Rich. “They don’t typically attack a man without reason, which means an offense must have been committed on your part.” He held up a hand, forestalling the protest that leaped to the tip of Roland’s tongue. “It makes no difference whether that offense was real or perceived. To the female heart, they are one and the same. So, regardless of your opinion of your behavior, in her view you were behaving like an ass.”

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