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.And despite the risks she’d taken in hosting the house party, even after nearly four months of widowed isolation, she was temptingly close to abandoning this next rebellion in exchange for the return of simple, blessed obscurity.Looking down both sides of the dining table, Leah smiled.“I must beg your forgiveness, gentlemen, for requesting you forsake your cigars tonight.Instead, shall we all adjourn to the drawing room? I have an announcement to make before I tell you of our special entertainment this evening.”With uplifted brows and veiled glances, her guests rose from their chairs.Leah led the way up the stairs, no escort at her side.After she had issued more than thirty invitations, only eight had come—and honestly, that was eight more than she’d expected.But perhaps they assumed she’d arranged the numbers unevenly on purpose, to emphasize her eccentricity amid the rumors caused by hosting a house party so soon after Ian’s death.Once inside the drawing room, she waited for her guests to be seated.Although theirs were all familiar faces, none were particularly close friends to either her or Ian.Some were probably intrigued by the hint of scandal, some on the fringes of society and simply happy to receive an invitation.They might whisper about her and criticize her actions, but she’d made certain not to invite anyone who knew Ian well, or who might consider asking her uncomfortable questions.With her heart fluttering wildly and her palms beginning to dampen with perspiration, Leah reminded herself that they were here for her amusement, nothing more.Taking a deep breath, she gestured to the large portrait of Ian beside her, the one she’d had removed from the gallery.“Thank you all for coming,” she began, a signal to quiet their murmurs of speculation.“I realize—”Herrod, her butler, caught her eye at the doorway.“Excuse me for one moment,” she said, then slipped from the room, desperately grateful for the unexpected reprieve.“I apologize for interrupting, madam, but a gentleman has arrived.The Earl of Wriothesly.He insists on seeing you at once.”Wriothesly.She’d hoped he wouldn’t find out about the house party until it was over, to spare them both any attempt of his to restrain her.But he’d come.To berate her, to lecture her, to make her feel as miserable as he did, no doubt.Immediately Leah’s nerves calmed, her heart steadying, her breath slowing.She might not be her best in front of others, but the challenge of Lord Wriothesly was another matter altogether.He meant to test her independence, though she doubted he had any idea of the strength she’d acquired since Ian’s death.“Thank you, Herrod.Please see if my guests require anything while they wait,” she said, then nearly skipped down the stairs in her haste.Now she looked forward to seeing him, the earl of the impossibly green eyes and the severe, brooding countenance.She was curious to see how she would respond this time to his requests, how she would ply her courage and stand firm in her defiance.In a way, she pitied him.Although she continued trying to move forward, to distance herself from the person she’d become while married to Ian, she couldn’t forget the earl’s anguish when he’d visited the George town house, the fury when he’d sent Angela’s letters flying to the floor.Wriothesly clung to his misery, while she did everything she could to escape it.How horrified he would be to discover she pitied him—probably even more so should he realize he helped strengthen her resolve.Regardless of what he said tonight, she wouldn’t bend to his wishes for her obedience—no matter that he was an earl, nor that part of her heart sank whenever she witnessed the despair in his eyes.Wriothesly stood inside the front doorway with a valise at each side.Scowling, as usual.Leah felt rather a perverse creature for taking pleasure in the way his expression darkened as she approached.Although a smile pulled at her lips, she subdued the motion and curtsied.“My Lord Wriothesly.I wasn’t aware you intended to come.The house party has already begun and we’re now—”“Consider my arrival a response to the rumors you’ve created.” He took her hand, even though it had been clasped with the other in front of her waist, and lifted it toward his lips.While he disguised the movement as a courtly gesture, Leah was more than conscious of the heated iron of his grip, the velvet-soft threat of his kiss as his mouth swept across her glove.The air of desolation surrounding him was gone, replaced only by anger.For the first time in their acquaintance of three years, she realized that the Earl of Wriothesly finally saw her.Not as another random society twit, not as Ian’s wife or widow, but as Leah George, individual and separate.Removed from the great horde of women who were not the seemingly perfect Lady Angela Wriothesly and placed into a much more specific category of one: Leah George.Despised.Loathsome.Enemy.Perhaps pitying him had been a mistake.Wriothesly released her hand.“I fear I’ve done you a grave disservice, Mrs.George.It appears I’ve overestimated your intelligence.”Leah winced as she flexed her fingers, noting how he didn’t apologize for grinding her joints together.Now that his grief seemed to have given way for the moment, all his energy appeared to be focused on scolding her.She tilted her head.“Are you sulking because you came too late for dinner?”“I thought I made my request for you to avoid a scandal clear enough for even a simpleton to understand, and yet here we are.”“Yes,” she murmured.“Here we are.Even though I never sent you an invitation.”“I suppose I should be pleased you’ve decided to continue wearing proper mourning clothes, widow’s cap and all.”“I decided to leave the silk night rail for my midnight tryst [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]