Unlike the frowning Mrs. Cadbury.
“I’m afraid I don’t have time to speak with you, madam,” he said with thinly veiled impatience.
“If you do not speak with me then I will be forced to call on you, and to keep calling on you in your house in Bury Street until you’re willing to meet with me. You may as well get it over and done with. ”
He looked at her with real dislike. A year ago, six months ago, six days ago, he would have given a great deal to have this woman in his bed. Now he wouldn’t touch her if he were the one paid to do so. He glanced up at the staircase at the faces leaning over, watching them, and he realized he didn’t want any of them, or their painted sisters who still populated the elegant houses he knew so well.
There was only one woman he wanted, and he needed to get far away from her. One didn’t seduce a gentlewoman merely for sport, even if widows were considered fair game. Melisande, for all her calm good cheer was closer to a virgin than a woman who understood her own body and needs, and it would get very messy indeed if he didn’t put a stop to it now.
In fact, he could consider himself fairly noble. He’d given her just enough pleasure to let her understand what could exist between a man and a woman. She would find someone suitable and marry him, living a rich, full life, all thanks to him.
Yes, he was a hell of a fine fellow, he thought mockingly. Always willing to do what was necessary for the good of womankind.
Mrs. Cadbury gestured toward an open door that clearly led into a salon, and short of manhandling her there was no way past her. “Five minutes,” he said tersely. “After you. ”
She blinked in surprise. “I beg your pardon?”
“I said, ‘after you. ’ Don’t worry, I’m not going to make a dash for the door the moment your back is turned. I’ll come in with you. ”
She stared at him for a long moment. “I’m not used to gentlemen having me precede them… We’re usually bidden to follow meekly behind. ”
“I believe I have manners,” he said, his sharp tone belying his words.
“Manners usually don’t extend to whores,” she replied.
He was tired, he was frustrated and he was angry. He wanted to reach out and strangle her. “Consider it one of my quirks. I believe in treating everyone equally. ”
“You mean you treat everyone this abominably?” Mrs. Cadbury murmured.
“No, madam. This is how I treat my friends,” he said icily.
“We’re friends? How delightful,” she said, sweeping ahead of him into the room. He considered making a run for it, after all, and then stopped himself. Just how craven was he?
He strolled into the room after her, all insouciance, to see her already seated behind a massive mahogany desk, and his image of her as a stern schoolmarm increased enough to force him to smother a laugh with a false cough.
“Please sit down, your lordship,” she said in that same stern voice that was no request but a clear command.
It wasn’t too late—he could still run.
He took the nearest comfortable chair, sat back and crossed his legs, the picture of insolent grace. “What can I do for you, Mrs. Cadbury?”
“You can stop trying to seduce Lady Carstairs. ”
19
The sixth Viscount Rohan, son of the Marquess of Haverstoke, scion of the ancient and thoroughly wicked house of Rohan, was not likely to listen to orders from a retired abbess. He stared at her haughtily, not changing his indolent position.
“You
will have to explain to me why I would have any wish to discuss my private life with you, Mrs. Cadbury. ”
“It’s not your private life I’m interested in, your lordship. It’s Melisande’s. You don’t mean well by her—any fool can see that, and I won’t see her heart broken. ”
This time he didn’t bother to hide his amusement. “I don’t have any particular interest in Lady Carstairs’s heart. ”
Emma Cadbury shot him an angry, contemptuous look, and he noticed for a moment that she really was magnificent. Not to his particular taste, but then, those tastes seemed to be getting more and more narrow. “Do you think I don’t know that, your lordship? It’s not her heart that you desire. I have been in the business of men’s particular interests for many years, and I understand them quite well. Melisande’s innocence intrigues you, and like most men you find it a challenge. You don’t like that she’s chosen to eschew the selfish desires of your gender, and you fool yourself into thinking it would be a kindly act on your part to awaken her to the so-called pleasures of the flesh. ”
He stifled an uncomfortable response, raising an eyebrow, as if he hadn’t been thinking that very thing. “So-called, madam? Am I to infer that during your short but impressive career you never experienced those ‘so-called pleasures of the flesh’?”