The earl chuckled as Lady Bess and Donna playfully slapped him and Bess remarked, “You are always hungry.”
Ignoring Robby’s mock outrage, Bess turned to the earl. “I still cannot fathom how they got these huge stones here.” She eyed him warningly. “And don’t say, magic.”
“Ah, ye don’t believe in magic?” he countered. For a moment, he did as he stared into her green eyes. It was as though no one else were present. It was as though the world had faded into darkness and only they stood, staring into one another’s eyes.
She seemed to him as though she were trying to catch her breath when she answered, “I, in fact, do believe in magic.”
He had to stop this. He broke the spell of the moment with a chuckle and said, “Well, as to the huge sarsen stones, it is said that when these were brought so many centuries upon centuries ago, a waterway ran through this valley.”
“How do you know all that?” she asked, surprised.
“My mother brought me here once when I was a boy,” he said softly. “But that memory has faded, and now only this one will remain uppermost in my mind.”
She laughed outright. “Your flattery is outrageous.”
“Not flattery, m’bonnie lass.” He eyed her meaningfully, and even as he did so he chastised himself. He was doing exactly what he had told himself he would not do—he was getting in too deep.
A moment later, he called out to Robby that it was indeed time to get some lunch. Some amiable jesting ensued before the earl meandered to the guide and slipped him a coin and a sincere thanks for his efforts.
He led his party away from the growing number of tourists and smiled to himself. He found that all the balls and routs he had attended in London were nothing compared to the last couple of days he had spent. Why was that?
At twenty-nine he was older than even Robby by a number of years. He was nine years older than Lady Bess—was that too old for her? Why had such a thought entered his head? What did it matter? He was only extending friendship, nothing more.
* * *
Sally Sonhurst stood at the window of her elegantly furnished morning room and looked at her courtyard gardens without really seeing them.
Life had used her poorly early on, but she had learned how to survive. She had learned what was important. She was important. She had to look out for herself at all times—and at all cost.
Her father had married her off to an aged, wicked, and licentious man in order to pay off his gaming debts. She had endured the old man’s odious groping for an entire year before she realized what she was capable of accomplishing.
Providence had sent her the most unlikely of gentlemen to be her lover. At two and twenty he had been only a year older than she. He had an appetite for running with Prinny’s set and thus needed a ready flow of funds, funds he did not have. She did not have ready access to her aged husband’s money, but he did provide her with an allowance. She gave her lover that allowance with the promise of more to come when the deed was done.
The arrangement they struck up would benefit them both.
He had told her that the drug they needed was most innocuous and therefore would never bring down suspicion. She already had it on hand, but he purchased some in his own name and gave it to her so that hers would not appear overly used. It was one that every household had on hand: laudanum.
She had already been giving her husband the drug. At first her intentions had been only to make him sleep so he would not visit her room at night. And then, one particular day when she was in her sitting room reading and he came in and began to grope her, she knew she couldn’t bear him any longer. That very night, she gave him a lethal dose and stood there watching as he writhed and choked and died. Surprise at her lack of remorse, surprise at her lack of sympathy for his suffering made her realize what she was capable of doing. She often wondered after that if she could, in fact, ever love anyone.
Her husband was elderly, and she advised the doctor that he had been taking laudanum to help him sleep. No one thought anything about it, and life for her became glorious. How could it not? She was free, she was wealthy, and she was titled. She already traveled with Prinny and his set due to her husband’s friendship with the Prince Regent. What more could a woman want?
Then the Earl of Dunkirk entered her world. When she looked at him, she did think for a time she could love a man. However, she brought the feeling under control. Emotions could ruin her, and she liked her life just the way it was. However, she did want him, wanted him from the moment she saw him. And so, she set out to seduce him. It was easily done. He was a passionate man and proved to be everything she could want in a lover. He met her every need, every desire.
However, the sorry fact was that he was a confirmed bachelor. She was determined to change that fact and had been working to achieve her goal, but as of late he seemed to grow more distant.
At one time, she thought perhaps she could bring him up to scratch. It felt as though he were getting close to proposing, and then suddenly he withdrew, as though he had looked into her soul and been repulsed. It was a fanciful thought, nonsensical, and she put it away. He couldn’t know, really know her. He couldn’t know what she was capable of, and she felt no guilt, no remorse whatsoever for what she had done. What she had done was survive.
She had decided to take a little time off from him to hatch another plan, a plan which would require her ‘helper’ to bring it to a successful conclusion.
He partner in crime would be eager; he was a pretty dandy and always in debt. He would welcome the opportunity to earn the blunt he needed to go on in the lifestyle to which he was accustomed, and she now had access to all the funds she could ever need.
The door to her morning room opened, and her butler announced a familiar and very close friend.
A tall and lanky man whose fashion was designed to make him stand out walked into the room. He was not exactly attractive, and some even thought him a fop, but for some reason she rather liked being in his company. His lovemaking was, though rough at times, quite exciting. He knew how to please her.
She smiled a warm welcome, as theirs had been a mutually beneficial friendship that she enjoyed even though they were no longer lovers. “Darling,” she said as he squeezed her fingers gently.
“Darling, indeed … now what is all of this?” he answered and brushed a kiss on her bare wrist.