“Then as your good friend, I ask that you accept my counsel regarding the matter of your wife.” Dariell sat forward. “With Miss Darling at your side, success shall be yours.”
During the years Lockhart had known the Frenchman, he’d had a gift for predicting the outcome of events, a gift for seeing each man’s destined path. If Dariell believed in Miss Darling, who was he to argue?
“You have not been wrong yet.”
“Trust me. Miss Darling, she is a perfect choice.”
Lockhart sighed.
The actress would have indulged in after-dark activities. A romp beneath the bedsheets might have made the whole process less tiresome. That said, perhaps it was easier to sleep next to a virgin. With no hope of settling between Miss Darling’s soft thighs, he could focus on the grim task ahead.
“Well?” Dariell persisted. “Will you approach Miss Darling with a proposition?”
“What choice do I have?”
“None.” Dariell chuckled.
“Then tonight, I shall visit the manor and make Miss Darling a scandalous offer.”
No doubt one the lady would refuse.
Chapter Two
“Must you walk so quickly?” Emily panted as they marched back to the house. “No matter how hard you try, you’ll not escape the biting wind.”
“It’s not the wind I am trying to escape.” Claudia slowed her pace before her sister tripped and stumbled. It was the dark, brooding gentleman staying in the cottage that caused a fluttering panic in her chest.
“Each night, we creep to the cottage as if a wolf lives there.” Emily’s breathing settled to a steadier pace. “Each night, we leave as if the creature might pounce from behind a tree and tear our flesh from our bones.”
Claudia could not dispute Emily’s claim. In her defence, Mr Lockhart looked eager to sink his teeth into someone’s pulsing vein. “Is it not right to be nervous when visiting an unmarried gentleman?”
One could not deny Mr Lockhart had a hypnotic charm. Claudia had made the mistake of staring into those chestnut-brown eyes, had made the mistake of noting the gold flecks that glowed whenever his voice turned smooth and suggestive. As a woman with no hope or opportunity of ever dabbling in affairs of the heart, she might easily fall under his seductive spell.
“And yet tonight your fear stems from more than the man’s marital status.” Having lost her sight at the age of ten due to an illness, Emily had learnt to hone her other senses. Consequently, it was as if she could read Claudia’s mind.
“I am not afraid of Mr Lockhart.”
“You’re afraid to like him,” Emily countered. “I can hear the hesitance in your voice when you’re in his company.”
“We know nothing about the gentleman”—and she used the term loosely for there was an air of sinful wickedness about his countenance—“other than he has spent the last five years living abroad.”
Mr Lockhart might be a master criminal. A thief! A murderer!
Why else was he hiding in a cottage in the Hertfordshire countryside?
It was easier to think the worst. Only in fairy tales did a handsome knight arrive to rescue a damsel in distress. Distressed and desperate certainly described her current predicament. Beneath Mr Thorncroft’s polite facade lay a savage brute. Of that she was certain. The mild threats would soon escalate when she failed to settle the debt. And while Mr Lockhart paid handsomely to rent a run-down cottage, it was not enough to keep the real wolf from their door.
“Anyone who has such a kind and considerate friend as Monsieur Dariell must have a good and honest heart,” Emily said in the dreamy tone of one suffering from a mild infatuation.
“Perhaps.”
Monsieur Dariell was the most pleasant man Claudia had ever met. He seemed wise beyond his years. Not once had he looked upon Emily with pity but treated her as a woman without a debilitating affliction.
“Describe him again,” Emily said as they approached the small portico supported by two Doric columns, the entrance to their modest-sized manor house.
“Well, he has soft full lips and wavy black hair that f
alls rakishly over his brow.” A chuckle burst from Claudia’s mouth in a stream of white mist. “He has a strong physique and a mischievous twinkle in his eyes whilst still looking scholarly.”