They continued to gaze at each other warmly as Richmond toyed with a tendril of silken dark hair. He was so caught up in Arissa’s delicious vision that he failed to notice the slight movement in the giant wardrobe at the opposite end of the chamber.
One of the carved paneled doors inched open, paused, and then slowly closed. After several moments, it inched open again, wider. As Richmond kissed Arissa’s cheek tenderly, the door proceeded to yawn even further. When he moved to cover Arissa’s body with his massive frame once again, giving in to the rejuvenated desire flooding his veins, the door flew open wide with a resounding crash.
“You…. youhypocrite!”
Richmond bolted out of the bed faster than he had ever moved in his life. His natural protective instinct was surging as he flew over the mattress, feet to the cold floor, fully prepared to do battle with the unknown intruder. Only when his hands closed over the dark, indistinct figure did he realize the shadow was a weaker being, non-threatening to a man of his incrediblestrength and size. His grip met with fleshy soft arms, struggling furiously within his iron grip.
“You are a liar and…. and a deceiver!” Regine raged, wrestling viciously in Richmond’s mighty grasp. “You punished me for the very same action you have just committed with my sister!”
Bedcover clutched to her breast, Arissa watched in horror as Richmond yanked Regine into the weak light. Regine’s face mottled an ugly shade of red, her eyes full of venom, and all of it directed at Richmond.
“I knew you were an overbearing brute, but I had no idea you were a fraud as well!” she raged. “How could you have spanked me for sampling the identical pleasure you and my sister have just tasted? How?”
Richmond was as naked as the day he was born, standing before a ranting twelve-year-old girl. With a long, hostile glare, he forced himself to calmly retrieve his breeches. Regine twitched and quaked in her anger, completely ignorant of his nudity and glowering at him as if he were the Devil himself.
“Why were you spying on us?” his voice was amazingly steady as he secured his hose.
Regine clenched her teeth so hard that she bit her cheek. “I was not spying! At least…. it had never been my original intention. But you proved to me that you are a deceiver and I shall…!”
“And you shallwhat?” he put his hands on his hips, his voice as ominous as Arissa had ever heard it. He took a step, towering over the enraged young lass. “Do not ever threaten me, Regine. You shall not like the results, I guarantee it.”
Regine may have been furious, but she was not daft. It did not matter that Richmond had taken Arissa’s virginity while she watched from her hiding place in the wardrobe; what mattered was the fact that Richmond had punished her for the very sameoffense not hours before and she was outraged by his double standard.
Richmond, however, was gravely concerned for quite another reason; should Regine tell the earl all she had seen, the consequences would be severe. To become angry with her would only inflame the situation and he fought to keep his calm; nonetheless, a natural fury bubbled within his chest as he faced off against the foolish young wench.
It took him less than a second to carefully analyze the situation, the results, and the hazards. And it took him less than a second to realize there was little he could do to alter the course of a most distressing circumstance.
Regine had witnessed something she most definitely should not have. In lieu of strangling her simply to keep her from spilling the secret, Richmond was greatly pressed to emphasize the confidentiality of what she had seen without making it known that she literally held their lives in her hand. God help them, their very balance hung in the slippery palm of a shallow, peculiar young girl.
“I was not threatening you,” Regine said after a moment, her rage dampening in the face of his intimidating expression. “But you were unfair to punish me for experiencing adult pleasures when you and Arissa did the very same thing.”
The tension filling the room was thick enough to cut. Smothering, encompassing. Arissa’s breath caught in her throat as Richmond eyed Regine grimly. “What did you mean when you said spying had not been your original intent? What, pray, was your original intent?”
Regine swallowed, the first flicker of uncertainty kindling in her blue eyes. “I….I followed Bart from the gallery, but he did not want to speak with me. So I came up here to wait for Riss to return from her party. I was waiting when I heard your voice in the hall and I did not want to see you because I was madat you. So I hid in the wardrobe,” she swallowed again, her gaze moving to her sister for the first time. A shade of genuine remorse crossed her features. “I saw you kiss her, and hold her, and I became curious because I did not know you and my sister were…. well, together. I could have come out of the wardrobe after you left, but I did not. I wanted to see what happened when you returned.”
Arissa, sheet still clasped to her breast, suddenly found her tongue. She was not embarrassed in the least that her sister had witnessed her first experience with ecstasy; she was damn well furious for the invasion.
“So you spied on us!” she hissed. “Regine, how could you? After all I have done for you, defended you, made excuses for you, and even lied for you! I know you have spied on Penelope and Daniel, but how could you spy on me? How could you do this to me?”
Regine turned to her sister, fury fading and being replaced by genuine penitence. “I…. I do not know. I have seen the serving wenches couple with the soldiers, but it seemed to be rough and over quickly. And this afternoon when I…. it was not as wonderful as I thought it would be. I suppose I wanted to see…. it was wonderful for you, was not it, Riss? Is that what coupling is supposed to be like, always?”
Richmond stood with his fists on his hips, his gaze moving between Regine and Arissa. His anger began to dwindle as he came to understand that Regine, although her motives had been selfish and sly, was still in the process of trying to understand what went on between a man and a woman. Her experience that afternoon had been abrupt and unpleasant, and the curious, obsessive girl was still looking for her answers. Even at the expense of her sister’s privacy.
But Arissa was unable to see Regine’s curiosity for what is was. She was furious and shaken at being betrayed by herown sister, and furthermore terrified that Regine would tell her father what she had seen. Clutching the linen to her breast, she leapt out of the bed and wound the sheet about her body as she approached her youngest sibling.
“You will listen to me, Regine Margaret,” she hissed. “If you mention one word to father, I shall tell him of every offense you have ever incurred and every crime you have ever committed. His anger at me won’t be half as powerful as his shock and fury towards you. Do you understand me?”
Regine looked hurt, confused. She opened her mouth to reply, but in light of her sister’s fury she simply nodded her head. “Aye,” when Arissa whirled away and moved towards the wardrobe, Regine’s gaze followed. “Are you terribly angry with me?”
Arissa let out an un-ladylike snort. “Terribly, indeed! If I had a dagger, I would use it on you!” she veered away from the wardrobe, returning once again to rage in her sister’s face. “This goes beyond what I ever thought you capable of. I should run to father right this instant and tell him of the serving wench you kissed, of the stable boy you fondled simply to know the feeling of male genitalia, or the soldier you coerced into taking your virginity this afternoon. Sweet St. Jude, Regine, when is this going to stop?”
Regine’s expression was guarded, fearful. She opened her mouth, but her sister cut off her stumbling answer. “Well?” Arissa demanded sharply. “This must stop this instant or I will tell father everything!”
“I do not want him to know anything. You always promised me you would never tell.”
“That was before you spied on Richmond and me!”
Regine was staring at the floor as her sister’s angry face loomed before her. She was wise enough to know that Arissa’s anger was a direct result of the fear that her liaison withRichmond would be discovered. And there was only one way to quell her fear. “I…. I shall bargain with you then. I won’t tell father about you and Richmond if you agree that I do not have to tell him what happened this afternoon with Richmond’s soldier.”
