“Seems the other way around. Youwerethe one hanging off the back of his carriage.”
Jack, at least, had properly judged the situation.
“And…” Jack chuckled. “If you’ll pardon, miss, he’s seen your right hook. Doubt he’ll take chances. I warn you, though, guv. It’s a good one…for a girl.”
Rayne’s gaze remained fixed to hers. “Hardly.”
She flexed her hand and curled it back into a fist. Rayne’s stare moved to her hand then back to her face. He actually had the gall to smile.
A very,verywicked smile.
“But now that I think, guv, I’m not sure it’d be right,” Jack reasoned, “leaving her here with you when she’s scared.”
“You”—Rayne turned back to Jack—“who were about to beat her to a pulp? Forgive me if I doubt your sudden concern. And she’s not scared. I’ve neveronceseen her scared.Especiallywhen she should be.”
“What do you mean to do to her, anyway? And what’s she to you?”
“I intend, if you must know, to make sure she’s warm and dry. As to who she is… This is Mrs. Katerina van Heldt, widely understood to have been my cousin’s mistress.”
The bottom dropped out of Julia’s stomach.
“Now,” Rayne continued, “you mistook me for the earl, which is understandable. But he’s bigger and meaner than I am. Do you actually think I’d lay a hand on his mistress—especially one who had taken such trouble to trick me into taking her to him?”
“Bigger and meaner? Not if you was right in the head.”
“I trust I’ve settled your concerns and your curiosity. You may go.”
“Gone,” Jack replied. “And I ain’t seen nothing. Good luck getting back to your gent, miss.”
Rayne kicked the bag back into the room and then closed the door.
“Katerina is yourmistress?!” Julia forced out.
He unbuckled the bag. “Widely understooddoesn’t necessarily meanactually was.”
“Butisshe?”
“Isshe?” He glanced up. “No.”
Her heart hadn’t slowed. “Wasshe?”
As in had Katerina been Rayne’s mistresswhen they’d kissed in Southford’s stairwell…when she’d announced to her family she loved him?
Rayne ran his fingers through his hair. “My past lovers aren’t any of your concern, are they,footman?”
Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, Katerinahadbeen his mistress. Which could only mean Farring had been dead wrong—Rayne never had any feelings for her at all.
A wave of heat flashed through her, followed by the sudden realization she was chilled. Desperately chilled.
And exhausted.
And starving.
And, above all,completelyhumiliated.
…
Had Rayne thought Julia a scourge when she was speaking? Her silence was worse. In silence, he read all the despicable things about himself he already knew to be true.
