“I always do foolish things,” she said. “But would you rather I stayed?”
Sir Percy shook his head. “No. Enjoy your time with your young lover; I will retire to bed. Will you have a means of getting home?”
George would likely take her home himself. Or she would find another method of leaving. “I expect so.”
“Try not to betoofoolish, my dear,” he said, patting her hand with a fondness that verged on exasperation.
Understandable.
Usually, she had a mode of conduct that she adhered to. Although she was known for her many affairs, she did not behave like a bawdy whore in public places.
After all, part of her reputation—and the reason most hostesses still invited her, although Almack’s was beyond her reach—was that she knew how to be discreet. And yet here she was, considering an assignation in the opera house of all places. How positively . . .
Delicious.
As the curtain rose, Caroline looked at Cecily, who was flirting extravagantly with her nervous escort. Then she glanced back at Sir Percy’s tight expression.
What a pair of peacocks.
“I shall offer you this advice just once,” she said, rising to her feet and commanding, with a slight touch to his arm, that he do the same. “And I say it with love in my heart, because I wish you happy.”
“This doesn’t bode well,” he said wryly, finally looking away from the lady who had unwittingly stolen his heart.
“Stop playing games. She may never have understood your affection, and she certainly made it clear she did not want it when you offered. That was your folly—the best thing you can do for her now is to treat her with respect. Flaunting your supposed mistress in front of her will likely make her jealous, and it is certainly apt revenge for the crimes she has committed against you, but marriage is not war, and if it is, then you should not play your battle from a position of weakness.”
“Love is not weakness,” he said, brackets forming on either side of his mouth.
She raised a shoulder. “As you say. But you are handing her the bullets and letting her fire the pistol, and wondering why it is that you are the only one to bleed.”
“Tonight, I fired the pistol.”
“And does this feel like a victory?”
At the flicker of pain in his eyes, she relented, leaning up to kiss his cheek. “Try seducing her, my darling. You never know—you may find that yields better results than actions designed to increase her resentment. And you have the benefit of experience behind you. I’ll wager you know more about pleasing a woman than that boy she’s currently entertaining. Use that advantage.”
He looked at her with an expression caught between respect and fear. “You are a holy terror.”
“Thank you.”
“It was not entirely a compliment,” he murmured, but his lips twitched as they left the box. “Be careful with that boy of yours.”
“He’s not a boy.”
“Passion like that can destroy a man. Believe me when I say I know.”
She removed her hand from his arm. “Go home, Percy. Talk to your wife and leave me to my affairs.” The bracelet slid down her arm as she raised her hand in farewell. “Good luck.”
He nodded and strode in the opposite direction. Caroline watched him go for a few moments before turning and making her way along the deserted hallways that encircled the pit. The lamps cast a flickering, golden light across the opulence, and the carpet was thick underfoot, muffling her steps.
She had not gone far before a man emerged from the gloom of a box entry, his silhouette splitting from the shadows. George, fair hair brushed back, eyes sparking at the sight of her. She already knew she was making a mistake, but he was a light to her fuse, and she had handed him the matches.
There was nothing else for her to do tonight but let them burn.
“Come,” was all he said as, a hand on her back, he led her to an empty antechamber. She was not an unmarried maiden; she knew precisely what would happen when the door closed behind her, and yet when George spun her around so her back was against the wood, his face a mask of shadows, she had to bite back a gasp.
“You must be quiet,” he murmured. “Lest we are discovered.”
“I know how to avoid discovery.”
