Fury flashed in his eyes. He turned and headed for the stairs, Miriam’s delighted laughter following him.
“You can’t hide all weekend, Lord Montieth,” she called scornfully.
Nicholas didn’t look back. What the bloody hell did the conniving, spiteful old bitch hope to accomplish by inviting two of his ex-mistresses to his home? And, good God, how many more surprises awaited him?
Chapter 36
THE drawing room was quite crowded, Miriam’s twenty people having turned into thirty. The music room was open and sounds of someone tinkering with the harp drifted from it. The dining room was open, the long table set up for a buffet. Guests drifted from room to room.
Selena Eddington had changed little in the year since Reggie had seen her. Dressed in a frilly pink lace creation that made Reggie feel matronly in her dark blue gown, Selena had all the men hanging on her every word. From time to time, she turned toward Reggie with a satisfied smirk.
“Cheer up, my dear. It was bound to happen one day.”
Reggie turned to Lady Whately, an acquaintance from years past. She was sitting beside Reggie on the sofa. “What was bound to happen?” Reggie inquired.
“You meeting up with the women from your husband’s past, there being so many of them.”
“If you mean Lady Selena—”
“Not just her, my dear. There’s the Duchess there, and that Ritchie tart, and Mrs. Henslowe, though Anne Henslowe was just a fling, or so I’m told.”
Reggie’s eyes flew to each woman the old tabby named, widening when they fell on Caroline Symonds, Duchess of Windfield, a stunningly beautiful blond only a few years older than Reggie. The Duchess sat demurely next to a man in his late seventies. He had to be the Duke of Windfield. How utterly miserable the young woman must be with that old husband, thought Reggie.
Pamela Ritchie, Anne Henslowe, Caroline Symonds, and Selena Eddington. Four of Nicholas’ past mistresses in the same room with his wife! This was asking too much. Was she supposed to converse with them? Act the gracious hostess?
Nicholas made an appearance just then, and she wished she could glower at him, but that was out of the question. While she watched, Lady Selena took Nicholas’ arm and held on tightly.
“That doesn’t upset you, does it, my dear?”
Reggie turned to find Lady Whately gone and Anne Henslowe in her place. Was she now to be comforted by one of his mistresses? “Why should it upset me?” Reggie answered stiffly.
Mrs. Henslowe smiled. “It shouldn’t. After all, she lost him and you have him. She was upset about it.”
“And you?”
“Oh, dear. Someone has been whispering in your ear. I was afraid of that.”
Reggie simply could not remain vexed. The woman was genuinely sympathetic, her brown eyes compassionate. She wasn’t a bad sort. And her affair with Nicholas had happened long before Reggie met him.
“Don’t give it another thought.” Reggie smiled.
“Iwon’t. I just hopeyoudon’t. Be assured, my dear, that Nicholas never goes back for second helpings.”
Reggie giggled, shocked. “Nicely put.”
“And true, to the lamentation of the women in his past. Many have tried to get him back, and all without luck.”
“Did you?” Reggie asked bluntly.
“Heavens, no. He wasn’t for me and I knew it. I was thankful for my one night with him. It occurred soon after I lost my husband. I was close to losing my sanity as well and Nicholas helped me see that my life wasn’t over after all. I’ll always be grateful to him for that.”
Reggie nodded and Anne Henslowe patted her arm. “Don’t let it get to you, my dear. He is yours now, forever.”
But he wasn’t hers, and he hadn’t been hers after that one night nearly a year ago.
She thanked Mrs. Henslowe and looked around for Nicholas. He wasn’t there, and he wasn’t in the dining room or the music room. That left the conservatory, and she retraced her steps back through the dining room and quietly slipped into the glass-walled sun room. It was warm and dark, the only light coming through the far windows of the dining room. It was just light enough to see as far as the fountain, to see the pink lacy gown and short black curls of Selena Eddington, whose arms were wrapped around Nicholas’ neck.
“Are you enjoying your tour of the house, Lady Selena?” Reggie called out, approaching them.
