“Excellent.” He got up and offered her an arm. She took it and together they exited the breakfast room and down the hall. Langley met them in the foyer.
“May I get your carriage, my lord?”
“No, Langley, we’re walking to the park.”
“If it’s not too much trouble, perhaps a blanket to sit on?” Evelina asked. “And we wished to take the biography on his lordship’s bedside table, but I could fetch that.”
“No, miss. I don’t mind getting those things.” Langley left them and was back in what felt like no time at all, a folded blanket and the book in his arms.
He handed them over to Vaughn. “Thank you. I assume we’ll be a few hours, so perhaps tea around four?”
“Of course. Enjoy yourselves.”
Vaughn inclined his head as he led Evie outside and into the rare sparkling sunshine of a late summer’s day. He breathed in the air as he realized he had been lockinghimselfaway so often in the last few months that this brief sojourn out felt like freedom.
They took their time as they made their way down the lane toward the big park near the Thames, in no rush to see or be seen, even if that would be the result of this exercise.
“Your butler is very kind,” Evie said at last. “Sometimes the servants don’t approve when a man brings his mistress to his official home.”
He wrinkled his brow. “Don’t they? Well, Langley has been with me for a decade, he’s a good one. I’ve never known him to be rude to anyone in his life.”
“But he must…he must have feelings about the whole situation with Lady Blackburn.”
He tensed. They hadn’t spoken much about Southwater or Florence since they became lovers. It had been a nice respite, but this reminder brought him back to reality. “I’m sure he must. I’m not so naïve as to believe this isn’t being discussed at length belowstairs. But I seem to have somehow won the loyalty of the servants, if nothing else in this separation.”
“I think you were owed it,” she said with a small frown. “And I’m glad you have it. At any rate, I appreciate the kindness. It makes my time in your home all the more comfortable.”
“Did Southwater’s servants approve of you?” he asked.
Her slightly pinched expression revealed all. “He…he didn’t allow me into his house here in London. We always met at my—” She cut herself off with a quiet curse. “We met at the house he let me.”
“The one where he now fucks my wife,” Vaughn said softly.
“Yes.” She shrugged. “I did go to his country estate for a week or two each summer while we were together. I liked it there, but I do admit the servants were cold. Their disapproval was evident.”
“And he didn’t speak to them about it?” Vaughn asked. “He didn’t rush to your defense?”
She turned her head as if that question had struck a nerve and he felt her stiffen. She swallowed before she spoke. “He did not.”
“Well, that’s bollocks,” he said with a shake of his head. “If any of my servants are ever rude to you, or my friends or anyone else while we’re in this arrangement, I want you to tell me and I’ll handle it.”
Her lips parted slightly as she stopped on the path and turned toward him. “You—you would do that? Even though this isn’t real?”
He stared into those dark brown eyes, lost himself a moment and then nodded. “I would. But I think we’re past the arrangement not being real, considering I was perched between your thighs this morning, you gripping my hair and calling out for deities I’ve never even heard of.”
Some of the tension left her expression and she laughed as they started into the park together. “You are terrible, Vaughn.”
“I am, I really am. The most secretly wicked earl in all of London, no doubt.”
“Oh,secretlywicked,” she mused. “I like that. That means all that wickedness only belongs to me. I mean, for now. For a while.”
He was about to retort when he caught a glimpse of someone over her shoulder. All thoughts and teasing ceased and the universe became entirely focused onto one person.
It was Florence. She wasn’t with Southwater this time, but with her younger sister, Honora. The two women were standing on the grass together, watching out toward the river, but then Florence looked toward him and for the briefest of moments their eyes met.
“Vaughn.” He blinked at the sound of Evie’s voice saying his name and looked back toward her. She looked at him and then toward Florence and her expression softened with understanding. “This is unexpected, though part of us coming out was to be seen, yes?”
“I suppose it was,” he agreed, wishing his voice didn’t sound so raw. He glanced at his soon-to-be former wife again. She was not looking directly at him anymore, but she occasionally flitted her gaze in his direction.
