Or numb.
“We will take nothing less than the highest bid this evening, as that is what this curious kitten deserves,” Harriette announced. “Who will start the bidding?”
“Fifty pounds!”
As laughter erupted from the crowd, Harriette admonished, “Shame on you! What sort of gift do you think you are purchasing? You are not breaking in a filly, but taking a woman’s virginity. You shall be the first man to teach this beautiful woman the carnal arts. Let’s try a bit harder for a better price.”
“One hundred pounds!”
She shook her head again. “Better, but still not where we should be. Do I hear two hundred?”
“Two hundred!”
Drake watched as the bidding finally got serious. While there was still laughter each time Harriette addressed the crowd, he could tell that the auction was starting to become serious.
The bets were starting to become larger and more determined, some starting to bid against one another. Still, he did nothing. It wasn’t yet the right moment.
After thirty minutes and the bids had finally started to slack slightly, Harriette attempted to get more blunt. When it was apparent that none was forthcoming, most looking at each other to see who would take the prize.
“Is twelve hundred pounds the final bid?” Harriette cajoled.
A murmured grumbling went throughout the room, as most of the opponents gave up their hand and removed themselves from the auction. But there was one man, the first one Drake had suffered his nonsense that spoke up clearly, “Two thousand pounds.”
Drake saw some of the blood recede from Miss Davies’ face when her gaze lit on the older man with the cruel smile. He could imagine what sort of night he had in mind for her. It was certainly not going to be pleasant.
“A very nice donation,” Harriette cooed. “Shall that be all? Once, twice?”
“Five thousand pounds.”
As the crowd parted to reveal Drake to the two women on stage, he saw more than a pale face from Miss Davies. He recognized true fear.
* * *
Run.Fleur’s every instinct was telling her to get as far away as possible from this man.Mr. Porter.She had escaped him once in Greenwich—or so she’d believed. But here he stood, prepared to demand more than six hundred pounds. Now, he could very well be the one to take her virtue.
She swallowed, although her throat was as dry as dust. She leaned toward Harriette and whispered in her ear. “That is the man I told you about, the one my brother owes a gambling debt.”
“Is that so?” Harriette lifted a delicate brow and slid her glance to the man in question. “In that case, you should prepare yourself to do a lot of groveling because he has just won your maidenhead.”
Fleur was about to protest when the lady raised her arm and shouted, “Sold to the highest bidder!”
A round of weak applause went about the crowd as the disgruntled contestants moved on without anything to show for their efforts. Mr. Porter, however, remained exactly where he was, as if expecting her to come to him.
It was the worst humiliation that Fleur might have suffered. But she supposed she deserved it for trying to deceive him. Clenching her hands at her sides, she stepped down from the dais and strode toward her fate. She shivered when she met those hard silver eyes again. She feared that he would not be a kind man and she worried that she was about to experience the worst night of her life.
For a moment, he didn’t speak, just looked at her with that piercing gaze. She noticed that he still wore the same worn cap, but his clothes were just as fashionably tailored as they had been in Greenwich when they’d first met.
She hated that he was making her stand there like a fool but she refused to be the one to break the silence. He had spent the money to have her. She might have to offer him her body but that didn’t mean she had to offer him anything else.
“Miss Davies.”
His smooth voice slid over her skin just as it had before. It was like a snake that coiled around her neck intending to choke her but altered course at the last moment and crawled down her spine instead. “Mr. Porter,” she returned evenly.
His lips twitched, as if he were trying to smile but had forgotten the act along the way.
“Shall we depart?” she suggested. She wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.
“Not without the requisite payment first,” Harriette said as she glided up behind her. She held out her hand expectantly to Mr. Porter.
