Alice turned from him to the window, staring down at the street below to steady herself. She knew he was still watching her. Breathing deeply, she turned back.
“You suffered terribly, didn’t you? Like my brother?” She hadn’t meant to ask but the words had escaped before she could stop them. She didn’t expect an answer. He gave one, with a single, grave nod.
“I…I’m sorry.”
He said nothing, his eyes unreadable.
“Charles was there for two years before he came home ill,” she continued. “He never fully recovered. His spirit was broken in Blackwood Hall.” She looked down at her clenched fists.
She heard him move, and moments later his boots stopped inches from hers. Polished black leather gleaming. Alice forced herself to meet his gaze.
“I knew he was a Blackwood boy, my lady. We have a list.”
“A list?”
“My friends, Lords Hamilton and Corbyn. We entered Blackwood Hall together. When we left, we made a list of everyone who had attended. Everyone who may have suffered.”
“Why?”
He looked so calm speaking of something that had to have scarred his soul.
“Because we made a vow when our torment ended—”
“When did it end?” she whispered, regretting the question at once. She didn’t want to know how long he had suffered.
“That is not my story alone to tell, my lady.”
“Of course.” Her voice softened. “What was your vow?”
“No Blackwood boy would walk alone.”
He spoke the words quietly, but his eyes had darkened, hardening with something fierce and implacable. Alice shivered. This was not a man one wished to make an enemy of, and she would do well to remember that.
Chapter Seven
Jamie had decidedthe minute he opened his eyes that he needed to speak with Lady Alice. First, there was the apology he knew he must deliver. Second, there was his need to get to the bottom of why she was there last night, and what her intentions going forward were with regards to Jackson.
He’d gone through his morning routine of dressing and then eating a large meal while reading the newspaper. When his horse arrived, he’d left the house. He now sat in the Smythe parlor with a woman who he thought wished him anywhere but here.
The Lady Alice he’d known for the last few years should not have been frequenting a bare-knuckle boxing match. She was proper, aloof, and the epitome of a gently bred society lady. It appeared she’d been fooling everyone.
Yes, she was unwed, and old enough now to be classed as on the shelf, but still, he had never once heard a whisper of a scandal surrounding her, or a whisper of impropriety. If news of what she was about reached people, she would be shunned from the world she’d been born into. He needed to move carefully now, to get her to talk to him.
“I’m sorry for your brother’s suffering, my lady.”
He watched her shoulders straighten under the soft cream of her day dress, and the anguish leave her eyes then. Once again, she was the cool Lady Alice, and had he not seen that look of anguish for himself, he’d never have believed her capable of such devastation.
It was clear her brother’s loss had hit her hard, but more than that, the suffering he endured.
“Thank you.”
Her eyes were a color he’d not seen often. More amber than brown, and the right had a lighter patch close to the pupil. He’d thought her beautiful and meant it, but Jamie was fast beginning to realize she was much more than that. She was exquisite, but he, and no doubt many men in society, had not taken the time to get past her standoffish façade to notice.
Her hair was in a simple bun today, with a few tendrils loose. She wore a cream dress with rose pink embroidery around the cuffs at her wrists and hem. But on her body the effect was stunning. A body he now knew was curved and lush.
He was not a man who gave into urges, but last night he’d touched and tasted her, and he knew that he would have those urges again, no matter how much he’d told himself otherwise. What had happened between them would be a memory that would stay with him for a long time.
But he would never again act on that need, because there would be no future for him with Lady Alice Smythe, and she was a lady. Don’t forget that, Jamie, he reminded himself. Because he had last night and the consequences had been dire.
