He nodded at Lady Sculthorpe. “Something is going on with Judith.”
“You mean other than that her stepson is in the process of bankrupting the family? And please do not use her Christian name with me. The implication disturbs me to no end.”
“So you have heard?”
Phyllida huffed. “Of course, I have. I suspect most of thetonwill have heard by now. So, from the look of her tonight, has your precious Jud—Lady Sculthorpe—despite the machinations of the earl to keep the information from her. Neither that blundering fool nor his shrew of a wife have been very discreet otherwise. And the implications of what he has been up to have been rather horrendous. I suspect that is why Lord Blackwell cornered Lady Sculthorpe. To warn her of the social, governmental, and financial ramifications if the situation is not resolved. The ruin of one family is not without much wider consequences.” Phyllida lowered her fan. “You do know that your name has been bandied about.”
Mark studied Judith as she whirled through a quadrille, the dance reminding him of how she had felt as his partner. Confident. Sensuous. Alluring. The feel of her skin...
His loins tightened.
Damn it.He shifted again. “I do, although theon ditabout it has apparently been tempered by a murder accusation.”
“You will be the death of me.”
“True. But not for many more years, during which you can continue to torment me to your great pleasure.”
“Not if you move into that brothel.”
Mark stilled for a moment, unsure of precisely to which brothel his mother referred. “Mother, I do not think—”
She waved a hand. “Oh, I know it was just the one, and she’s gone and you own the house outright, but I still think—”
Ah.Thatbrothel. “Mother, one mistress does not a brothel make.”
Another wave. “It is the profession, not the location.”
“Her profession was acting.”
“And you, of course, paid her for her ‘acting’ talents.”
Mark’s teeth clinched. He had to extract himself from this conversation before he added to the gossip already surrounding his family. “I believe you need a beverage.”
Phyllida glared at him. “I most certainly do not—”
He pushed up on his cane. “I shall retrieve one for you.”
“Now, just a moment—”
Mark did not wait. As much as he relished bantering with his mother—and he knew she did with him also—his mood had soured as the evening had brought little relief from her sniping and Judith’s indulgent dancing with other men.
Youngmen.
The quadrille had ended, and the first notes signaled the beginning of a reel as the dancers milled and mingled. Judith had dismissed her latest partner with a quick curtsy before retreating back to the tree, new cup in hand.
Annoyance tugged at Mark’s mind as he circumvented the dancers, his cane thumping on the floor. He had not been jealous of a woman since... well, never. Jealousy simply did not play a part in his dealings with fairer sex. If a woman preferred another’s company to his, he wished her well and turned his interest elsewhere. Prior to following Matthew to the Peninsula, more than a few women had sought him out, some still did—he had no lack of interested partners. Any jealousy had stemmed from the ladies, yet another reason why his arrangement with Stella had made sense. He cared not for the dramatic antics of theton’swomen.
So it made no sense for one he barely knew to stir this unexpected feeling of...what?Ownership definitely did not describe it—no man on this planet could ever claim such a thing of Judith Lovelace, Lady Sculthorpe. And without even investigating it, Mark knew any man who tried would risk life and limb. Which he might be doing even at this moment, approaching her from the other side of her tree.
But as he did so, Judith seemed inordinately fixated on the cup of lemonade clutched in her hand, as if the beverage held the answers of all the world’s ills.
“Champagne”—Judith jumped, and Mark lowered his tone—“might be of more solace.”
Her scowl deepened. “Why are men so fascinated by what I am drinking?”
“Perhaps if you were not studying that cup as if it contained the Elixir of Life.”
“Hmph. Believe me, immortality is the last thing I would desire at the moment.”
