Page 31 of Always the Lyon Tamer

Mrs. Dove-Lyon examined her for a moment and then sighed. “Well, the choice is yours, I am sure, but I worry you may come to regret it.”

Rising to her feet, she offered her hand. “And now our time together is at an end. Give the mask to Helena on your way out. She is guarding the ladies’ entry tonight.”

Rebecca took her hand. “Thank you for everything. It did not end as I had hoped, but still, at least I know.”

The woman nodded, and Rebecca turned toward the door. This was it. This was the last time she would be in the Lyon’s Den, and she would never again have the chance to…

Tears finally poured down her cheeks. It was all over. She would not be John Lennox’s wife.

Chapter Ten

Another day. Anotherbreakfast. John looked across the table without seeing, unable to comprehend that his world had changed as much as it had.

Just a few days ago, this was just a breakfast table. Now it was the place he had been sitting when he had received the invitation to the Lyon’s Den. His invitation from Miss Darby.

Rebecca.

He swallowed. The emptiness in his stomach was unlike anything he had ever known. Unsated by food, there was nothing on the table likely to fill the aching pain inside.

Besides, the world had lost its color.

John’s chest tightened painfully, so suddenly that he clapped a hand to his chest as though that would remove the agony. The pain always resurfaced whenever his thoughts drifted to Rebecca. Whatever emotion this was, it was painful.Love?

What did it matter?

Rebecca had fitted him perfectly, in every way. The woman he had loved—a love that now, all too late, had only grown the more he had discovered about her.

And she loved him.

True, Rebecca had not said so in quite so many words, but surely that was why she had planned such a scheme, was it not? They had loved each other in their own ways, without the other knowing the depth of their passion, and it had all come together perfectly—perfectly, that was, until it all fell apart…

John sighed, picking up his teacup and taking a sip of his now cold tea. It all could have occurred a million years ago, and yet it had happened just a few hours before.

Sleep had eluded him, and his mind was clouded with the knowledge that Rebecca Darby believed the absolute worst of him.

He had chased after her, of course. His first instinct, once he had managed to get his shirt, waistcoat, and jacket on, was to fling open the door and stride onto the gambling floor to find her.

But she was gone. He had asked some of the ladies, naturally, but none of them had ever heard of a Titania.

John shook his head.Of course, they had not.They would never reveal details of a woman who had attended the Lyon’s Den with the sole desire to gain his hand in marriage.

His bones ached, exhaustion seeping through them as though he had run a marathon. Returning home last night, he had been astonished to find it was only midnight.

Midnight? He had spent hours, days, perhaps weeks with Rebecca in the Lyon’s Den, hadn’t he?

John shivered at the memory of her sitting in his lap.

Miss Darby!How was he supposed to have guessed the sensual, bold woman in the mask who was quite evidently attempting to seduce him was the same chattering woman who had never known when to stop speaking?

“My, what a wonderful place! And to think, though my father and I have been in Bath a month, we have not been here! It does not seem quite right that we should come all this way for the Season and not even try some of its delights…”

That had been their first outing together and before the idea of courting had even entered his head. How could he marry the confident woman he had met in the Lyon’s Den?

It simply did not make sense. They were two completely different women, Miss Rebecca Darby and the ravishing Titania, yet, they were the same.

“You never really noticed me. Even here, you did not recognize me, not after more than a year. No, I will not marry you.”

John dropped his head into his hands.