Scandals of Lustful Ladies: A Historical Regency Romance Collection

by Meghan Sloan

  The carriage turned down the street, slowing down outside the St. George townhouse. Silas didn’t linger. As soon as the wheels had stopped turning, he was out on the street, striding to the front door, pounding on it with all his might.

  ***

  The whole house was in an uproar at his untimely appearance. But Silas barely glanced at any of them, insisting that he must speak with Marina. That it was urgent and could not wait until morning.

  Eventually, they complied when they saw he would not be dissuaded. He was led into the parlour, where a maid resurrected the fire in the grate before leaving him. The next minute the door opened, and Marina was there, staring at him with wide eyes.

  “Silas,” she said, walking slowly into the room. “I am touched that you feel that you must see me so urgently, when we have only just left each other’s company.”

  He took a deep, ragged breath. The anger was still humming in his veins, but the carriage ride had calmed him, just a little. Enough so he could talk without screaming, at least.

  “Do not flatter yourself,” he said quickly. “It is not because of your charm, lady, that I have called on you at this late hour.”

  She looked bewildered, her mouth falling open just a little.

  “Silas.” Her voice was small. “What on earth is the matter?”

  His face twisted. The rage started flowing stronger through him. She was still playing the innocent victim in all of it. Briefly, he thought that she should have been an actress. She could have been famous treading the boards with her consummate skills at pretending to be something she was not.

  “I will tell you what the matter is, Marina,” he said, approaching her. “The matter is I have discovered all that you have done.” He paused. “I know everything, you see. Your affair with Felton Wilson, the plan to leave your life with him, the fact that all those months you were gone, you were travelling the continent, indulging in debauchery. I know that your claim of memory loss is a complete and utter lie as well.”

  She looked stunned, so completely floored that she simply gaped like a fish out of water, for a moment. But then she drew herself up to her full height, staring at him imperiously.

  “I do not know where you have heard such scurrilous gossip from,” she said in a wounded voice. “But it is all vicious lies. Someone is obviously out to destroy my reputation.” She hesitated, gazing at him beseechingly. “How can you think I would do such terrible things, Silas? You once loved me. You claimed that you loved me more than life itself!”

  He was standing close to her now, glaring down at her. The woman that he had once loved more than life itself. The woman who he had wanted to spend his life with. The woman he had mourned desperately.

  That woman did not exist. She had never existed.

  “Stop it, Marina,” he said slowly, watching a vein start to twitch in her right temple. “Just stop it. You cannot talk me around anymore. You cannot twist me around your little finger. The game is up, and I am no longer your adored servant, willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, over anything.”

  She didn’t say anything. She simply gazed up at him, her violet eyes swimming with tears.

  “Who has told you these lies?” she asked in a quiet voice. “I have a right to know.”

  He sighed deeply. There was no way he was going to tell her that her supposed best friend had finally revealed everything. She would probably work it out herself anyway, but he genuinely liked Lucy, and he knew how hard it had been for her to say anything. It had come at a cost to her, and the only reason she had done it was out of a desire to finally unburden herself. The last thing Lucy Oakley needed at this moment was Marina descending on her like an outraged virago.

  “You can deny it all you want,” continued Silas, almost pensively. “It makes little difference to me any longer. You are beyond redemption I feel. There is a rottenness in your nature that cannot be rectified. A rottenness to the very core.” He paused. “You know, it seems like a dream now. The fact that I once was so violently in love with you. Or at least, what I thought was you. You are a consummate actress, Marina. A pity you have used your considerable talents for evil, and not good.”

  Her face twisted. She turned away. “I will not listen to you,” she said in a low voice. “You are quite insane, to say such things about me…”

  Silas laughed. “Have it your way. I no longer care who you are or what you do, as long as it does not affect my life going forward.” He paused. “You will leave me and my fiancée alone, Marina. No more game-playing, no more association, not even a passing word if you see either of us at a social gathering. Do I make myself clear?”

  She swung around, glaring at him. She was angry now. She didn’t like to be challenged. At least, not by someone who she had assumed she would always wield power over.

  “Your precious Alice,” she spat, her eyes glittering dangerously. “I can ruin her, you know. I can make it that she never talks to you again…”

  He stepped closer to her, gazing down at her. “I really wouldn’t do that, Marina. You see, the world does not yet know what you have done.” His eyes narrowed. “How do you think good society would react to the shocking news of you gallivanting around the continent with a known rake as an unmarried couple? How do you think your dear father would react to the revelation that his precious daughter, who he spent months painstakingly searching for, actually ran away, and then blatantly lied to him when she eventually returned?”

  She visibly paled. “You would never dare to say such things…”

  “Oh, but I would,” he said in a low voice. “I would happily feed you to the wolves, for it is all that you deserve.” He paused. “But I will not utter a word of your shocking exploits, if you promise me that you will leave Alice and me in peace. It is a fair deal, I think, and more than you could have expected.”

  She was silent for a moment. He could almost hear the whirring of her mind, as she contemplated what he had just said. The struggle within her to keep up the pretence versus the desire for self-preservation.

  “Very well,” she said eventually. “I still assert that everything you have said is a lie, but I need to be mindful of my reputation, and you obviously will seek vengeance upon me for my supposed wrongs if I do not comply.” She paused. “I will stay away from you and your fiancée, if you do not utter a word of this scurrilous gossip.”

  It was the best that he could expect from her in the circumstances. She would never admit to what she had done to him, that much was obvious. It was about damage-control now. She needed to be contained. She was like a dangerous wildcat that must be handled with care.

  A part of him longed for her to confess all of it to him. To explain why he had never been enough for her, why his love had never satisfied her. To understand how it had all gone so terribly wrong. But she was incapable of telling the truth, and it would only prolong the agony.

  He sighed deeply. The relief was palpable. It was enough. He felt like he had just lanced an angry boil, and the poison was slowly seeping out of him at long last. Cleansing him of all the damage and the betrayal, all the havoc, that she had wrought in his life.

  “Farewell, Marina,” he said in a weary voice. “You might like to talk to Lucy and apologise to her. If you actually do have a heart beating in that chest of yours, at least do that.”

  He walked towards the door.

  “I hope I get a wedding invitation,” she hissed bitterly.

  He turned back, gazing at her for a long time. And then he simply walked out of the room and the house without a backward glance. He walked out of her life. Forever.

  As he climbed into the carriage and it slowly drew away from the house, he felt like it was the dawning of a new day entirely. That the past was finally gone and buried.

  He was free. He was free to walk into his future, unencumbered. And he could barely wait to take that walk with Alice at his side at long last.

  Chapter 27

  He watched her walking towards him, across the
garden path. His heart leapt at the sight of her. She was wearing a demure olive-green morning gown and a matching thick velvet cloak to fend off the cold. Wisps of golden red hair escaped the hood, fluttering in the breeze.

  Alice. His one and only love.

  It had been three days since he had last seen her. Three days since the dramatic events at Nicholas’s party. Silas had waited to call on her, knowing that she needed time to digest it all. Just as he did. And there was also something else that he needed to do in that time. Something that he needed to get.

  Her mother lingered in the background, playing chaperone, but he could see that she wasn’t taking her duties very seriously. He would be able to talk to Alice privately, and hopefully, steal some precious time alone with her. His hands itched to touch her, to solidify their connection. But first, there were things that he needed to say to her.

  She had almost reached him. Impatiently, he strode forward, meeting her halfway. Unable to contain himself for a second longer.

  “You made it,” he said in a quiet voice as he gazed down upon her. “Shall we sit?”

  She nodded quickly, looking at him a little warily. A pain slivered through his heart at all that she had been through because of him. All that she had suffered at the hands of Marina.

  They found a private bench, sitting side-by-side. She had come to him today. They were in the vast expanse of his family’s garden. There were many narrow paths that they could wander down and almost get lost. Perhaps he would take her to the stables at the back of the house as well.

  She turned to him now, her grey eyes wide with curiosity.

  “Silas,” she said slowly. “What happened when you confronted Marina?”

  He took her white-gloved hand, staring off into the distance. “I wanted her to confess to it all,” he said in a low voice. “But she is incapable of it. The best that I could do was extract a promise from her that she will leave us in peace and will not stir up any more trouble. I believe she will comply, for I threatened her with exposure for all her sins.”

  “I am so sorry,” she whispered, tears springing into her eyes. “The things that Lucy said…the way that you were treated…well, it shocked me, and I can only imagine the pain that it must have caused you.”

  He nodded. “It was a shock. A great shock. But then it all started to make sense, like pieces of a puzzle slowly slotting into place.” He paused. “I was angry, Alice. Furiously angry, at first. I wanted vengeance…but then, it faded. It was just a relief to know the truth, at long last, and get her out of our lives once and for all.”

  She sighed deeply. He tightened his grip on her hand.

  “But more than that, it solidified everything for me,” he said slowly. “In a way, it was good, because there are no tender memories of her any longer. No guilt that she might be hurt by our engagement. All of that has gone now.” He paused, gazing at her earnestly. “We are finally free of her poison, my Alice. Free to truly start our own lives. I feel re-born.”

  She gasped, gazing at him. The tears were turning her grey eyes slightly green. He had never seen eyes like hers before. He felt like he was drowning in them.

  “I am sorry,” he whispered. “I am sorry that you had to endure it all. That she tried to manipulate you as well.”

  Alice shook her head. “Please, do not think any more of it. I must admit, she had me questioning everything. But now I feel free, too.” She gazed at him shyly. “I hope that she will keep her promise.”

  “She will,” he said. “Her sense of self-preservation is stronger than her desire to cause havoc. She will no longer bother us.”

  There was a sudden silence between them. A weight of emotion, lying like a shipwreck full of all their pain and love. He must push it aside once and for all.

  He stood up, sinking to his knees in front of her. “Alice,” he said in a voice grazed with emotion. “I know that we are formally engaged. But you have never received something, that is your due.” He paused, staring at her ardently. “Will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?”

  She gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. A single tear trickled down her face.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Oh, yes. I will gladly become your wife, Silas Wilmington.”

  He reached into the pocket of his jacket. Then he held out his hand towards her. The gold in the ring glinted in the light. It was a thin band, engraved with delicate flowers. A proper engagement ring for the woman he loved.

  Her face transfused with joy as she gazed upon it. He smiled almost coyly as he gently eased her glove off her hand, sliding the ring onto the proper finger. It fitted perfectly. He had secretly contacted her mother over the last few days, requesting the size of her fingers, so that he would not get it wrong. Mrs. Sinclair had joyfully helped him.

  He had taken hours searching for the right design in the jewellery shop. For the perfect ring for her. In the end, he had discarded all the elaborate ones and chosen this one.

  It was just like her. Beautiful, elegant, understated.

  “I love you so much,” he said as they both gazed down at the ring on her finger. “My very heart aches with love for you, Alice. Promise me that we can put all of this behind us. I want to, so desperately.”

  She sighed, leaning forward so that their foreheads were almost touching. He smelt her sweet perfume wafting towards him like a promise.

  “I love you with all my heart,” she whispered. “And I promise you that we shall put all of this behind us. My doubts are well and truly gone now. I know that you truly love me, and that she has been struck from your heart forever. She can no longer cause us any pain, nor can she sow conflict.”

  He grasped her hands, kissing them fervently. This was all that he had wanted. All that he had desired. She knew that she was the only one for him, and always would be. It was enough. It was more than enough.

  Slowly, he drew her to her feet, so that they were standing, gazing at each other, drowning in each other’s eyes.

  “There is something, I would like to show you while you are here,” he said in a low voice, throbbing with desire. “The stables. I have one or two horses, which I am quite proud of.”

  She smiled, knowing exactly what he meant. “Of course,” she said, her grey eyes wide, and innocent. “I have always loved horses. Please, lead the way.”

  ***

  Her skin was cold and very pale as he pushed her against the stable wall, nuzzling her neck. She sighed, with pure bliss, arching slightly to give his lips better access.

  He felt like they were in a dream. A lustful dream. Slowly, carefully, he sought her breasts, freeing them from her gown. The rosy nipples were hard with the cold. He bent his head, taking one deeply into his mouth, sighing in his throat as he suckled with abandon.

  He was hard already, had been hard from the moment he first touched her. But he ignored it. This was about her. He could wait until the day that they were finally man and wife. It could not come quick enough.

  His hands reached under her gown, seeking out the sweet prize. She gasped in shock at the coldness, but then slumped against him. Within moments, he was pushing her to the very limit. He growled, deep in his throat, as he watched her ecstasy moving across her face, her panting breath. His fingers quickened, knowing exactly what she needed.

  And then it hit her. She cried out in an almost anguished way as the sensations peaked then lessened. He gathered her up in his arms, kissing her tenderly.

  “My love,” he whispered. “You are all that I desire. All that I can ever want. Tell me again that you are mine forever.”

  She shuddered with joy, taking his face in her hands.

  “I am yours,” she whispered back. “Forever.”