“Your Grace, coming down from the bedrooms with Lord Beaton? My goodness, your appetites must be veracious if you could not wait until evening.”
Before Clarissa could tell her to go to the devil, their hostess came rushing up. “Clarissa, dear, I’m so sorry I sent you and Andrew on a wild goose chase. I found the package in the kitchen, and it has been hidden for tomorrow’s events. Please forgive me.”
“Kate, there is nothing to forgive,” Clarissa said. “You know I am more than willing to help in any way I can, as is Andrew.”
“As always, Your Grace,” Andrew said. “I am afraid, though, that Clarissa and I made a little bit of a mess searching for the box. Your servants may not be happy with us.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Kate said. She turned to Belinda. “Are you enjoying yourself, Lady Strauss?”
“I am,” Belinda said. “I think I’m going to find Lord Barton. He and I are having a great deal of luck in finding packages.”
She sauntered away, swaying her hips as she moved.
“Clarissa, dear, I’m so sorry she’s here,” Kate said. “Richard told Lady Alber that she could bring her without speaking to me. Please forgive me.”
“There is no need,” Clarissa said. “Kate, I am just happy that you invited me. I’m having a very good time.”
Behind her, she heard Andrew clear his throat. She wanted so much to tell Kate what they had been doing upstairs. If she did, would it mean she didn’t have to worry about Andrew ordering her around, and talking about spanking her?
“If there is anything I can do to make your stay more enjoyable, please let me know,” Kate said. “If you like, I can send Belinda back to London.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Clarissa said. “She no longer concerns me.”
Andrew cleared his throat one more time, and Clarissa looked down to hide a smile. She didn’t want Kate to know she was lying about Belinda.
“Andrew, you are a rake,” Kate said. “Please tell me you weren’t leading Clarissa astray.”
“On the contrary, I was trying to keep her on the straight and narrow,” he said. “She’s a bad girl.”
Kate laughed and told them to enjoy themselves. When she was gone, Clarissa turned to Andrew.
“Quoting the Bible?” she asked.
“Just trying to remind you that if you don’t follow the rules, things could go badly for you.”
She understood what he was saying, but that didn’t mean she agreed.
“We shall see,” she said.
He moved in front of her and offered his arm. She took it and at his touch she remembered the wonderful way he’d tasted when he’d kissed her.
“Charlotte,” Andrew asked, “have you gathered all the little trinkets?”
“No, but I’m bored to tears,” Charlotte responded. “Something fun needs to happen or I may lose my mind.”
“Charlotte.” There was a warning tone in Dalton’s voice, and Clarissa wondered what that was about.
“Perhaps we should take off all our clothes and run through the maze,” Charlotte said. “Although it is a little chilly for that.”
“Maze yes, naked no,” Dalton said. “Now, behave yourself or your bad manners will follow you back to London.”
Now that really confused Clarissa.
“Are bad manners limited to certain regions?’ Clarissa asked.
“No, and neither are their consequences,” Dalton said. He cleared his throat. “Forgive me, Clarissa, for speaking out of turn. Shall we go and explore the maze. We should make a game of it. The first couple to find their way through the maze wins.
“What is the prize?” Clarissa asked.
“Chocolate,” Dalton answered. “I have a few bars upstairs, made by Fry’s of Bristol. I was going to give them to my wife, but if you win, Clarissa, they are yours.”
“I’ve had a few of the bars,” she said, her eyes widening in delight. “They are delicious.”
“Then let us be off,” Andrew said. He let go of her hand and started toward the maze. Charlotte and Dalton fell in step behind them, with Charlotte complaining that he was giving away her favorite treat.
As she and Andrew entered the maze, Clarissa heard Dalton tell his wife that he knew what she was doing. Charlotte answered him, but by then Clarissa and Andrew were too far away and Clarissa couldn’t make out the words.
“They have an interesting relationship,” Clarissa said as they took the first turn.
“That is an understatement,” Andrew said. They took another left, and then another.
“We’re headed back in the same direction,” she said.
“Trust me,” he said. He took her hand and they made several more turns. The turns left her confused, and she wasn’t sure where they were going.
“If you make me miss out on my chocolate I will not be happy,” she said.
“I will buy you chocolate,” he said, right before he pushed her into a bush and kissed her, so hard she felt he might bruise her lips. He broke the kiss and then cupped his hand behind her head and kissed her once more. The hard feel of him was more passion than she’d ever experienced, and she pushed against him, trying to break the bond. She didn’t need this in her life. She had gone back and forth about whether to give herself to him while they were here. While his lips were on hers she was on the leaving her door open option. Especially with how hard he was kissing her, producing emotions she wanted to explore.
He broke the kiss and ran his thumb over her bottom lip. He leaned in to kiss her again and she put her hand on his chest.
“What if I want to earn my chocolate,” she said. She was out of practice with flirting, so she wasn’t sure if it was coming out right. When he leaned closer and winked she knew she was still able to do it right.
“I have a few things you could do to earn chocolate.” He kissed one side of her lips, and then the other. “A sweet treat for a sweet treat, shall we say?”
“Does that mean you expect me to perform for my chocolate?”
He kissed her again, and she melted into his chest. Right now she would do almost anything for him, whether he gave her chocolate or not. She was about to tell him that when a loud male voice startled her.
“It took you long enough!”
She looked around and saw nothing but green shrubbery. She opened her mouth to speak, but Andrew put his finger against her lips and shook his head.
“I got lost.” It was another male voice. She didn’t recognize either of them, but that didn’t surprise her. She didn’t get out enough to know people. She wanted to ask Andrew, but the look on his face told her she needed to stay silent.
“You should have told me she was going to be here,” the first voice said.
“How was I to know?” the second one responded.
“You were supposed to recover my property after that asshole Melbourne died. Now it’s a year and a half, and you still haven’t done it.”
“I’ve searched her house in Bath, and his house in London,” the second voice said. “I’ve also searched his whore’s house. I’ve found nothing. I’ve found no clues where to search next. If you have any information that will put me on the right path I will gladly take it.”
There was a pause, and for a moment Clarissa wondered if they were whispering because it had occurred to them that someone might be listening. But then the first voice said, “I hope you realize how disappointed I am. I hear from my friends that you’ve recovered all the items Melbourne took from them.”
Her breath caught in her throat. Andrew put his hand over her mouth and shook his head. She understood and nodded to let him know. The more they listened the more they would learn.
“It’s too bad you didn’t move in faster,” the first voice said. “You could fuck the widow and get information on him. Instead, Beaton beat you to it.”
That made her angry. If Andrew’s hand had not been in place she would have screamed that no one was fucking her. Why did everyone assume that because she w
as a widow she was spreading her legs for every man she talked to? It angered her, and she wanted to bolt over the hedges to let those men know she wasn’t sleeping with Andrew, or anyone else.
“Get her drunk, and then fuck her and ask her questions,” the first voice said. “Remember what she says word for word, and let me know. I want my book.”
Book? He was doing all this for a book? She frowned. Andrew still had his hand over her mouth, and she tried to shake it away, but he held it close.
When the first voice had spoken it was like steel, full of anger and Clarissa wondered once again who he was. More to the point she wondered who her husband had been. He’d married her for her money, because he didn’t have any of his own. Were the missing items the man was talking about taken before she’d married Taylor? But that had been years ago. If you counted the time after his death it was five and a half years. The man said he’d waited a year and a half.
It didn’t make any sense.
She’d been so centered on Taylor that she’d missed whatever had been said. She caught the end, where the second voice said, “…money. Get me more money. Yours is the last, and the most valuable.”
He hadn’t said a word about the order to get her drunk and then sleep with her.
“Don’t try to get more funds from me,” the first voice said. “Get me my items, or you will end up at the undertaker’s office. I’ll give you a week. I don’t care who you have to hurt to get it. Just get it.”
“Wait,” the second voice said, but the rustling of branches told her the first man was leaving, and the second man was possibly rushing after him.
When everything was quiet and Andrew removed his hand, Clarissa opened her mouth to ask what was happening. He put his finger against her lip and shook his head. He mouthed, “Not here.”
She nodded. He took her hand and they started back through the maze. After several wrong turns and dead ends they found their way to the end. The whole time they walked, Clarissa couldn’t think of anything but Taylor, and what he’d been up to. Was he somehow blackmailing his friends? Or had he stolen things from them and demanded money for their return?
No, that couldn’t be right, or at least she didn’t think it was. She hated to think of Taylor as a thief, or an extortionist, but she knew he was capable of such things.
“Who were the men we were listening to?” she asked just as they made their way out of the maze.
Charlotte was on the other side. She had lifted her skirts to reveal her ankles and was dancing in a circle singing, “I get to keep my chocolate, I get to keep my chocolate.”
“What took you so long?” Dalton asked with a laugh. The smile on his face disappeared before he said, “What’s happened?”
“We need to take a walk, somewhere we can talk and not be overheard,” Andrew said. “I don’t want all of us to go, that would attract too much attention. Just the four of us.”
Charlotte had stopped dancing. Clarissa watched as her gaze swept from man to man. Finally she said, “Can’t we just go to a fun party without having to stop some scheme?”
“I’m not sure what that means.” Clarissa fought the urge to bolt. Right now, she wanted nothing more than to run back to Bath and lock herself away in her house, staying there until the end of time. But then she thought about the second man, and how he’d told the first one that he’d been through her house in Bath.
The world seemed to crash down on her, and she felt herself wobble. Andrew wrapped his arms around her and held her close.
“How about we go back to the house and pack up a lunch,” Andrew said. “We can have a private picnic and then invite all the Rakes so we only have to go over the story once.”
“The Rakes?” Clarissa asked. “I’m asleep, aren’t I? This is a dream, no, a nightmare.”
“Darling, you need to be seated before you hear the whole story behind the Rakes,” Andrew said. “We’ll go stake out a spot, somewhere in the clearing that’s not too far from the house. You two fetch the others and some food, and that will give me time to talk to Clarissa.”
“Be gentle,” Charlotte said. “You don’t want to scare her away.”
* * *
“I don’t want to hear anymore,” Clarissa said. She started to walk away from Andrew, and then stopped. “You and your friends are sick.”
“We’re perfectly normal people,” he said.
“You host orgies!”
Andrew shrugged, and then he smiled. “Not every weekend,” he said. “Sometimes I don’t host them, sometimes I just participate.”
His cavalier attitude made her smile, and then she got mad, at him and at herself for letting him charm her.
“You and your friends, and I’m assuming it’s more than just the ones who are here today, get together for sex parties.” She threw up her hands and then pointed a finger at him. “You disgust me.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Andrew said. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to change your mind before the weekend is out.”
“I’m going back to the house now,” she said. She started toward the house, thinking about what he’d told her. He and a group of friends, about thirty of them, were part of a private group they called The Rakes of Mayfair. The Rakes consisted of married couples and single men and women who enjoy sex. Not really just sex, but sex that many people consider depraved.
She continued to walk, even as he called out her name and asked her to come back, so he could explain things to her.
“Explain what?” she yelled over her shoulder.
“Clarissa! Those men are not going to leave this alone. One of them wants his property, the other wants money for recovering it. If you get in the way they will hurt you.”
She turned a glare on him. “They haven’t hurt me so far. Plus, I want nothing to do with anything, and I do mean anything, that reminds me of Taylor. If I can help them find it, I will.”
Clarissa mumbled to herself as she continued toward the house, and then she decided she couldn’t go without giving him the dressing down he deserved. She wheeled around and marched back to where he stood.
“You were going to try and get me to go to one of your meetings, weren’t you? Were you going to get me intoxicated and compel me to do horrible things?”
“I’ve never forced a woman in my life,” he said. “You know nothing about me.”
“And I don’t want to,” she said. “You are a cad. The word rake is not good enough for you. You’re like those members of the Hellfire Club. You probably have religious ceremonies and sacrifice virgins, don’t you?”
“You have an imagination like Mrs. Radcliff,” he said. “Have you read her novels?”
“Don’t you dare make light of this situation,” she said.
“I’m just asking a question,” he said.
“I’m sorry I ever let you kiss me,” she said. “I’m sorry I ever thought about unlocking my door for you. You’re obviously deranged.”
Her hands balled into fists and she wanted to run over and pummel him.
“You thought about unlocking your door for me?” He put his hand on his chest and she swore he batted his eyelashes at her like a woman trying to flirt with a man. Or was he once again making fun of her?
“You’re horrible,” she said.
“If I’m so bad, why are you still here?” He started to walk toward her. “I’ll tell you why, because I excite you. You’re nipples get hard when I kiss you and your quim gets wet when I take you in my arms.”
“A true gentleman would never say anything like that,” she said.
He was standing right next to her now. She hated to admit he was right. Her nipples were hard and her quim was wet, and he hadn’t even touched her. But the heat from his body, and the idea that he might kiss her one more time excited her more than it should.
“You are a rat,” she said, right before she reached out and slapped him across the face.
From behind her, Charlotte giggled before she said, “You weren’t gentle about b
reaking the news, were you?”
Clarissa turned to them. They all looked so normal, not the type of people to take part in orgies. She wondered who slept with whom, if the wives went to different beds. How would that work, and why would they do it?
“I’m going back to the house,” she said. “I want nothing to do with you people.”
“You have a problem,” Dalton said. “We’re willing to help you solve it.”
“You’re deviants,” Clarissa said.
“What did you say to her?” Charlotte turned to Andrew. Then she turned back to Clarissa. “We do things that others might consider—well, I’m not sure of the word I’m searching for, but it certainly isn’t deviants.”
“Don’t try and defend what Andrew just told me,” Clarissa said. “I appreciate your offer to help with my problem, but I will do it on my own. Now, I am going back to the house, and back to Bath.”
“That is not a good idea,” Andrew said. “Whoever our first person was in the maze, he wants his property, which he thinks is in your possession. If you leave, I would be concerned for your safety.”
Clarissa knew he was telling the truth, but it didn’t make it that much easier to take. She thought about it for a few moments, and then she muttered, “Damn you to the devil, Andrew. Fine, I will stay, and I will allow you to help me find who was in the maze. But that does not mean I will like it. And…” she pointed a finger at him, “…do not think I am leaving my door unlocked for you.”
She heard laughter from behind her, but Andrew didn’t seem upset. He just smiled and winked as if he knew she would change her mind.
“Tonight’s ball is a costume party,” Charlotte said. “Kate is having outfits delivered to each room. Perhaps we could use that to discover the identity of the men you overheard.”
“How?” Clarissa asked.
“Well, let’s sit and eat and discuss our plans,” Andrew said.
Clarissa wasn’t sure about spending so much time with these strange people, but she also knew that she wanted to get to the bottom of things. If Taylor had stolen something from someone—numerous someones—she wanted to find out what he’d taken, and from whom.
His Party Guest: Rakes of Mayfair Book Five Page 4