When the Duchess of Stanhope greeted her guests as they came down for dinner, Clarissa searched the crowd for Belinda. The evil witch was smiling into the face of Lord Seaton, an older man whose wife was standing not ten feet away, frowning.
“She’s found a new target,” Clarissa muttered.
“Nonsense,” Andrew said. “Seaton is not rich enough for her. Besides, after tonight she’ll be more than a little angry after our plan is put into play, and she won’t want to be looking at lovers.”
“What about your friend, Barton?” Clarissa asked.
“He said they had an interesting conversation last night, but they did not end up in bed. They talked of the theater, books, and horses. When I asked him he said she did not mention Marks. But he did give me the clue that set us on tonight’s path.”
Clarissa smoothed down her skirts and looked at Andrew from under lowered lashes. She tried not to laugh, when Andrew had told her that Belinda had a penchant for mediums. It was now Clarissa’s job to put the plan in motion. She winked at Andrew. “Wish me luck.”
Alice stood near the door to the dining hall. She nodded at Clarissa, and then took her husband’s arm and went into the dining hall.
Clarissa started across the room, making sure to put herself in Kate’s line of vision. When she drew close, Kate put out her hand.
“I absolutely adore that dress,” Kate said. “Where did you get it?”
“From a small shop in Bath,” Clarissa said. “The seamstress keeps up on all the latest fashions. I’m afraid that my wardrobe needed a bit of updating after my mourning period was over.”
They both laughed, and then Clarissa leaned closer to her hostess. “May I tell you something?”
“Of course,” Kate said, her eyes glittering with anticipation.
“My new group of friends is not going to stay long for the dancing tonight.” She cleared her throat. “We would like to borrow your library so we can host a séance.”
Kate gasped slightly, and then put her fingers over her mouth. “How exciting. Tell me more.”
“Well, Alice, Lady Buxton, she’s somewhat of a spiritualist.” Clarissa looked around as if to see if anyone was listening. “She told me this morning that Taylor came to her in a dream. He has something he wants to tell me, but he wants to do it while I’m there. That means a séance. We don’t want to disrupt the party, so I had hoped you’d let us use the library.”
Kate put her hand on Clarissa’s arm. “I have a better idea, but I won’t do it without your permission. You know spiritual events are quite popular nowadays. How do you feel about offering for everyone to come to the event? We can delay the dancing and everyone could attend to see what your late husband has to say; how do you feel about that?”
Clarissa hoped she didn’t look too triumphant, as Kate stepped right into the play of things.
“Are you certain? Many people don’t want to have anything to do with—ghosts.”
“On the contrary, I think it’s a wonderful way to end the house party,” Kate said. “In fact, I wish I’d thought of something like this myself.”
“You mean you should have thought of having a spiritualist here?”
“Indeed,” Kate said. “It will add so much excitement. Will you speak with Lady Buxton and see if she will agree to, well, perform for the entire group?”
“I will ask her, but these things are delicate,” Clarissa said, sticking as close as possible to what she’d discussed with Alice. They needed the duchess to think that the whole thing was her idea, and that Alice and Clarissa were not sure it was a good thing to be so public with the reading.
“Please tell her that I would be thrilled if she would share her talents with us.”
“I will do that,” Clarissa said. She walked slowly over to where Alice stood with her husband, Julian.
“Well?” Julian asked.
“Act like we’re talking about it, and shake your head no, Alice,” Clarissa said. “She’s very excited about the idea, but as you said, we can’t make it too easy.”
Alice pasted a look of distaste on her face, one that made Clarissa believe she was totally against the idea of having a séance with a large group of people. They exchanged a few more sentences, and then finally Alice reluctantly nodded. Clarissa gave her a hug and then went back to where Kate stood.
“She said yes, but if something happens, such as if someone gets in the way, she will stop the event immediately.”
“I will make that announcement,” Kate said as she clapped her hands together. “This is going to be amazing.” She hurried off; Clarissa thought possibly to find her husband so she could tell him the good news.
Clarissa let her gaze rake over the room and she found Andrew talking with Charlotte and Dalton. She crossed to them and winked. “We’re on for after dinner.”
“Remember to act as shocked as possible at the information Alice gives you,” Dalton said. “That will be the key.”
“I will put on my best actress face,” Clarissa said. “I have problems believing this will work, however.”
“We have two ins,” Andrew said. “Belinda is very much a believer in the afterlife. Barton told me she goes to mediums to contact her former lovers so they can give her information about the afterlife.”
“Ridiculous,” Dalton said.
“Is it?” Charlotte asked. “Don’t you believe in a life after this one?”
“Yes, but I don’t believe that a person can help another person make contact with the dead,” Dalton said. “Beaton, what about you?”
“What I believe is not important,” Andrew said. He glanced at Clarissa and cleared his throat. “I hate to tell you this, but Barton said she told him she was excited to visit her regular spiritualist when she got back to the city so she could tell ‘her darling Taylor’ what a fool his wife was this weekend. She’s going to tattle on you.”
Clarissa laughed. “Let her do that tonight. It will make me laugh.”
“Just don’t hit her,” Andrew said. “Remember your promise.”
“And here I thought you were fun,” Clarissa said.
“You’ll find that out later tonight.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her and she blushed, which produced a huge burst of laughter from Charlotte and Dalton.
“You should hope the door is not locked,” Clarissa said.
“Don’t worry, my dear, I have a key that will open any door that you put up.” He didn’t move toward her, or bat his eyes, or lick his lips, but his meaning was obvious. He would win her over with his kisses and oh, so much more. He’d proven that last night. She felt uncomfortable talking with him about sex in front of his friends, but she knew none of them cared. After all, they had orgies.
Orgies. The word still made her pause and wonder if she would ever be able to take part in one of their Club meetings. They’d already been discussing one with the new table, which would be used to spank the woman. All at once.
Clarissa tried not to think about it right now. They had other things to do, and that was fool Belinda, and whoever was working with Marks, to let them know they had no clue what he wanted to trade for the necklaces. She said a silent prayer that this worked.
“It’s too bad that you won’t be wearing the rather impressive necklace that I hear is the prize for the scavenger hunt, Your Grace.”
Clarissa turned her gaze on Belinda. Her rival wore a puce colored dress that didn’t quite go with her blonde hair, and Clarissa wanted so much to tell her she needed to talk to her seamstress about choosing better fabric for her gowns. Instead, she opened her mouth to reply, but Andrew beat her to the punch.
“We don’t have to win a necklace, because the duchess already has the most exquisite jewelry in England, well, except for the queen.” He put his arm around her waist and kissed her cheek.
“Yes, she has necklaces that she thieved from me,” Belinda said.
“Really?” Clarissa couldn’t keep herself from poking her rival. “Where did you get them?”
“You make yourself to be all high and mighty, but everyone knows Andrew spent last night in your bed. By Monday morning everyone in Bath and London will know you’ve been intimate. That makes you as big a whore as you think I am.”
Clarissa laughed. “Nonsense. It’s not scandalous for a widow to take a lover. Unless, of course, he’s married, as my husband was when you warmed his bed.”
The room was quiet now, and Belinda looked decidedly uncomfortable. “Tell me, Lord Beaton, how was the duchess in bed? Please, be honest. You won’t be the first male to find her lacking in the love department. Taylor always said she was a cold fish.”
“On the contrary, Lady Strauss, I found the duchess to be a sweet and wonderful lover. It is only for propriety’s sake that we are not in her bed right now.”
Clarissa blushed, and then giggled at the look of anger that flashed over Belinda’s face. The look passed seconds later, and Belinda threw him a coquettish look.
“Perhaps that is because you have not tasted my charms. You can visit me in London anytime, milord.”
“I’m afraid I’ll be busy in London, Lady Strauss. The duchess is opening her house there so that we might see more of each other.”
Clarissa could tell the statement had hit home.
“The house on Park Lane?” Belinda looked as if she might spit fire. “The one in Mayfair?”
“Indeed,” Clarissa said. “It is one of the more impressive houses in London.”
“Taylor always said I would live in that house,” she said.
“Yes, but you were only his mistress. I was his wife.”
“You…you…” Belinda did not finish her statement. Instead she stalked up the stairs and Clarissa knew she’d thrown a kink in their plan. If Belinda was working with Marks, she wouldn’t be in the dining room to see the séance, which could ruin everything.
She glanced at Andrew, who grinned at her, even as he shook his head. She knew there was no way around it. They would have to continue with their plan, and hope that it worked.
* * *
Andrew wasn’t at all surprised when Belinda came back into the dining hall just after the first course. She took her seat next to young Ryan, who glared at Clarissa as if she’d stabbed the queen. Ryan would come into money when he married, Andrew knew, although he would never have a title. He wasn’t the sort that Belinda would go to bed with, unless she wanted Clarissa to see them. Since Ryan had expressed interest in the duchess, Belinda would see it as a coup if she could get the young man into her bed.
Andrew glanced sideways at Clarissa, who was talking with Charlotte via leaning over Dalton. The two men’s gazes locked and Dalton rolled his eyes. The women were giggling and Andrew cocked his head and widened his eyes, hoping Dalton read the expression right, “What are they talking about?”
Dalton mouthed, “Belinda,” or at least that’s what Andrew thought he was saying. He should have known, but he didn’t care for this development. Romantic entanglements could mess things up. Well, all of them except for his time with Clarissa. That was perfect, and he was going to do everything in his power to make sure it continued after this party.
The real problem he faced was testing Clarissa to see if she was suited for his sexual lifestyle. The time they’d spent together said she was open to lovemaking, but he hadn’t brought up his penchant for bondage. Finding the right woman to fit into his lifestyle had been difficult.
The ladies of the Rakes Club took part, but there was no real bond between him and any of the single ones. It wasn’t just on his part, either. The women had told him that they enjoyed the sex, and enjoyed being bound, but they didn’t feel any true feelings for him. It had been hard to hear, but he felt the same with them.
Dalton had told him once that feelings grew, and Andrew knew that. But he wanted a love match like his friends had, one that started the moment they saw each other… like he’d felt with Clarissa. The moment he’d seen the raven-haired woman he’d wanted to bed her, and the more time he’d spent with her the more he’d felt it. He wasn’t sure he could call it love yet, but it was more than he’d ever felt for a woman before.
He’d never felt love, so he wasn’t exactly sure what it was. It was a talk they needed to have, when they were alone, when they were in London. He wanted to let her know that if there was a chance for them to be together, it wouldn’t matter to him if the queen allowed her to keep her title. He didn’t care if he was named a duke.
But would she care if she lost her title? Would she care if she was no longer a duchess? She didn’t seem like the type of person to care if she were part of the nobility. If she married him—and that was an if, not when—she would drop from duchess to lady. They would have to talk about it, but not until after the first time he’d tied her up. His cock stirred at the idea of her in a chair, ropes around her ankles and wrists. In the next vision that entered his mind she was standing, her arms tied behind her as he wrapped ropes around her body, her breasts, her thighs.
He shifted in his seat to readjust his crotch. Clarissa shifted her gaze to him and frowned. “Are you all right?”
There was only one way for him to get his point across. He leaned toward her and took her hand in his. He lifted it to his lips and kissed her gently, then he lowered it so she was touching his dick.
The gasp that came out of her mouth made his cock swell even more. When she tried to pull away he let her, because it wouldn’t do to cause a scene.
“You’re wicked,” she whispered.
“You have no idea, Duchess,” he said. “I will show you more the first night we’re in London together.”
“That will be a while,” she said.
“Is that a complaint?” Please let it be a complaint, he thought to himself. Please let her ask him to come to her bed tonight. He wanted to be inside her, but he wouldn’t do it until she asked.
Different emotions crossed her face, and finally she smiled. “No, it’s not.”
Before he could build on that, the food was delivered. They ate and talked of plays and books as normal dinner conversation went. After the pudding had been served, Kate stood and asked for attention. She explained about the séance, and Andrew looked around to see the reaction of the other party guests. To his surprise, there was not one look of distaste. Everyone seemed excited and ready to participate.
Belinda shot a gloating look in Clarissa’s direction when Kate said that Taylor had come to Alice in a dream, and she meant to make contact with him again, at his insistence, so he could speak with the woman he loved.
“I’m going to need silence,” Alice said. “We don’t need to hold hands. I’m not that sort of medium. But what I do need is for no one to speak. Sometimes talking frightens the spirits that want to talk.”
Andrew looked at Alice, and then looked around the table to see that all of the guests were focused on her, most of them looking more excited about this than anything else that had happened over the weekend.
At first it seemed very anticlimactic, as nothing really happened. But then Alice said, “Clarissa?”
Next to him, Andrew felt Clarissa stiffen as she said, “Yes?”
“I want to tell you I’m sorry.” The voice was not Alice’s, but it was not a male voice, either. It was somewhere in between, and it made Andrew sit up and take notice. Maybe Alice was a better actress than Buxton had let on.
“That is malarkey,” Belinda said with a laugh. “Taylor didn’t care for Clarissa at all.”
Around the table a few women gasped at her words.
“You will be quiet,” the voice said, and this time it wasn’t Alice, or any voice in-between. Andrew had heard Taylor speak before, and the voice he heard now was definitely his. “I regret the things I did in life, one of them being you.”
Belinda stood and said, “I will no
t listen to this charade.”
“You will listen to what I say,” the voice said. “Remember the day I gave you the combs that I’d stolen from Clarissa? Do you remember what you said? Bring me more, I deserve it and she does not. I am sorry that I listened to you. You will return what I gave you, or you will regret it.”
“Anyone can say that,” Belinda said with a laugh. “You are not fooling me.”
“How about this,” the voice continued. “The pink dress you wore the first time we fucked?” There were gasps around the room, and one man, Andrew wasn’t sure who, said, “Now see here,” but he didn’t get a chance to finish his objection because the voice coming out of Alice’s mouth continued, and rose in volume, “I know that you chose that dress simply because you thought it made you look young and attractive. I know you had your maid cut some of the seams so it would be easier for me to rip it from your body. And I know that you used that trick on several other gentlemen, too, to get money and jewels from them. Shall I provide names?”
Andrew looked at Clarissa, and then over to where Belinda stood, a look of horror on her face. “You will return it all,” the voice said. “You know, as well as I, that there are more things than the ones Clarissa is seeking right now.”
The room grew quiet, and Belinda slumped down in her chair. Andrew could see that every word that had come out of Alice’s mouth was true.
“Clarissa, I am so very sorry for the way I treated you.” The voice was low now, and sounded as if the man wanted to cry. “Belinda, you will do as I say, or I will haunt you for the rest of your days.”
Chapter 8
“You strayed from the script.” Clarissa couldn’t tell if Julian Buxton was angry or concerned. Their group was in the library now. Alice sat on a sofa, her hands clasped in front of her. She was staring off into the space in front of her, and Clarissa had the feeling she didn’t even realize there were people around her.
“Alice,” Julian said. He glanced at them all, and Clarissa couldn’t help but think the look he gave her was one of accusation.
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