Christin's Splendid Spinster's Society

by Charlotte Stone

  She turned when there was noise behind her, and Lorena was brought in by another guard.

  “I’m the daughter of a duke,” she cried. “You can’t treat me this way!”

  “Lady Lorena,” Bancroft called.

  Lorena turned to him with wide eyes. “Who are you?”

  “Time,” Bancroft said.

  The guard responded with the exact hour and minute of the day.

  Bancroft blinked and then turned to Christin, ignoring the question. “What is your name?”

  She swallowed. “Mrs. Christin Potter.”

  “Christin Potter.” He then went on to say her address as though he were reading it from a sheet. “You run a service agency. You pay your dues on time.”

  She nodded, her body starting to tremble, though she didn’t understand why. The man before her hadn’t threatened her or spoken above an octave that was appropriate for conversation. “I pay, as did my mother-in-law.”

  “Dues?” Lorena asked.

  “Time,” Bancroft called again.

  The guard told him the time.

  “Where’s your brother?” Bancroft asked.

  Christin directed her mind away from the time and said, “Jack is gone. He got on a boat to America this morning.”

  Bancroft’s lips thinned, and Christin’s heart spiked. “That’s not good. He owed me money. My accounts are not balanced now.” He turned back to his journal. “Are you here to plead on his behalf?” The tone was too casual for the topic.

  “No,” she said honestly. “I’ve come to plead for my niece. Tina is only eight and has nothing to do with this. Jack wasn’t even her real father. I would… appreciate it if you didn’t hurt her.”

  He swung back to her and frowned. “And why do you believe I’d hurt an eight-year-old girl?”

  Christin’s eyes widened. “Jack said… He said if I didn’t help him pay what he owed that you’d take her away.”

  His eyes became harder. “Time.”

  The guard responded.

  “He lied,” Bancroft said to Christin. “And I’ve been waiting a month for the two hundred pounds he owes me. Can you pay it?”

  Christin closed her eyes and wondered why she’d ever believed a word her brother-in-law said. Bancroft hadn’t even known about Tina, but now he did know of her and of Christin. He didn’t seem the sort to hurt children—in fact the very thought seemed to anger him—but he did want his money.

  Which meant that Jack had lied about how much he owed and had also taken the money Christin had given him to America. He’d probably live well off such an amount. If he invested properly, he’d be set for the remainder of his days.

  The very thought made her own anger grow. She’d been a fool!

  A hand touched her shoulder, and she looked to find Bancroft’s brown eyes gazing into hers. “The debt is forgiven.”

  It felt like the weight of the world left her as she stared up at the man before her. He was not the villain the world thought him to be, she realized. “Thank you. I don’t know how I could ever repay you.”

  “Time,” Bancroft called.

  Lorena responded that time with a warm smile and her own lady’s pocket watch in hand.

  Bancroft looked at her and then Christin. “Are you married?”

  Christin blinked.

  “She’s not,” Lorena answered helpfully.

  “Widowed,” he declared.

  “Indeed,” Lorena said once more.

  “Dinner.”

  “What?” Christin asked when she could find her voice.

  His expression hadn’t changed and yet she knew his thoughts had turned. “Join me for dinner.” He moved closer.

  Christin’s entire body came alert, but not in the way she wished.

  She stumbled back out of his touch. “Oh, I shouldn’t.”

  “Shouldn’t?” Bancroft challenged.

  “Can’t,” she clarified.

  She couldn’t… could she?

  “She’s engaged to the Earl of Jeanshire,” Lorena said with a shameless grin, a finger now playing with one of her curls. “But if she weren’t, I’m sure she’d not have turned down your offer.”

  Christin blinked at Lorena. “I am not engaged.”

  “Then dinner it is,” Bancroft said, a soft smile touching his lips.

  Christin tensed. “I can’t.” She took another step back and looked at Lorena. The countess was still smiling at Bancroft, so she grabbed her arm and yanked her in the direction of the door. “Thank you for your… mercy, Mr. Bancroft. I am forever in your debt—”

  “Yes, you are,” he said with a full grin that transformed him into something both unearthly and dangerous.

  “Oh, look at the time!” Christin said, spinning around. “We must go. Good day.”

  She hurried toward the tunnel and found no one stopped her.

  A shout from one of the guards came seconds later in the dark. “Stay to the left.”

  Left it was.

  “Oh, that was truly exciting,” Lorena said. “I must invite him for dinner. Genie was not lying when she called him handsome, thought she never mentioned the danger that seems to shimmer right off him. Yes, I must invite him to something, a ball perhaps. Oh, wouldn’t that be glorious? Could you imagine how envious the ton would be if I were to receive the elusive Mr. Bancroft in my home?”

  Christin frowned, and she hurried her friend along. “He probably receives invitations all the time. What makes you think he’ll accept yours?”

  “Why, because you’ll be the one to actually invite him,” Lorena said in a voice that said the answer was obvious. “He’ll come for you. I know it. Did you see the way he looked at you? Most women would have melted in their slippers.”

  The way he’d looked at her had been… nice. But then, it was not nearly as nice as the way Aaron looked at her. Bancroft probably made women want to fall into their slippers, but Aaron made her want to fall on him, drape herself over him.

  Or better yet, have him cover her.

  She felt much the wanton for the thought.

  “How are things progressing with Aaron?” Lorena asked as they reemerged into the garden, the light blinding her once more.

  “What do you mean?” Christin lifted her hand to block the sun. “Aaron is simply trying to help me out of a troubling situation.”

  “Nonsense,” Lorena walked alongside her over the bridge, taking her arm as she went. “Aaron most definitely has feelings for you.” Her accompanying smile was lovely, reminding Christin of the old Lorena.

  Christin’s cheeks burned at the thought of Aaron having true feelings for her. “No, I very much doubt it.”

  Lorena sighed and paused as though she wished to say something but then asked, “Well, do you have feelings for him?”

  Christin laughed. “I’ve only known him for a few days.”

  “Sometimes, all it takes is one day,” Lorena whispered. “Or just a look.”

  She frowned, thinking of how accurate Lorena’s words seemed to be for Christin’s situation. Did Lorena speak from her own experience or had Aaron shared what had taken place between them? Did he have feelings for her?

  And if he did, what did it all mean?

  “Well?” Lorena asked. “You didn’t answer my question. What do you feel for Aaron?”

  Christin’s heart began to race faster than it had in Bancroft’s greenhouse. “I’m really not comfortable discussing it.”

  Lorena’s smile widened. “Well then, that says everything, does it not? You could have easily admitted that you didn’t have feelings for a man you’d only known for a few days. Less than a week. No one would fault you for it, but if you do have feelings….”

  Christin was sure her heart was beating against her ribs. “Don’t tell Aaron.”

  “Don’t tell Aaron what?”

  Christin stopped and turned with wide eyes as she looked at Aaron. “What are you doing here?”

  He looked unhappy to say the least. His face was hard. “I had
a footman watching you. He followed you here but said he lost sight of you.” Aaron’s eyes moved to Lorena and then to Christin. “What is it that you’re not telling me?”

  Christin released her hold on Lorena and held his eyes. “You had a footman following me?”

  He frowned. “Of course, I did. I also had one watching Tina. If you recall, your brother was after you. I simply forgot to tell the footman that the danger was over.”

  “Oh.” Well, that made her feel pleasant. She hadn’t known what lengths he would go to see to her and Tina’s safety. “Thank you.”

  “Why are you here? I thought you were to take a nap.”

  “Well, I do believe that I’d better be on my way home,” Lorena started to leave.

  “I’m taking you,” Aaron said and then he looked at Christin. “Let’s go.”

  She felt like a chided child as she followed Aaron from the garden. She glanced around the garden to see if she could recognize Aaron’s footman, but all she saw was the guard who had taken her to Bancroft, his eyes fixed on her.

  Christin shivered and turned back toward the gates, keeping herself from running.

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  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

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  “I’m going to check on Tina.”

  Aaron watched Christin head toward the stairs. “You can’t. She’s not here.”

  Christin stopped and turned to him. “Where is she?” They were probably the most words she’d strung together since he’d helped her into the carriage from the hanging gardens.

  She’d seemed irritated during the ride, though he couldn’t understand why. He was the one who should be upset. She’d lied about resting earlier, and he wanted to know why. He doubted that she and Lorena had simply wished to roam the gardens. Lorena never did anything ‘simply,’ yet also he’d have not stopped her from going to such a destination to begin with.

  Which meant, she’d been there doing something he wouldn’t approve of.

  Had she met someone there?

  Don’t tell Aaron.

  Perhaps, it was a man she’d met.

  If that was the case, he’d find out who it was and…

  And what? Beat them like he’d done Jack? The man probably didn’t deserve it, though Aaron knew he’d feel better either way. She’d definitely met with someone. There wasn’t anything else nefarious that one could do at a public garden without being seen.

  Did she have a lover? Was that why she’d been trying to evade him?

  He looked Christin over and had to swallow down the rage that wanted to engulf him.

  It was why he’d kept his silent during the ride as well. At the moment, his feelings could not handle the possibly that he was too late for her.

  He looked away. “Your maid, Ms. Lewis, took Tina. My mother and the girls also went.” He started toward his office. “If you need anything else, Mrs. Selby is at your disposal.

  Once he was in his office, he closed the door and moved to one of the chairs in the middle of the room.

  It was the one he’d occupied when Christin had been there just that morning.

  Had it truly only been that morning? He felt as though he’d known her for years. She’d called just as many emotions from him in that amount of time, years’ worth of anger and fear.

  He was never afraid and yet twice she’d called that part out of him.

  When his footman had told him she’d disappeared from his sight, that she couldn’t be found in the crowd… and then for her to have reappeared at his arrival…

  She’d met with someone.

  And it had to be a man. She could have brought a woman here just as she had planned to do with the interviews.

  He reasoned that he shouldn’t be surprised that she’d had someone else before he’d come along. After all, she was a beautiful woman.

  A thought hit him.

  What if the man was Lord Anthony Ellis? The man was legendary at stringing along women. Or maybe it was Allen Blackfall, the solicitor. Perhaps he was soliciting her favors…

  But then why have Lorena go along?

  As though the Countess of Ashwick would object to a secret rendezvous. The woman was scandal wrapped in genteel silk.

  He turned when his office door opened, expecting to see his butler, but instead it was Christin.

  She hung at the door as though not sure if she truly wanted to come inside. Seeing her there with her feminine eyes and those pale pink lips, he decided that whomever she’d met with couldn’t have her.

  She was his.

  He kept himself seated however. He didn’t want to scare her away.

  And like a rabbit, she moved closer as though not grasping the danger she was in.

  “Are you upset?” she asked.

  He rolled his eyes. “Why? Do you plan to try and make me feel better?” He didn’t know why he’d decided to be so unfriendly, but he thought petty a better reaction than anger. Another man would have gotten drunk, but he’d learned long ago never to drink when he was like this. Bad things happened.

  Christin frowned as she took the seat across from him. “Is it wrong that I want to make you feel better?”

  “Yes.” If she had another lover, then she wouldn’t care for his feelings.

  Her eyes widened, and he counted the seconds before she rose and left, vowing he’d let her go and approach her when he was in a better mood to deal with her.

  He got to eleven when he realized she wouldn’t leave.

  Instead, her eyes softened, and she simply gazed at him for a long time before saying, “Are you thinking about your brother?”

  Aaron closed his eyes. “That is the very last thing I wish to discuss.” What he wanted to discuss was the secret she was keeping from him. Yet even that, he wouldn’t dare to ask. He wasn’t sure he could handle the truth.

  The truth being that perhaps she’d kissed another man with the same amount of passion she’d used with him.

  He’d kill the man.

  “Would you tell me how he died?” she asked and then added, “I told you how Miriam died.”

  He looked at her and frowned. “He was stabbed with a fencing blade.”

  She pulled in a breath and then let it out. “I thought the padding protected fencers from injury.”

  “He wasn’t wearing padding.” Aaron could already feel the boiling in his belly. “We’d been outside on a clear day. He and his… friend at the time, wanted to play at being pirates. They took the foils from the fencing room even though they knew they were not to and left me behind to play their game.”

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “Such an accident must have caused you great pain—”

  “It wasn’t an accident,” he said louder than he meant. He took a breath. “My brother was murdered.”

  “By his friend?” Christin asked in disgust. “I don’t recall hearing this.”

  Aaron leaned forward. “That is because the families thought it best to cover it up, since the other boy was a lord as well. My brother has all but been forgotten in the grand scheme of things. The ton treats me as though I were ever an only child.” He shook his head. “But I’ll not forget him, and I’ll never forget that day. I tried to stop him from going without me. I saw the evil in that other boy’s eyes and knew something bad was coming, but he didn’t listen to me—”

  Her dark lashes fluttered. “I’m sorry—”

  “Which is why I grow upset when you put yourself in danger.”

  She frowned. “Me?”

  “Yes!” He stood as the anger reached his head. He paced away. “I never should have let you go to St. Giles, but I did, even knowing the sort of criminals who lurked there. Anything could have happened to you then and anything could have happened to you today. And who would have saved you?”

  She held his eyes in the silence that followed. “I was at a public
garden. What harm could have come to me? You said it yourself; Jack is gone. There’s nothing else to fear.”

  “You could always get hurt,” Aaron said. “I simply wish you had told me where you went.”

  She opened her mouth and he cut her off. “For Tina’s sake at least. Did you think about how she’d have felt if she’d gone to your room and discovered you missing?”

  He watched her face pale. “Patsy... Mrs. Lewis was here. She was safe.”

  He shook his head and moved to the window. “I’d never have left the girls that way.” He felt guilt the moment the words left him and heard when she stood, probably shooting from the chair on her way to the door. He placed his fingers against those of the metal hand that he’d crafted after his own years ago, lining his fingertips with their steel version before pulling his hand away from the cold metal.

  If she left him completely…

  He wouldn’t let her.

  He turned around and was shocked that she stood right behind him.

  Her eyes were like storm clouds at midnight, terrible with anger. “Don’t you dare. I’m sure the girls had no clue where you were when you were hunting for my brother-in-law.”

  She had him there. “I apologize—”

  She cut her hand in the air to silence him. “You have no right to speak to me this way. I will not allow it.” Then she stared at him for confirmation.

  He looked away, and she must have taken it for confirmation, because she went on.

  “Why are you upset?’ she asked.

  “I’ve already told you—”

  “I don’t believe you.” She moved closer when most people who have backed away at this point. Most people would have left the room.

  Or like his mother, left him completely.

  “Aaron.” Her voice was soft and pulled at his heart.

  He looked at her and found their position cast light from the window upon her face. Without a bonnet, she was earth-shatteringly beautiful. He’d never wanted to be a painter as bad as he did at that moment. He was almost willing to let someone else paint her for him just so he could see her like this whenever he wished, but then in order to capture what he saw would mean the artist would have to see her as he did, and he’d kill any man who did.