His Temporary Mistress

by Bethany Sefchick

  Actually, she would be lucky if she ever saw Society again. Or the outside world, for that matter. Dory was quite certain that if it were up to Sarah – and in a way it was – Dory would be packed and departing for Hallowby Grange within the hour. She could only hope that Rayne, Miri, and Will could temper Sarah’s impetuous nature even just a little.

  There was no hope of reprieve, but perhaps a few hours of respite might help.

  So, with that in mind, Dory rang for Helen so that she could dress and prepare to confront her future – whatever that might be.

  A few hours later, as Dory had hoped, Rayne had proved to be the voice of reason. Though he was still married to Sarah, and as her husband, also needed to keep her happy. Thus, the reason for their current discussion.

  “You send her away today, Sarah, and it is as good as admitting that the rumors are true. And worse.” Lord Will Davenport, the Earl of Blackthorne and Miri’s husband, leaned back in an overstuffed chair, his wife seated in another chair by his side. “And if rumors that Dunn has already bedded your sister haven’t started yet, they will soon. He has something of a reputation.”

  “An undeserved one,” Dory interjected, tired of this conversation going on around her as it had for nearly two hours now with little input from her.

  All that had been decided was that Dory must retire from Society and become a spinster, caring for her mother at Hallowby Grange. Just as Sarah had wanted. Only Sarah wanted that outcome immediately, while the others thought it would be more prudent to wait for a few days so it would not appear as if Dory was running away from the scandal but rather that this had been a planned departure.

  “That’s not helping, Dory,” Rayne cut in. He, at least was listening.

  Nor was it the first time today he listened to her. Rayne had also made it a point to call her Dory and not Dee, once Miri had explained how much the nickname annoyed Dory. When informed of the annoyance, he had simply raised his eyebrow at Sarah and corrected his speech. Despite everything, Dory would not wish to be Sarah when Lord and Lady Raynecourt returned home that evening.

  Their marriage was only now recovering from the Witherson scandal. If Rayne thought Sarah wasn’t changing her ways as she promised, love or no love between them, there would be words.

  “Gentlemen, please.” That came from Miri. “If I may, I’d like to have a word with Dory.” She looked at her husband and Rayne in turn.

  “Then I shall stay, as well,” Sarah chimed in, “for I most certainly need to be a part of this.”

  “No, you don’t,” Miri gently corrected. “Unlike the rest of you, I see this from an entirely different point of view. I was Dory once. You, Sarah, were not. There is no way you could possibly understand.” Then she turned back to the men. “And really, this is something for feminine ears only. So if you please. Out. The lot of you.”

  Sarah looked as if she was about to launch into another screaming fit – something Rayne had heartily discouraged earlier – but after another warning look from her husband, she clamped her mouth shut tightly and remained silent.

  “Very well.” Sarah stood and began to stalk out of the room. “You know my feelings on the matter anyway. Should you even care.”

  Rayne and Will silently trailed behind, each shooting the other knowing glances, as if they knew what was coming.

  Finally, when the room was empty save for Dory and Miri, the other woman got up, locked the door and turned back to Dory.

  “So. How bad is it? Really?” Miri settled back into her chair. “And please be honest with me, Dory. I want to help you. I truly do. I just can’t until I know everything.”

  Dory shrugged and worried her lip between her teeth. “Bad enough, I suppose.” Where did she begin, really? She had no idea.

  “Then let us start with something easy. Do you love him?” Miri asked as she settled her skirts around her, indicating she was here for the long term.

  “I do,” Dory confessed with a sigh. “I didn’t mean to fall in love with him, at least not at first.” She waved a hand in the air. “You know about my relationship with Harry.”

  Once more, Miri snorted. “All of London does by this point, I’m afraid.”

  Dory supposed that was fair. “He never loved me. I know that now. Nor did I ever love him. We were ill-suited from the first but…”

  “But you liked the idea of love?” Miri supplied. “And everyone around you liked the idea of the two of you together? So you both went along with things because it was easy?”

  “Something like that,” Dory agreed. “Harry was essentially picked for me and in time? I began to resent that. Resent being seen as nothing more than a piece of furniture – useful but easily forgotten. I grew restless and angry, and eventually I wanted to rebel just as I always had in the past. The way I did before I went to Mrs. Smithson’s to learn refinement, as they say. So I stole Hugh’s ticket for the Dionysus masquerade, had gowns and a mask fashioned using my pin money, rented rooms, and snuck inside the club. And then? Jeremy was just…there.”

  Miri’s face softened and she rose, coming to sit beside Dory, her limp more pronounced than it had been earlier. “And he was magnificent?” She laced her hand through Dory’s. “Larger than life and someone who saw you as more than anyone else did? Is that about right?”

  Ashamed now, Dory nodded. “I didn’t mean for things to go that far. I didn’t even think he would notice me. But we waltzed and he listened and he allowed me to talk business with him. He allowed me to be who I really was. He saw me. Dory. Just me. And I knew it was wrong, but…”

  “But the allure of being seen, really seen, kept calling you back.” Miri gripped Dory’s hand tighter. Maybe this woman did know something about Dory’s pain after all. “And then you fell in love with him. A man you shouldn’t want but did anyway because he was perfectly wonderful.”

  “I did,” Dory sniffed, the tears she had been holding back for the last few hours falling freely now. “I knew the affair couldn’t last. I knew we couldn’t be together out here. Society would never have allowed it and neither would my family. After last night, I was going to leave and not go back. I swear that I was. But Jeremy’s mother? She hates him and doesn’t want him to be the duke. She had someone spying on him. On us. His name is Hewson. He was unmasked last night at Dionysus, along with a few other guests, and tossed out of the club.” She sighed. “I think he’s the one who went to the press.” She picked at her dress, a plain, pale yellow frock that was a far cry from Lady Peacock’s scandalous gown. “And here we are.”

  “Sarah would have you leave for Hallowby Grange now, you know. She is furious. And afraid, I think.” Miri’s eyes were kind and though Miri was younger by two years, Dory would have melted into the other woman’s shoulder for support had she been able.

  “Sarah had planned to ship me off to the country from the moment Dr. Hastings said Mama would never recover. To her, I am a mild annoyance these days and she wishes me gone like an outdated rug or broken chair. Furniture, you see.” Dory rose and walked over to the hearth where a small painting of her parents in happier times adorned the mantle. She traced the fame with her fingers. “She thinks I should not hesitate to do my duty because I have never been a great success in Society and without Harry, no one will really miss me. Not to mention that it will reflect very well upon the family if I go, and there will not be any gossip about Mama and her condition.”

  Dory sighed when Miri said nothing. “In Sarah’s mind, I am not losing anything by accompanying Mama to Hallowby because I have nothing to lose. She has never seen the world as I do. Nor will she ever, not now that she has Rayne and all she has ever desired from life. She found her love and has him for her own. Whether or not I do the same doesn’t matter to her. It never has. It also never will. Just so long as she does not lose Rayne. That is all she cares about.”

  For a long while, Miri continued to remain silent, and when Dory turned around, she saw the other woman still sitting on the same settee. She had simp
ly been waiting for Dory to face her again. “But now you have Jeremy to lose and that is something Sarah cannot understand. For she has, in one way or another, always had Rayne. Even when they were not together, he was still hers, in a fashion. She never had to live with the idea of being without him. At least not really.”

  “So you do understand?” Dory crossed the room and sank back onto the settee.

  “I do.” Once more, Miri smiled. “More than you might realize. I also know what it means to be vilified in the gossip sheets. A lady paying a man to bed her? Shocking! Scandalous! And extremely pathetic.” She gave Dory a self-deprecating smile. “Really, I was pitied and gossiped about for weeks after the truth was revealed about Will and me. I still am pitied because there are people that know the truth and can see only our beginning and not our end. I did pay Will to bed me. That is a fact. In the end? We fell in love. But how we began? That cannot be changed. Just as your beginning with Jeremy cannot.”

  Once more, Dory stared at the floor. “So what do I do now?”

  Rising, Miri reached out and linked her fingers with Dory’s. “Now, you answer one more question for me and then I shall go and appeal to Rayne and my husband to give you more time. Because I agree with them that running today would serve no purpose and only make matters worse. Doing so would also make your sister feel superior and justified, which is not what she deserves just now. She needs to learn to stop meddling and I don’t think that is a lesson she fully comprehends just yet.”

  This was something Dory most certainly understood. Sarah had tried – and almost succeeded – in ending Will and Miri’s relationship. Miri had forgiven the other woman, but Dory suspected that forgiveness did not include forgetting.

  “Then how do we proceed?” Dory hoped this woman had some idea.

  “We act as if nothing is amiss and that the gossip pages are wrong.” Miri inclined her head. “We also need to allow some time for others to become involved with untangling this mess. Others who are skilled at what they do. More skilled than us, anyway.”

  Others. Miri meant the Bloody Duke. She couldn’t possibly mean anyone else. Good. That was good. If there were three people on her side, plus Nick, then she might not be forced to leave today.

  Dory would never see Jeremy, again, but at least she would not run away to the country as if she was ashamed of what she had done.

  She wasn’t.

  Dory was sorry that she had hurt people, especially her family. But was she sorry that she had become Lady Peacock in order to sneak into Dionysus and meet – and fall in love with – Jeremy? No. No, she was not.

  But that would only happen if she answered Miri’s question.

  “What did you wish to ask me?” Dory made certain to meet the other woman’s gaze and hold it. To show that she wasn’t afraid. Not any longer.

  “Did he bed you?” Miri asked quietly. “I know it’s a terribly personal question and I would not ask otherwise, but…”

  “Yes.” Dory cut the other woman off before she could say anything more. “Yes, he bedded me. More than once. And we were not…careful.” She glanced down at her stomach to drive home her meaning.

  Until this moment, Dory had not considered the possibility that she might be with child. Jeremy’s child. The thought had flitted through her mind, of course, but she’d not given it any real consideration.

  “And you wanted that?” Miri asked, her voice full of caution. “You wanted to lay with him? To take that risk?”

  “More than anything,” Dory breathed, and for that answer, she would not hesitate. “Nor would I change a moment of our time together. More to the point, I would do it all over again. Without hesitation. Including allowing him to bed me, no matter the consequences.”

  To Dory’s surprise, Miri smiled. “I thought so. And that is just what I had hoped to hear.”

  Then, the other woman turned and glided out of the room, still leaning heavily on her cane and leaving a stunned Dory behind her.

  Was there hope? Dory had no idea, but it was more likely than it had been a few hours ago. And maybe that would make all of the difference.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Town Tattler

  (Mid-Afternoon Supplemental Edition)

  I lied, dear readers. Though I am a gossip columnist, so that should hardly come as a surprise to you.

  What did I lie about, you might ask? When I said that I would not say one more word about the so-called “Scandal of the Century” that is currently on the lips of every person in every drawing room in all of England. Or London anyway.

  I will also add that if I had a pence for each time the “Scandal of the Century” broke? I would be so wealthy I would have no need to write this column.

  Anyway, as I was saying, I know that I said I would not write a word about the presumed Lady Peacock and the already identified Lord Raven, but, as I suspected, as the day has unfolded, more information has emerged. Information that I feel is far more honest than anything that has been reported thus far by any paper.

  Yes, Lady Dory and Lord Dunn know each other, more than just in passing. I am told that over the last month, they have encountered each other numerous times at Mr. Okey’s toy shop, The Child’s Emporium. You know Mr. Okey, don’t you? Everyone does! And everyone loves him. But I digress…

  They met at the shop, and yes, began a flirtation, however unwise. But they did flirt, and they are acquainted. They also share an attraction to one another. There may have been a drive in the park or two when her chaperone’s back was turned. Perhaps a flower or a chocolate sent in the early morning hours and delivered to her breakfast plate by a tender-hearted servant.

  Perhaps. I am not saying for certain, of course, because I do not know. But there is plenty of readily available evidence to imply as much. And really, who among us has not been a fool for young love at some point or another? None of my readers, I am certain!

  Lady Dory and Lord Dunn also seem to share some mutual interests, though I am not privy to what those are. I am simply told they are compatible and not just because they purchase toys – him for his ward, Maggie, and she for her new nephew. And do not ask who Maggie is, for if you don’t know? Then I shan’t be the one to tell you. At least not yet.

  I am also informed that the current Duke of Wyncliffe – the one that is little more than a vegetable and not the one actually running about doing ducal things on behalf of a thankless, ungrateful mother whom I shall not name but you all know who she is, of course – is perhaps a bit more dead than any of us knew. I am still waiting for confirmation on that, dear readers, but the moment I have it, I shall pass it on to you.

  For I know you all wish to know the actual truth regarding this “Scandal of the Century” and not merely what has been, up until now, idle and vicious gossip. Don’t you? Of course you do. No one of any degree of propriety – or with a voucher to Almack’s that they wish to keep – would do otherwise.

  -Lady A

  Jeremy didn’t even wait for Higgins to announce him, let alone wait for the butler to open the front door when he arrived at Wyncliffe House. Instead, he simply – horror of horrors! – opened the door himself and charged up the main stairs towards his mother’s pink and white nightmare of a sitting room. It was where she could always be found at this hour of the morning, sipping her tea, attending to her correspondence, and, oh yes, thinking of ways to make his life even more of a living hell than it already was.

  As he stalked through the halls, Jeremy noticed maids scurrying out of his way and more than one footman turning and dashing in the other direction. He had been called the Devil of Sin before, and at the moment, he had a feeling he was more than living up to his wretched reputation. Which was good. Because he had a feeling that he would need to be as evil as possible if he had even the faintest of hopes in getting through his mother’s notoriously thick skull.

  “Mother!” Jeremy barked as he flung open the door to her sitting room with a loud bang, causing her to drop her teacup with a loud clatter.
“What in the bloody fucking hell have you done! Ruin me, yes, but an innocent? Even you would not sink so low!”

  However, as Lady Patience Dunn was Jeremy’s mother, she was every bit as quick to anger as he was. And just as vengeful.

  “How dare I?” she demanded, leaping to her feet, already in full battle mode. As if she had been expecting him, which she probably had been. “How dare you? Opening a gaming hell and cavorting with the lowest dregs of Society? Embarrassing our family and staining our good name!”

  “This family’s name was dragged through the mud long before I grew to maturity, Mother!” Jeremy spat, wishing he could hit something. “Or don’t you remember Father being tossed out of White’s on his arse because he raped a maid in a linen closet?”

  “Do not disparage your father!” His mother was growing more enraged by the moment. “He built this dukedom!”

  “Like hell he did!” Jeremy snapped, his fists clenching and unclenching. “He destroyed it! Or tried to! But this isn’t about him! It’s about you and what you did. To me. To Dory. To everyone in my club that was unmasked by your salivating little lapdog last night!”

  To his surprise, his mother dismissed him with a wave of her bejeweled hand. “The Tillsbury chit is nothing more than a trollop with the worst sort of morals. Everyone in that family is!”

  “Dory is the finest woman I know, and I love her!”

  Jeremy winced. He had not meant to say that aloud and certainly not to his mother. The first woman to hear those words should have been Dory. But he did love her. He had known he loved her for some time but he had only admitted that love to himself this morning when he first saw the destruction his mother had wrought upon their lives.