Jayne Krentz - Don’t Look Back

A great stillness came over Tobias. “Did he touch you? Put his hands on you? Hurt you in any way?”

The implacable expression that had appeared in his eyes nearly took her breath away. She swallowed and hurried on with her tale.

“No,” she said quickly. “No, indeed. He would hardly have dared to attack me in front of so many witnesses. But he accused me of driving Jessica to her death with my mesmeric treatments.”

“I see.”

“He made certain that the rumors of my incompetence spread quickly throughout the countryside. Within a very short time Oscar Pelling had utterly destroyed my reputation in the region. I lost all of my clients.” She hesitated. “In truth, I was no longer certain that I wanted to continue in the profession.”

“Because you feared that Pelling was correct. That your therapy had played some role in Jessica’s death.”

“Yes.”

There it was, she thought: Her darkest secret had now been revealed to Tobias. It suddenly dawned on her that this was the real reason she had been so shaken by the sight of Oscar Pelling. Her intuition had told her that it would somehow lead to this terrible moment when Tobias would discover that she had been involved in the death of an innocent woman. She knew all too well how much he distrusted the science of mesmerism and what he thought of those who practiced the art. She braced herself for his reaction, even as a part of her wondered when and how his opinion of her character had become so important. Why did she care so much what he thought of her?

“Pay close attention to me, Lavinia.” Tobias reached out and covered her tightly knit fingers with his own large, powerful hand. “You bear no guilt in the matter. You only tried to help her. It was a desperate situation and it called for desperate measures. Your plan for Jessica to use her ring to pay for her new life under a new name was an excellent scheme. It is not your fault that she lacked the nerve and the will to carry it out.”

At first she thought she had not heard him aright. Tobias was not blaming her. The world seemed to brighten a bit, the air becoming clearer and more fragrant. She allowed herself to breathe again.

“But perhaps by encouraging her to take such a risk, I forced her to confront her own helplessness and cast her into the depths of despair.” Lavinia squeezed her fingers into her palms. “Perhaps I made her feel that it was all hopeless and that the only way out was suicide.”

“You showed her a possible escape route. It was up to Jessica to use it.” Tobias pulled her snugly against his side and wrapped his arm around her. “You did all that you could.”

It was odd how pleasant it was to nestle against him, she thought. He was an exceedingly difficult man, but on occasion, Tobias’s solid, unwavering strength had a decidedly soothing effect on her senses.

He did not blame her for what had happened.

“I should not have let that brief glimpse of Pelling upset me so today,” she said after a while. “It is perfectly reasonable that a gentleman of his wealth and position would come to Town occasionally to shop and to tend to his business affairs.”

“Very true.”

“And it is not at all strange that I chanced to see him in Pall Mall. After all, London is a small world in many ways, especially when it comes to shopping.”

“It was not the surprise of seeing a familiar face in Pall Mall that unsettled your nerves,” Tobias said. “It was that spotting Pelling brought back memories of the incident that destroyed your career as a mesmerist.”

“In part.” But mostly it was because I sensed that I would have to confess it all to you, she added silently. That was why I had to stop for that cup of tea. That was why I was late. I did not want to face you with this tale.

But it was done. The truth had come out and Tobias did not hold it against her. Indeed, he painted her as something of a heroine in the drama. Astonishing.

“You have a new career now, Lavinia,” he said bracingly. “What happened in the past no longer matters.”

She relaxed a little more, savoring the heat of his body.

After a while he cradled her head in the crook of his arm and lowered his mouth to hers.

“It is a little chilly out here for this sort of thing,” she mumbled against his lips.

“I will warm you,” he promised.

The small group of eager young gallants that had encircled Emeline on the front steps of the institute made Anthony uneasy. They all professed a great interest in discussing the lecture they had just attended, but he suspected most of them had ulterior motives. Emeline, however, appeared unaware of that possibility. She was busily holding forth with her opinion of the talk.

“I fear that Mr. Lexington has not spent much time, if any, in Italy,” Emeline declared. “He gave a very poor description of Roman monuments and fountains. As it happens, my aunt and I had an opportunity to spend some time in that city recently, and I-”

“That no doubt accounts for your brilliant sense of fashion,” one gentleman declared fervently. “I vow, that gown you are wearing is a most exquisite shade of amber gold. The color of the sky at sunset. It is surpassed only by the brilliant glow of your eyes, Miss Emeline.”

There were several murmurs of agreement.

Emeline never faltered. “Thank you, sir. Now, as I was saying, my aunt and I were fortunate enough to be able to stay for some months in Rome, and I can assure you, Mr. Lexington did not do justice to his subject. He failed to convey the true elegance of the standing monuments. As it happens, while in Italy, I was able to make several sketches and some drawings-”

“I would very much enjoy viewing your sketches, Miss Emeline,” said a voice at the edge of the crowd.

“As would I, Miss Emeline.”

“No monument, no matter how spectacular, could compare to your own elegance, Miss Emeline,” someone else vouchsafed.

He’d had quite enough, Anthony thought. He made a show of removing his watch from his pocket. “I’m afraid I must interrupt, Miss Emeline. The hour grows late. I promised your aunt that you would be home by five o’clock. We will have to hurry.”

“Yes, of course.” Emeline bestowed a charming smile on the small group. “Mr. Sinclair is quite correct. We must be off. But I have very much enjoyed our conversation. It is quite amazing, really. I had no notion that so many of you were interested in Roman fountains and monuments.”

“Fascinated, Miss Emeline.” A gentleman dressed in a coat that was cut so snugly Anthony wondered how he could move his arms swept her a deep bow. “I assure you, I am absolutely entranced by the subject and by your remarks on it.”

“Transfixed,” another assured her.

That started a heated competition in which every man in the group sought to convince Emeline that his own intellectual interests were more elevated than those of anyone else in the crowd.

It was all Anthony could do to avoid baring his teeth. He tucked Emeline’s arm in his and drew her swiftly down the steps. A chorus of farewells drifted after them.

“I did not realize that we were so pressed for time,” Emeline murmured.

“Have no fear,” Anthony said. “We will be home before your aunt begins to fret.”

“What did you think of Mr. Lexington’s lecture?” she asked.

He hesitated and then shrugged. “To be perfectly blunt, I found it quite dull.”

She gave her warm laugh. “We are in agreement on that point. Nevertheless, I very much enjoyed the afternoon.”

“As did I.”

He would have enjoyed it far more, he thought, had he not been obliged to wade through the herd of dandies gathered inside the lecture hall. He was quite certain they had not been drawn there by an interest in Roman monuments and fountains. Emeline was the lure. She had come into a mild sort of fashion lately after a number of successful appearances in some of the most important ballrooms of the ton.

He was well aware that Emeline’s lack of an inheritance and family connections would not allow her to swim in exalted social circles for long, in spite of Lavinia’s machinations. Furthermore, prudent matchmaking mamas would work hard to ensure that their sons did not look too seriously in Emeline’s direction.

Unfortunately, that did not prevent many of the young bloods of Society from being intrigued by a lovely and unusual Original. Nor would it stop heartless rakes and debauchers from attempting to seduce her as a form of perverted sport.

He had appointed himself Emeline’s guardian, and he considered it his duty to protect her from unwanted attentions. But what worried him the most these days was that she might decide to sample some of those attentions.

It would all be so much simpler if he was in a position to declare his affections and make an offer for her hand. But the long and the short of it was that he could not afford to keep her in the style to which she deserved to become accustomed.

He had spent a great deal of time lately pondering his problems and concocting various possible solutions. It all came down to one key point: He had to find a way to make a decent living and he had to do so quickly, before one of the men hanging around Emeline defied his parents and convinced her to run off with him.

The walk home to the little house in Claremont Lane was a brisk one, due not only to the fact that the afternoon was coming to a close but because the threat of rain dampened the air.

“Is something wrong?” Emeline asked when they reached the little park and turned the corner. “Are you ill?”

That startled him out of his reverie. It annoyed him that she thought him sickly. “No, I am not ill. I am thinking.”