Page 14 of A Sporting Chance (The Chances #8)

“Well, that brings today’s lesson to an end,” said Leopold quietly, his voice breaking into her thoughts.

“It is a shame,” Kathleen said honestly. “I was enjoying it—though I agree, to save my poor shoulder.”

“Is it truly that bad?”

Before she could say anything, before she could think, Leopold had stepped over to her.

It was all Kathleen could do not to moan. That would hardly do, and besides, it may draw out spectators from the club.

And that was the last thing she wanted. Not while Leopold’s fingers were pressing deep into her shoulder and arm, a pressure that from anyone else would have been most unwelcome, but somehow, from him…

“Oh, dear God,” she murmured, unable to help herself.

Leopold’s low chuckle was far too close and far too familiar. “I discovered a method of massaging some of the life back into the shoulder after a long session at the butts.”

Kathleen tried not to think about one particular butt as his fingers stroked and caressed and pressed into her shoulder. “H-How interesting.”

Her eyes had closed unconsciously, and all she could think about was the movement of his thumb slowly down her shoulder blade, the way his ungloved fingers were brushing along her arm before digging mercilessly into her flesh.

This should not be happening. A gentleman should absolutely not be touching a lady like this—and where anyone could see us!

She would weep when it was over.

“How does that feel?”

Heavenly. Blissful. As though I want you to touch me like this all over. “Fine,” managed Kathleen.

“I know my technique is a mite inexpert,” said Leopold with a wry chuckle. “But I hope that you will feel the benefit of it tomorrow.”

She was certainly feeling the benefit of it now. Dear Lord, she could remain like this forever.

The door to the club opened, its hinges creaking. Kathleen’s eyes snapped open at the precise moment that Leopold’s fingers left her. He stepped back, creating a distance between them of mere feet.

It was enough.

“We should depart,” said Leopold in a low voice.

Kathleen nodded, trying not to show her disappointment at their lack of contact in her eyes, nor the disappointment in the fact that he clearly did not wish to be seen with her.

Which was all to the good, she tried to tell herself as she adjusted her hat and gloves and they walked in silence back to the club, the gentlemen now stepping up to the butts staring at them curiously.

It was good that no gossip nor slander could be created about them.

It was good that Leopold would never be put in the awkward position of being forced to marry her. Yes. Yes, that was good.

It felt terrible, but it was good.

Stepping past the footman Cooper and onto the bustling street was a most disconcerting sensation.

For almost an hour, Kathleen could have believed she’d been back in the countryside again, the place she loved.

But now she was standing with carriages and horses racing past her, copious noise, people rushing past along the pavement. It was all too much.

“May I walk you home?”

Kathleen almost tripped over her skirts. A hand lunged forward, clasping her waist, and she was righted. Her skin burned under numerous petticoats.

Leopold was standing right beside her, his arm around her waist steadying her. He was looking into her eyes, a blazing look that she could not describe.

He let go. “Careful.”

She had never wished to be less careful in her life. “Y-Yes. Yes, thank you.”

“Let me walk you home,” Leopold said cheerfully, as though he frequently offered this to a number of ladies without chaperones in sight.

With a sinking feeling, Kathleen realized that he may well have done just that. At least the escorting part, if not the lack of chaperone. “Oh, no, it’s not necessary.”

“I know it’s not necessary. I am offering to,” he said simply. “Left or right?”

That was one of the things about Leopold, she thought as she wordlessly pointed to their left and started to walk sedately.

It was not that he could not take no for an answer.

He just did not understand the answer, and therefore he ignored it.

From any other gentleman, it would have been a most off-putting trait.

Somehow, because it was Leopold, Kathleen found she did not mind.

“You said you had not been in London long,” Leopold said conversationally as they waited for a few carriages to pass before they crossed a street. “Did you come with your whole family?”

A knot twisted in her stomach and Kathleen tried to smile. “No.”

This was a mistake. Only too late did she recall that this man was a duke’s son. She could not expect him to walk her home when home was most definitely in the wrong part of London.

“No? Did you come with parents, or siblings?” Leopold’s chatter was aimless, he was not seeking to entrap her. Was he? “I myself have three siblings, and I cannot tell you how pleasant it has been since Thomas married and brought Victoria into our household.”

Kathleen tried to smile, though the tension building within her made that difficult. She used the excuse of a busy pavement where they could not walk side by side as a reason to cease speaking, but the moment they could walk together again, he picked up the conversation.

“So, why did you come to London in the first place?” It was barefaced curiosity in his expression, a soft, openness to his features, nothing more. “For the Season? But you did mention you were only lately in Town.”

Well, it was only a matter of time before he heard the truth, anyway. Kathleen was astonished he had not heard of the scandal before now—Andilet was hardly a common surname.

Perhaps London was just large enough for a provincial scandal to be forgotten in a place like this.

She took a deep breath. “I… I came to London with my sister, Angela. You almost met her, the first time we met.”

“Yes, the absconding Peeping Thomasina.” Leopold laughed as they turned a corner. “I would like to properly meet her, at some point.”

Why? Kathleen wanted to ask. Perhaps the better statement would be, Not after what I’m about to tell you…

“Lord Leopold, I have to tell you something.”

He raised an eyebrow at that. “I thought we had left such formalities behind.”

The crowds were thinning now as they departed from the fashionable streets and continued in quite the wrong direction for someone like him. Kathleen bit her lip. It was all going to come out soon, anyway. It was best, surely, if it came from herself.

“Lord Leopold, you may wish to end our archery lessons when I tell you that…that my sister experienced a scandal in the country.”

Leopold’s footsteps did not halt, not exactly, but he did slow his pace. “A scandal?”

And that’s that , Kathleen thought wearily. It was too much to hope that he would look past such a thing. His father was too great an influence on him, to be sure, but she could not truly blame him.

No family would wish to be aligned with such a family as hers.

“Yes, a scandal,” she said quietly. “My sister was involved with a…a gentleman.”

“Ah,” Leopold said slowly. “A scandal.”

Kathleen wished she had the bravery to look up at his face and see just what his expression was, but she could not bring herself to. This would be the last time she saw him, after all, and it would pain her to the extreme to see his revulsion.

“Yes, so I suppose you will wish to end our friendship or acquaintance or whatever this is,” she said in a rush, “and I do not blame you. Goodbye, Lord—”

“Kathleen, wait.”

She had only moved a few inches away and yet it was not only his words pinning her to the spot.

Leopold had reached out and taken her wrist.

Kathleen swallowed, trying not to think of the searing heat flowing from his hands to her wrist. What did he think he was doing?

“You wish to protect me,” Leopold said slowly, his brows furrowed as he closely examined her. “Protect my reputation.”

Her shoulders sagged. “Yes. Leopold, you—Lord Leopold, I do apologize. You have already received pain at the whim of the gossips. The last thing you want is me—”

“Let me be the judge of whether I want you or not,” he said fiercely. His eyes widened as air caught in her lungs and he added, “I mean, it is only fair for me to hear the whole story before I pass judgment, do you not think?”

It was more than almost anyone else, including their father, had offered.

Yet Kathleen hesitated. “I don’t know it all. Besides, it… It is not truly my story to tell.”

Leopold released her wrist and she fought the instinct to bring it to her mouth and kiss it. “I can respect that. Your loyalty to your sister, it is utmost.”

“I cannot pretend I have no frustration with her at times,” Kathleen said with a rueful smile.

“After our father disowned her, I made the decision to come to London with her. Our lodgings are inadequate; we are here without a chaperone, as our father thinks his fallen daughter and her steadfast supporter no longer worthy of one; and our pittance from him is just as inadequate as our lodgings, but…but I could not abandon her. Not when I believe her guilt is not so heinous as our father may think.”

It was challenging, to be so circumspect—but how could she be anything else, when speaking of a story that was not her own, and a past that she did not truly understand?

A few people passed them on the pavement, but Leopold made no move to continue on. “I admire you greatly, you know.”

Kathleen’s cheeks burned. “You do not have to say—”

“I would not say it if I did not mean it,” he countered with a smile before she could even get her words out.

“You have sacrificed much for a sibling. That is honorable. Your loyalty prevents you from defending her entirely, which frustrates you, yet still, you hold do it. That is even more impressive.”

Do not allow yourself to be flattered , Kathleen told herself carefully. He is the son of a lord. He is treating you as no more than another nobleman who treats a person well might.

That is all.

“Well, sadly, my honor does not repair that lost by my sister,” she said aloud with a remorseful smile.

“I suppose not,” Leopold said quietly. He stepped toward her, lowering his voice. “But that is better than just abandoning her. People like your sister, people like that, they deserve a sporting chance to make a new life for themselves.”

And all of a sudden, the warmth disappeared from the day. Kathleen looked up at him, this handsome, charming, utterly kind man, and did not understand how he could say such a thing.

“‘People…’ ‘People like that’?” she repeated quietly.

There was a flash of uncertainty, of discomfort, of sudden realization in his stormy eyes. “I—I did not mean… I apologize.”

Kathleen said nothing, the twisting pain in her gut overwhelming her ability to speak.

“I… My father considers scandal as the most dreadful, the most despicable—my father is quite unlike my uncles, of course, who see scandal as a mere distraction or momentary hindrance… I did not mean to speak so disparagingly,” Leopold continued, his face one of genuine contrition. “I am sorry.”

It was all she could do not to stare. The disparaging way he had spoken, that was to be expected of a nobleman…but the apology?

“I… Thank you. I did not expect you to apologize,” Kathleen admitted.

Leopold’s laugh was dry. “I was raised to apologize. Now, let me escort you to your inadequate lodgings , and you can tell me all about the part of the country where you grew up. No butts there, I take it?”