Page 22 of Lady Isla and the Lord of Rogue (Merry Spinsters, Charming Rogues #6)

The men talked, and Isla strove to hide her shaking hand as she spooned the White Soup the footman had placed in front of her, normally her favourite, but now she barely tasted it.

She watched Teddy unabashedly as he conversed with Algie; always correct and polite with a dash of bashfulness, the dimple in his cheek appearing and disappearing as he talked, smiled, chewed and swallowed.

She furrowed her brows and took a sip from her water glass, turning her gaze away so she could concentrate on his voice .

It was different—so different.

Lucian Night’s voice had been sharp. Cold. Sarcastic.

Teddy’s was hesitant. Gentle. Almost shy.

They couldn’t be more different from night and day, fire and ice, satin and steel.

But the quality of the voice, the pitch, was the same.

They shared the same tenor.

But was it the same voice, really? Her gaze returned once more to his face.

Teddy, sensing that she was watching him, looked up, and their eyes met. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, and he gave her a quick wink.

It was such a Teddy-like thing to do, playful and unexpected; and it was difficult not to smile back. She tore her eyes away and when she was served a plate full of fowl, she cut it into tiny and tinier pieces with concentration, quite forgetting to put anything into her mouth.

She must have been mistaken. Just because Teddy had a tattoo didn’t mean that he was a criminal mastermind. It was absurd; entirely impossible.

Besides, there wasn’t any other proof.

But what if he was a consummate actor? What if he was disguising himself as much as she’d been disguising herself as a boy?

What had that outfit been? A costermonger?

“What do you think, Pixiekins?” Algie turned to her.

I think that Teddy is Lucian Night, she nearly blurted out, but thankfully, she bit on her tongue. She picked up her glass and took a big sip, swallowed, coughed, and bought herself more time .

“You mean about Linwood’s home?” She’d picked up that much of their conversation, thankfully.

“I was inquiring how you feel about establishing yourself at Linwood’s estate. It’s surrounded by moors and mist, which strikes me as rather melancholy.” Algie shook his head with disapproval.

“Most certainly, it is not,” Teddy interjected, jabbing his fork into the air for emphasis. “The manor house sits high upon a hill overlooking the sea, and one feels a sense of liberation when gazing upon the waters.”

“Liberation,” Isla echoed.

“Yes. I care little for confining, constricting spaces.”

Like the constricting cells of Newgate prison.

Or the feeling of the noose as it tightened about one’s neck.

Isla rubbed her neck and shifted in her seat.

“The cliffs are magnificent,” Teddy continued. “The villages are charming, and the sea is the most exquisite shade of azure imaginable.”

When he spoke like that, with the eagerness and easy ingenuity of someone entirely without secrets, he seemed much younger than he was.

Definitely not a criminal mastermind.

“And not a soul to be seen for miles on those dreary, endless Yorkshire moors,” Algie added, holding out his wineglass to be refilled.

“True,” Teddy said with a nod. “The moors are quite something. A man might easily lose his way on them. They keep their secrets well.”

Isla’s gaze flew to him. “Secrets? What secrets?”

Teddy gave a little shrug. “Oh, anything, really. Things tend to disappear out there. The moors are notorious for hiding...all sorts of things.”

Isla choked.

Perhaps he was a criminal mastermind after all.

“Smugglers,” Algie mused. “They liked to hide on the moors. Until we sniffed them out, that is. Don’t worry, Isla, it is quite safe now. I personally shall make sure that it is.”

Somehow, that didn’t comfort Isla in the least.

Teddy turned to Isla with a laugh. “I promise you, there are no smugglers or pirates or other unsavoury characters anywhere near Roseview Mansion. It is as safe there as your brother’s house here.”

“How comforting to know.” She gave him a tremulous smile.

“It shall be my pleasure to show you my home, which shall soon be yours, too.”

“Has the property been in your family for long?” Isla enquired politely.

“Not at all. I acquired it recently. I saw the property on my last trip up to Scotland, and it was for sale.”

“And you just bought it.” Algie commented. “Because you wanted it.”

“Naturally.”

“Commendable.”

Teddy shrugged. “When I want something, I usually get it. And once it is mine, it stays mine forever.” His eyes locked with Algie’s.

And then she saw it .

A sliver of ice.

A calculating, steely resolve that lay behind the sleepy, good-natured mask he wore.

Isla shuddered as if the winds of the North Pole had swept through their dining room.

Teddy turned to her, his eyes having returned to their familiar, guileless expression.

“You certainly seem to be a man who knows what he wants,” Algie stated sleepily, as if he’d not noticed anything unusual at all.

Isla put down her glass carefully, and shook her head when the footman offered to refill it. “It sounds most agreeable, indeed, and I shall look forward to beholding your, that is, our home,” she said in a formal tone.

Teddy, however, did not notice anything amiss and kept talking about his estate, describing in great detail the natural habitat, not caring that neither of his parties were listening.

Algie was too busy focusing on eating his fowl, whereas Isla was staring at his animated face but not taking in any of his words. She watched his lips move.

Those lips that had kissed with such passion.

“I want your first kiss.”

The words echoed in her memory as clearly and sharply as if Teddy had said them aloud in the dining room.

She dropped the spoon to the ground with a loud clank. Isla bent to pick it up before the footman could intervene. When she lifted her upper body and her head, she felt oddly light.

“Are you well, Isla?” Algie demanded for the fourth time that evening .

“I do think it would be best for me to retire,” Isla finally admitted. She’d reached the end of her tether. She needed distance and quiet to think it through. She needed to escape the watchful eyes of Algie, and the solicitous, warm ones of Teddy.

She needed time to think.

Back in her room, after Meggie had helped her into her nightgown and brushed her red hair to a coppery shine, Isla crawled into her bed.

Her mind was no longer reeling.

It had fixated itself on a single thought.

He’d demanded her first kiss. As part of their contract.

With an arrogant confidence, she’d brushed it off as meaningless.

Then she’d given her first kiss to Teddy.

And she’d been so glad that it had been him, and not— him . She’d gleefully believed she’d outwitted him, even.

She shot upright in bed.

“Oh, the nerve of the man!”

Finally, the confusion lifted, and an emotion shot through her, one she greeted with such relief that she almost sobbed: anger.

How dare he deceive her so?

How dare he play with her?

How dare he lie?

How dare he play cat and mouse with her?

She clenched her fingers. She was Lady Isla Rothvale, sister of Lord Algernon Wynthorpe.

Isla formed a resolution.

She would obtain proof of his identity, incontrovertible proof, and she would have him convicted. She would beat him at his own game.

And with that resolution firmly in her mind, she finally fell asleep.