Page 48

Sterling House, London

“W hat an interesting necklace you are wearing Baroness,” Lady Gebling trilled as sweet as poison.

“Indeed but no wedding band,” Lord Horton commented.

“How unusual.”

“The necklace is my wedding band, Lord Horton. I wear it just as my mother does, as all women in my homeland do.”

“Is that the only tradition you maintain from your homeland?” Lady Gosling asked.

“No, I make tea for my husband every evening.”

“Is that not an English custom?” Lady Small asked with her usual air of condescension.

Regina had just about had it with her. “Not the way I make it.”

“And what is different about the way you make it?”

“Well when I make it, it’s potable,” she replied with a sweet smile, allowing the answering silence to linger for a moment, until her hostess cleared her throat. “To my husband at least.”

“Yes, I noticed he doesn’t take tea,” Lady Sterling commented.

“Yes, unless I’m making it, he drinks coffee. I also dance.”

“Dance?” Lady Small’s lip curled in disgust.

“Yes. India has several classical forms of dance. I practice three of them, outside of the European ballroom standards of course.”

“How lovely,” Lady Gosling commented.

“I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing it while in the Orient,” Lord Horton commented.

“Have you indeed?” Lord Sterling asked, but his tone held a tinge of warning. As if he had an idea where the Baron was going and he didn’t like it.

“Yes, it was in interesting affair but a bit too elemental for my liking,”

“I’m pleased to hear it,” Lady Horton sniffed. “In England, Baroness, we do not make spectacles of ourselves for the voyeurism of others.”

“I dance for myself Lady Horton. I do not require an audience.”

“Well considering the energy spent on a quadrille I can only imagine it is very beneficial exercise,” Lady Sterling commented.

“Oh yes, health is paramount.”

“Your mother must have been quite relieved to have finally achieved her goal,” Lord Small commented.

“Her goal?” Regina set down her cutlery and rested her hands in her lap. She didn’t want to accidentally throw anything.

“Yes, marriage into the peerage.” He was as presumptuous and insufferable as his wife.

Of course they would assume it was her mother who wanted Regina in the peerage.

Any traits they found disagreeable must come from the Indian woman, never their countryman.

“It was my father’s goal, in actual fact.

But I am gratified to fulfill the wishes of my parents as any dutiful daughter would be,”

“Quite right,” Lord Horton said.

“I wish my Charlotte were half as obedient as you,” Lord Gosling joked.

“I hope you continue to be a credit to your parents Lady Starkley, for your own sake as well as your unusually lucky husband.” Lady Gosling gave her a beatific smile which Regina returned.

“We all learn on the job as it were,” Lord Gosling said with a shrug. “Marriage is an adjustment in and of itself, is it not?”

“Not for me,” Lord Sterling commented.

“You hardly count my lord,” Lady Sterling responded waving him off, “It was for me certainly,”

“Oh Euphemia, be serious. You were born to the role of Viscountess,” Lady Horton trilled, shaking her head in amusement.

Lady Sterling shook her head and wagged her fork. “No life is without its trials. I twisted that stubborn old man to my will in my own time—”

“—I beg to differ.” It was hard to tell if Lord Sterling was amused or outraged by his wife’s assertions.

“—and you will do the same with your baron my dear. In your good time.”

Regina pressed her lips together against a laugh and nodded. “Thank you Lady Starkley.”

With that, Lady Sterling rose to her feet and rest of the party followed her lead. “We will retire now, gentlemen, thank you for your company,”

Regina followed the women out the room, sliding her hands back into her gloves and fastening the tiny pearl buttons at the inside of her wrists. When she nearly ran into Lady Small she looked up to see the entire party had paused in the doorway. What were they all looking at?

At the sound of his voice her heart began to race.

Leo was here? She found herself stuck between annoyance and sympathy.

He had missed dinner entirely but perhaps he had a good reason.

She discreetly pushed past the guests in front of her until she was able to see him.

In that moment she decided, she was more than annoyed. She was angry.

There he was, unforgivably late and not even dressed for dinner.

His chest was heaving as though he’d been running and there was an urgency in his face she couldn’t attribute to anything but artifice.

How dare he show up at the end of the evening and pretend as though he had rushed here?

Was that supposed to placate her? Was she meant to care about how much he had struggled to fail her entirely?

It made a mockery of everything she had asked him for, everything he had promised.

She didn’t realize her hands had curled into fists until Lady Sterling’s own closed over one of them. What the hell was he playing at?

“My lord,” she said in as even a tone as she could manage.

“Regina, have I made it in time?”

“Oh, yes—” Lady Sterling began but Regina would have none of it.

“No. No you have not Lord Starkley, dinner is finished.” She wouldn’t allow him to embarrass her any further this evening. If he didn’t care about Lady Sterling’s generosity then he could maintain that even in her presence.

“Ah.” He glanced between the two of them.

“Thank you Lord and Lady Sterling for your hospitality. If you are amenable I would like the opportunity to host you and return your kindness.”

“Of course Lady Starkley,” Lady Sterling replied with an awkward glance in Leo’s direction.

She looked at the footman who had opened the door to her husband. “If you could have my carriage brought forward, I will leave now. Good evening everyone.”

Regina curtsied and strode past him without a word.

If she so much as looked in his direction she would scream.

She took her wrap and walked out the door, standing on the steps in a mutinous silence.

She would wait until they were in the carriage.

She didn’t trust herself to speak to him and maintain her composure.

Lord only knew eyes would be on them and the last thing they needed after this last showing of his was for the Baroness Starkley to be seen with her hands around the Baron Starkley’s throat.

Mercifully they only had to wait five minutes before she saw their carriage driver come forward with their vehicle. She tightened her silk wrap around her shoulders and strode forward, climbing in without his assistance and looking out the window instead of at him as she took her seat.

The minute they took off he spoke. “I take it you are upset with me.”

What was his first clue? “You really are a detective aren’t you?” She replied, her tone dry as dust.

“I’m sorry I was late,” he began and she shook her head.

“You were not late.”

“I wasn’t?”

“No.” She turned her head and met his anxious gaze. “If you had arrived during the fish course, you would have been late. You elected to miss the entire blasted evening altogether.”

“Regina—”

“You didn’t even have the decency to dress for the event.” Despite her best efforts her temper was spiking dangerously.

“You make it sound as though I arrived in rags.”

She shook her head, her eyes burning with the furious tears she hadn’t allowed to fall earlier.

“I feel so foolish. Do you know, when you came for me, I thought ‘thank God he’s here. I won’t be alone anymore.

I won’t have to shoulder all of this by myself’.

I thought I finally had a partner, someone to help me bear the weight of all of this. ”

“You do,”

“Do I? You left me alone tonight and nights before. I told you where you were needed, you made promises, and you broke them without a second thought. Because you deemed them as unimportant to keep.”

He shook his head. “That’s not true.”

“I was sitting there tonight at a dinner thrown in our honor and you were nowhere to be found. I was trying to make excuses for you, and I knew it didn’t bloody well matter because Lady Sterling knew that if you wanted to be there you would have been.

I have never been so mortified in my entire life.

All those condescending old bitches shooting knowing looks at each other commenting on the adjustment for you and how difficult it must be for you to fill a role that you are utterly unqualified for.

And I couldn’t even say anything because it is the most basic concept of good bloody manners to simply show up to an event that you agreed to attend, and you couldn’t even manage that. ”

“I never agreed to anything,” he murmured.

She scoffed, the feeling rising in her was dangerously close to contempt. “Why did you even marry me? Why did you even come forward if you weren’t even going to try for yourself let alone for me. We were meant to do this together and you keep leaving me behind.”

“I am right here.”

“You are wherever you feel like being,”

The carriage stopped and she moved to leave the carriage first. His hand closed around her wrist stopped her from leaving. She nearly commented on it, but he went out ahead of her, looking around, almost as if he expected to see something before turning to her and offering his hand.