Page 13

SEVEN

Lilah

“—and that is why we have begun a revolution,” I muttered to myself. “No, not revolution, too militaristic. Exciting? No, too dull. There must be a word for this!”

I was pacing up and down the same twenty yards along the Thames, talking to myself.

Not that anyone knew. With the fan fluttering before me, it hardly looked like I was talking to myself, which was precisely the reason I had come here.

I loved it here. There was something about being in the open air, walking alongside a river that had been here for over a thousand years and would most definitely be here in another thousand.

Whenever I needed to practice something, usually a speech, I would come here. A particular part of the Southbank, busy at some times and then empty at others.

And I could be left alone with my thoughts and ideas.

I watched the sunlight dance along the fractured ripples of the Thames to my left as I turned on my heels and tried to think of the right way to explain what I—what William and I had been doing to salvage The Gambling Dukes’s reputation.

There must be an intriguing and positive way to describe it. I was sure there was.

Scribbled notes and scratched out thoughts in my notebook, I’d decided to come down here and pace it out.

My winter boots rang out on the polished stone as I turned on my heels again and turned back to pace along.

The fresh air did something to me: helped my mind think up new ideas, new possibilities.

I held my head up high as I said behind my fan, “And that is why we have begun a game changing…a world first…”

None of it was quite right.

Tightness sharpened across my shoulder blades. Try as I might, I couldn’t completely ignore it. How could I? I had to give our current members who wished to enter the latest wager an update, and the last thing I needed was them to pull out.

We needed more people willing to accept a wager, not fewer.

Getting this speech right was crucial for the whole club, and I wasn’t bad at public speaking. It was just…I had to find the words, first. I couldn’t just barrel in and hope for the best.

That was what Kineallen did. The man somehow always knew what to say, how to charm someone. There was never much warmth behind the eyes, but there never needed to be.

I sighed heavily as a flock of seagulls rose from their happy bobbing on the waves of the Thames and soared into the cold autumn blue sky.

I could do this.

I had to do this .

“And that is why we have begun a radical?—”

“Radical?” said a voice I knew and loved and loathed. “I'm not sure if respectable members of Society will go for that.”

Whirling around, I glared at William Parry. “I didn’t ask you.”

“Yes, I noticed that,” said William with a shrug, leaning against the railings separating us from the Thames. “You also didn’t turn up to our meeting, but who’s counting?”

My eyes widened slightly as I glanced up at the nearest church clock.

Bother. I had entirely forgot we had a ten o’clock meeting. It was nearly eleven.

Which didn’t explain…

“How did you know I was here?” I asked, turning away as though he meant nothing to me, and continuing on with my pacing.

I don’t know how I managed to keep walking in a straight line. Whatever was going on between us, it was starting to completely overwhelm me.

William Parry was not supposed to have this impact on me. I had left him behind, completely, when it was clear he had betrayed me with another woman. I deserved better than that—any woman did. The thought of having William back in my life in any capacity had been disgusting.

Somehow he’d managed to worm his way back into my work.

But my heart?

Definitely not.

Which didn’t explain why my stomach lurched as I turned around and saw him looking at me with that teasing smile I knew so well.

“You always come here to think when you’ve got a difficult task ahead of you,” William said easily, as though it was obvious. “You always did. And you haven’t changed, Lilah.”

“It’s Lady Rotherwick,” I snapped.

I hadn’t stopped pacing. It felt better, somehow, to be on the move when I was around William. Standing still made my head spin when I was around him. He did something to me—something completely unfair.

My heart shouldn’t race like that. Shouldn’t ache for him like that. Shouldn’t remind me what it was like to have his lips on mine?—

“When we were lovers, you used to come here whenever you needed to practice anything important,” William said with a gesture about this particular part of Southbank. “An important meeting, a crucial conversation with your friends?—”

“Ending my connection with you,” I said lightly.

The words had slipped out before I could stop them, and I gasped at the sudden shock in William’s face.

Pain.

I couldn’t have imagined it. There was no way I would have concocted such a wild and unexpected expression.

Because there had been agony on William’s face, just for a moment. I had hurt him. How, I did not know. He’d been the one who had betrayed me, who had thought he could get away with being unfaithful to me with another woman.

But I suppose I had been the one to walk away.

And then the moment passed, and William’s face relaxed, and he looked almost amused as he said, “Is that what you call it? I seem to remember you just moved out and ignored me.”

“It amounts to the same thing,” I said, as airily as I could .

William’s gaze didn’t waver. “Does it?”

I swallowed. This was not the time to go over our failed connection: there never would be. That was the past. We could never return there, and I had no wish to.

Even if William’s searing kisses did remind me of what was so right about us…

“So, what are you practicing today?” William said brightly. “Preparing to end a connection with another lover? Actually going to pay him the courtesy of telling him, rather than letting him return home to find that his life was a lie?”

There was no grief in his words, but there was a stiffness I hadn’t expected.

What, had William assumed there wouldn’t be any repercussions to betraying me?

I couldn’t think about that—I had to think about what was before me.

“It’s for tomorrow,” I said curtly. “The meeting, with the Count of Guadalencia.”

William nodded, tilting his head to one side. “You know, they might not like it.”

I glared. “You think I don’t know that! Damnit, I just wish those idiotic Anderley brothers?—”

“Anderley brothers? What have they got to do with this?”

William’s voice was curious, as well he might be. The facts weren’t common knowledge, but if he was going to work with us—for me—it was probably best he knew.

I sighed heavily. “The Anderley brothers. You’ve heard of them?”

He gave a little twisting shrug. “I’ve heard of them.”

“Well, they are our biggest competitors,” I said with a wry smile. “And they don’t play by the rules like we do. They have no moral code, no issue with causing trouble just to destroy others.”

“What, you mean?—”

“They sabotaged us,” I said darkly. “Perhaps sabotage is a strong word, but they were the ones who revealed that Markham—that he had stolen from us. He went to the press in Paris, and of course it spread. They attempted to steal my butler, too, paid him an extortionate amount for secrets, and they’ve denied Kineallen’s membership to the Norfolk.

They even complained to Prinny, apparently, making our lives difficult for… what over a year?”

I pulled a hand through my hair. A hard year. A year in which I’d really needed my friends, and Markham had chosen that time to be unmasked as the stupid little thief he was.

Damn him.

William was watching me closely. “They’ve really made your life difficult, the Anderley brothers, haven’t they?”

I nodded. “Them and their stupid future inheritance. Like that will make everyone forget what they’ve done! I'm sorry, I'm…I'm just worried.”

“Worried you’re going to lose the little support from the gamblers you already?—”

“We have—I have a great amount of support!” I said, halting and glaring. How dare he speak to me like that! “I'm not worried about?—”

“Don’t lie to me, Lilah, it doesn’t work,” William said quietly.

I shivered. I hadn’t really noticed just how close I was to him when I halted in my anger, but it was close. Or he had moved nearer to me, I wasn’t really sure.

It was hard to concentrate on anything when William’s eyes were on me like that .

I swallowed, hated how his gaze drifted to my throat then to my lips before returning to my eyes. “I'm not worried. Not really.”

“And there it is,” William said with a grin. “You are nervous. Right, show me what you’ve got.”

And with a clap of his hands, he stepped back.

I blinked. Only then did I remember that we were in public, on the pavement by the Thames, where anyone could see us.

A few passersby glanced at us, then looked away. We weren’t anything special, just two people arguing. Not uncommon in London.

“I…I'm not going to give you my speech,” I said awkwardly.

What, do it here? It was one thing pretending to speak to someone, that was at least rational. But to give my speech to William for him to judge and critique me?

William shrugged. “If you can’t do it, then?—”

“Just because I can doesn’t mean I—” I halted, taking in a deep, steadying breath.

This man was infuriating. But he wasn’t wrong. I needed an outside opinion, even if it was someone like William. Hate him as I did, I couldn’t deny he was good at what he did.

Charming others. Not me.

Blast it, I hate how this gentleman got in my head.

“Fine,” I said darkly. I shook back my curls, tried and failed to take another steadying breath, and plastered a smile on my face. “Thank you for coming this evening. I think you’re going to be excited?—”

“You think I am?” said William with a frown, stepping closer to me. “If you’re not sure, then I'm not sure. Tell me.”

My glare deepened. “Thank you for coming. You’re going to be excited by the news I bring to you today. We have begun an exciting?—”