How had Nicholas ever found the woman attractive? He groaned and stood. “Where is she now?”
“Still at the door.”
Nicholas marched out of his study and to the entrance hall. The door was open, and certainly enough, there stood Lady Plymton, a smile plastered on her rouged mouth. “Nicholas, what a pleasant surprise. I thought you were busy.”
“You will address me as Your Grace.”
Her mouth formed an O, and she covered it with her fingers. “I’m sorry, my dear. I thought we were long past formalities.”
“No, we are long past any sort of friendship. What do you want?”
“Friendship? Is that what you call our former relationship? I must say, I envy whatever lady friends you have now.”
Nicholas stopped five feet in front of the open doorway and clenched his jaw. “What do I need to do in order to make you leave?”
“I only want to speak with you for a moment. Would you rather I do that here, in the open, where everyone passing by on the street can see us?”
“Almost no one passes by here. We aren’t exactly in the middle of Town.” But still, he couldn’t quite bring himself to leaveher standing out in the open. He motioned to McCarthy, and his butler opened the door wider for her. She came in, then McCarthy closed the door behind her.
“Stay here, McCarthy. We won’t be sitting in the drawing room.”
Lady Plymton shrugged. “I don’t mind the help hearing what I have to say. But do you feel the same?”
“Unconditionally,” Nicholas replied. McCarthy had been part of his father’s staff since he was a boy. He trusted him infinitely more than he trusted the woman in front of him. There was no need to hide anything from him.
Lady Plymton took two steps forward, swallowing up the distance between them until she was only an arm’s length away. She lowered her gaze to his mouth and parted her lips. “Do you actually think a sweet little creature like Lady Mercy is going to satisfy you? If you let this courtship of yours go on much longer, you are only going to damage her reputation when you wake up and come back to me.”
Every muscle in Nicholas’s body clenched, but he managed to get a strangled laugh to escape his throat. “You were never mine to come back to.”
“But I could be now.”
“No, Lady Plymton, you cannot. The damage you caused me and my family can never be undone. I have no interest in any sort of relationship with you, and if you try to approach me in public, I will have no choice but to make that abundantly clear. Somehow I don’t think a cut like that would be a good start to your time in London.”
Lady Plymton lowered her lashes and bit her lower lip. There was a time when Nicholas might have found the gesture enticing. Now, he only wanted her gone. She arched one eyebrow in his direction and raised her eyes. “You act as if you weren’t a participant in our sordid affair.”
Nicholas’s jaw clenched so hard he could already feel the beginning of a headache coming on. Lady Plymton knew exactly how to hit him where it hurt. He had been nearly obsessed with this woman, and yes, he was young, and yes, she knew exactly what she had been doing by pursuing him when he was so young, but still, the fact that he’d been so willing to be enticed and completely besotted by her still made him feel like a fool. “No, I act as if I was and am deeply ashamed by it. Now, please leave.”
“You’d better do as my son asks.” Mother’s voice sounded from behind him, and Nicholas spun. Mother stood on the last step of the stairway with her hand on the banister, her head held high.
“Your Grace.” If Lady Plymton was embarrassed or ashamed at Mother’s rebuke, she didn’t show it. She only broadened her stained smile. “It is lovely to see you.”
Mother strode forward, stopping only when she reached Nicholas’s side. “I don’t ever recall the two of us being introduced. And if you don’t mind, I believe I should like to keep it that way.”
Lady Plymton opened her mouth as if she were about to speak but then seemed to think better of it and slid it closed. Still smiling, she gave a bow to Mother and an even lower bow to Nicholas. “I’ll bid you farewell. Feel free to seek me out when you change your mind.”
McCarthy had the door opened before she’d even turned and shut it behind her so quickly the back of her heel was almost caught in the door.
A huge weight lifted off Nicholas’s shoulders the second Lady Plymton was out of sight. She was the most glaring reminder of the rash and exploitable person he used to be, and he’d spent too long trying to distance himself from that young man to ever be comfortable facing him head-on.
“Thank you, Mother.”
“My pleasure.” Mother smiled, and any last vestibules of the hard woman she’d been only a moment ago faded. “I rather like being the overbearing parent for once.”
“Nothing about that was overbearing. It was appropriate.”
“Well, imagine that—me being appropriate. You’ve finally managed to rub off on me.”
“I think our most recent guest is proof that I’m not a shining example of propriety.”
