Page 40 of Dangerous

The woman reached out a hand, as if she might stop him, but drew it back, her shoulders sinking as she stared after him. She looked around the room to see if anyone had been watching and her eyes met Mia’s. Hatred flared openly on her face before she turned her back and moved to rejoin her friend.

“That woman is Lord Exley’s lover?” Mia’s voice was breathy, as though she’d been running. Where had such a possessive, visceral response come from? And about a man she hardly knew?

Livia sighed and squeezed Mia’s hand. “Not anymore, which I believe is the source of her disagreement with him.” The beautiful blonde was with a group of men, smiling with determined vivacity. “Adam met her at a dinner party at our house about six months ago. Susannah had her eyes on him, probably before she even met him. She is an actress, you know, and she did her best to convince him he could not live without her.” She laughed and patted Mia’s arm. “She is not a very good actress and I could see that he’d tired of her even before he met you.”

Mia knew Livia’s words were meant to soothe but they were slight balm. The woman was tall and voluptuous and Mia’s slim body could not compare favorably. Somehow the knowledge that he’d tired of his mistress could not erase the mental picture that had formed in her head: that of the body she’d seen last night wrapped around the shapely blonde. This woman had made love to her husband; something Mia had not managed to do even though it was his sole reason for marrying her.

“Mia, my dear.” Livia took her hands and held them, drawing Mia’s eyes from the woman across the room. “I have seen how Adam looks at you. He never looked at Susannah St. Martin that way. She is no threat to you, my dear.”

Mia appreciated the sentiment behind her words but Livia did not know her marriage to Adam was merely a business union.

Livia stood. “Oh look, Danforth and Exley are playing servant and dispensing more champagne. Let us go have some.” She grabbed Mia’s hand and pulled her toward the group.

Adam had a slightly questioning look as he refilled Mia’s glass. “Has Livia been raking you over the coals?”

“Only a gentle raking, my lord.”

“No bruises or abrasions?”

Livia broke in, “I never leave any trace of my interrogations. You should know that, Adam.”

Octavia joined their group. “Is this our serious Lord Exley, actually smiling?”

“It’s either laugh or cry where your sister is concerned, and I didn’t want to cry in front of my new wife, at least not yet,” he added drily.

Livia tapped him with her fan. “I cannot bear to watch a grown man weep, Adam. Between you and Gaius, there is scarcely a dry cloth in the house some nights.” She turned to Mia. “You must know that your husband and my brother aspire to become the greatest card sharps in the history of gaming?”

“Are they succeeding?”

“Gad no,” Octavia answered. “I shudder to think how much they have lost to Livia and myself—hence all the manly weeping we must endure.”

“They fear us,” Livia added.

“Indeed, they refuse to bring us with them on their evening jaunts to the various hells they frequent.” Octavia added in a stage whisper, “They are afraid we would show them up.”

“Or get us killed,” the marquess said, giving the women a pained look before turning to Mia. “They cheat at cards, my lady. Openly, incontestably, and shamelessly.” His last words were drowned out by the women’s loud denials.

The conversation devolved into an argument regarding the finer points of whist, a card game Mia did not know. The three friends tossed phrases like “schoolboy rules,” and “Hoyle-obsessed harridans,” back and forth at one another.

“Do you play cards, my lady?” Octavia drew her off to one side as Livia and the marquess bickered about their last game.

“My brother has been teaching me cribbage and piquet, but I am slow at learning the subtleties.”

“And where you lived before, what did one do for amusement?”

Mia smiled at her not-very-subtle attempt to pry out the details of her past. Her first impulse was to spin the usual tale. But she looked at Octavia’s kind face and realized she didn’t want to begin a friendship with lies. Besides, Adam had said she should do as she pleased.

“I lived on the outskirts of a city called Oran, in the palace of a sultan who ruled that area. As to what we did for amusement?” Mia stopped. While it felt good to speak the truth, she wasn’t sure how much of it she should share with a gently bred lady.

“Will you sit with me?” Octavia asked. “We have a little time before we must pretend to watch the remainder of this wretched play. Let us go away from Adam and Livia; they are liable to commence hair-pulling soon and it would be better to be at a safe distance.”

Mia laughed at the mental picture her words evoked and followed the older woman back to the same spot she’d occupied with Livia.

“I know I am bad, but I really must hear more about your life. You may take my word of silence to the bank.” Octavia placed her hand solemnly over her heart.

“You asked what we did for amusement? We did not have to manage a household in the same way women do here. The sultan maintained factors for such matters. We spent our time with the palace children, playing games or teaching them; we had a rather large indoor garden in which we grew herbs and flowers; and there were those who wove or painted or played music. There were also those of us who could read and we would entertain the others whenever we had something to share. I spent much of my time gardening and painting.” And keeping my son alive.

“When you say a ‘sultan’s palace,’ do mean you lived in a seraglio?” Octavia’s voice dropped to a whisper on the last word.