Page 54 of Only Pleasure Will Do

Instead, she would have to take tonight’s dinner as the opportunity to tell Reginald a final goodbye.

* * * *

Dinner, as Amorina had come to expect in the past few days, was a credit to the cook’s ingenuity in the kitchen. She’d managed to make enough soft dishes to give Amorina a variety of things to feast on. Tonight, however, she feasted on more than the food.

Reginald had been seated beside her and kept up a steady stream of conversation both with her and the Dalburys and Morleys. Although Amorina was certainly aware of his presence throughout the meal, she couldn’t have given an account of what the man had said if she’d tried. Too busy savoring his closeness, she’d been mostly silent once the courses had begun. Now her chances to speak with him were waning, but she couldn’t summon a single one of the things she’d planned to say to him while dressing for dinner.

“Have you thought where you will go once your convalescence is complete, my dear?” Reginald speared a green bean, smothered in cream sauce, and popped it into his mouth.

“Yes, I have.” A question she’d thought long and hard about in the past few days. “I have written to Joan Pugh in Pagglesham. She and her husband Thomas were my father’s housekeeper and valet until he died. They took me in when I was carrying Pearl. She has lived with them all her life. I’m certain, if Redmond’s men did not harm them, they will take her back.”

Reginald’s brows rose then dropped into a frown. “Why would you wish to have her leave you? Will you not go with her?”

Amorina clenched her jaw and looked away. This was not the conversation she had hoped to have with him. “Of course I cannot go with her, Sir Reginald. The only means of support I have is the House of Pleasure. I must return there as soon as possible.”

“But I thought with Sir Peter’s death you were now the owner of the establishment.” He turned dark, stormy gray eyes on her. “You can sell the property, invest the proceeds, and live comfortably with Pearl away from the city.”

If only that were the case. “I’m sure I’d like to do that if it were possible. But the property does not belong to me.”

“What do you mean it does not belong to you?” The sharpness of Reginald’s voice brought all eyes around the table to focus on them.

“Is something the matter, Madam Vestry?” Lord Dalbury’s cool stare had Amorina wishing to hide her face in her napkin.

“No, my lord. I was simply telling Sir Reginald that I had unfortunately been misinformed about a matter of property.” She’d sent a letter to her solicitor regarding the disposal of the House of Pleasure the first day of her convalescence in Dunham House. His reply had sent her spirits plummeting.

“What property is this?” Leaning back in his chair, the marquess twirled his wine glass, glancing from her face to Reginald’s.

Biting her lips, Amorina glanced around the table. She’d not wished to discuss this in a roomful of peers. The sordid details of her life should not be on display to them. “The House of Pleasure, my lord.”

“And you believed it to be your property?” Lord Dalbury sat forward, his gaze sharply on her alone now. “Why?”

If Dalbury would have her exhibit her shame publicly, so be it. Perhaps he had a reason. She raised her chin, trying not to wince at the pain in her throat. “Because Sir Peter used the inheritance my father left me to purchase it. I assumed when he died, the establishment would therefore revert to me.” A naïve notion on her part, obviously. “My solicitor has recently informed me that this is not the case. The house was solely the property of Sir Peter and when he died, his wife inherited it along with various other properties he owned.”

“Indeed.” The marquess resumed twirling his wine glass, his gaze fixed on her.

That scrutiny was nothing compared to the intense stare coming from the gentleman to her right. Reginald’s frown had not abated during her explanation of her current circumstances.

“So you actually intend to return to your life at the House of Pleasure,” he hissed, sotto voce.

“I have no choice,” she whispered back, cutting her gaze toward him. “I don’t have enough savings for Pearl and me to live on. What other employment am I fit for?”

He leaned toward her, a gleam in his eyes that made her shiver with both dread and longing.

“Madam Vestry.” Lord Dalbury called from the head of the table, jerking her attention from Reginald.

“Yes, my lord?”

“You say that the property in question was purchased with your lawful inheritance, but was not bequeathed to you upon Sir Peter’s demise?”

“My solicitor assures me not.”

Dalbury had leaned forward and was staring directly at her with the intense blue eyes she remembered very well. “And you have proof that your funds were used to purchase the house?”

“That is what Sir Peter told me six years ago. I have no written evidence, although I assume records of the sale were kept in the man’s papers.”

“And a withdrawal of the amount of the sale from the inheritance funds would have been recorded as well.” Dalbury smiled widely and turned to his brother-in-law. “I believe we must call upon the widowed Lady Fitch tomorrow, Morley. I think we should give our belated condolences and address a matter of unfinished business about her ward’s estate.”

“I beg your pardon, my lord?” Amorina cocked her head and frowned. What was the man talking about? She’d had no contact with Lady Finch for more than six years, nor did she wish to have any. “Sir Peter was my guardian, not his wife.”