Page 14 of Unseen

“I was a good wife, and heaven help me if it was not always easy to be. But I tried , God only knows how hard I tried to be worthy of your father, and how I sought to make him happy.”

“Oh beloved, I have made you cry.” His tone was that of ascientist setting an experiment into motion, watching my face curiously, narrowing his eyes as though seeking to press beyond the veil shielding my tear-soaked cheeks. He curled a hand around my arm, a touch that was inexplicably forceful and light, his palm encircling my flesh. His icy eyes flashed with an intent I could not read at all, and then they dropped to my lips. “I wish I could express what it does to me to see you cry.” With the barest touch of his fingers, he brushed against my side, too close to my breast for it to be an oversight.

“What are you doing?” I breathed, and his presence became overwhelming underneath the dark umbrella. But I could not pull away. It was as though I was in a trance, captured by those blue eyes, his strong jaw set as he drew me closer.

“I know you tried to make my father happy. I know all the ways you tried to please him. But did he ever please you?”

I gasped, my eyes widening as I fought my outrage and disbelief to explain what he had just said. He didn’t mean that. He couldn’t have. But before I could think about it any further, George was before us, his eyes red and his face puffy from crying. He extended a hand to Azriel, who had to finally release my arm to take it. George did not notice the grip my stepson had had on me, and dipped his head in a bow as Azriel accepted his outstretched hand.

“Your father was the best master I could have asked for, sir, and if you will have me, I shall aim to be as loyal a servant to you as I was to him.”

Azriel considered George carefully for a moment, giving me a brief side glance. “I shall consider it, of course, my good man. But there is still much to be done over these next weeks.”

George’s face could not hide his disappointment, but he cleared his throat and pulled a nonchalant mask into place. “Of course, sir. If you require anything, I will of course be at your service.”

The congregation dissipated, off to their respective carriages in the unrelenting downpour. Finally, Azriel and I went back to the carriage to return us to Linmere.

“That was cruel,” I said to Azriel as the carriage began to roll away from the church.

He rolled his head on his shoulders, giving me a look that would have been more suited to the face of a petulant school boy. “What was, stepmother?”

“The way you spoke to George.”

Azriel grunted out a cynical laugh. “Worried about the servants now, are we?”

“This has been a hard time for everyone in this house, and I would remind you that you spent the last several months not even writing to your father. To speak to his valet in such a way when he was offering his services-”

“Offering?” Azriel’s eyebrows shot up. “A servant has nothing to offer me, Evie. He is in indentured servitude and as such, I am the one in a position to offer him something.”

“Or rebuke it and leave a man of his seniority without work?”

Azriel regarded me with narrowed eyes. “You are rather well spoken for a woman deep in mourning.”

I huffed out a breath through gritted teeth. “Why do you keep saying that? What would you have me do?”

Azriel slouched back in his seat and shrugged, spinning his top hat on his knee. “I would not have you do anything, Evie.”

“Then this conversation is pointless,” I snapped, glaring out of the window as the carriage turned a corner and bumped over the cobbled streets.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

I moved my glare back to him. “Which question would that be?”

“Whether or not my father had pleased you.”

Renewed outrage washed through me. “I did not answer because it is obscene.”

His mouth slowly cracked into a wide smile. “You thought I meant in your marital bed, didn’t you?”

My cheeks must have flushed the most alarming shade of crimson, the heat that rose in my face so violent that it made my eyes water. “I’m sure I don't know what you meant.” My voice was cracking, my throat dry, and being this close to him and under that filthy gaze made me desperate for water. “All I know is that you asking this of me is completely uncouth, especially at my husband’s funeral. Completely aside from the fact that it is, quite frankly, none of your business.”

“I only ask because you seem… unfulfilled.” He drawled the last word so purposefully it made my scalp prickle and my skin erupt in goosebumps. “Yes, that is the word.” He threw his hat on the seat beside him and leaned forward on his knees, closer still, so much so that I pressed myself as hard as I could against the wall of the carriage. “I look at you, and it is as though an ember, a spark burns, deep within you. One that has been smothered, never given enough air to burn, totrulyburn.”

I wished I had kept my veil down, as those icy eyes moved over my face.

“In my experience,” he went on slowly, his eyes dropping to my hands clasped in my lap. “A woman who has such a look about her is seeking something. Or someone.”

“I suppose you have much experience, don’t you, Azriel?” As soon as I said it, I regretted the words, my heart pounding as the image of Azriel forcing the whore in the study toswallow him down swam before my eyes. “I should not have said that. Forgive me.”

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