Page 36 of Temptations of a Wallflower
“That’s your prerogative, of course,” his cousin replied. “What have you done so far to track her down?”
“I’ve been to her publisher and went to a bookshop I thought she might frequent.” He shook his head at this list. “Neither lead has taken me anywhere fruitful.”
Marwood crossed his arms over his chest, looking pensive. “There is a possibility . . .” he said after a long pause. “Might be a little dim, but it could work.”
Jeremy leaned forward. “At this point, I’ll take any direction I can get.”
“Every now and then,” his cousin explained, “there’s a masked club, a secret society, that meets in a house in Bloomsbury.” He looked at Jeremy pointedly. “What I tell you, you cannot tell another soul. Nor,” he added, “can you use this information to shut down this secret society.”
“I won’t,” Jeremy said immediately.
“They’re actually meeting in just a few days’ time.”
“And what do they do there?” Jeremy wondered.
His cousin stared at him. “I’ll be honest with you, cuz. People like to go there to have sex,” he said bluntly. “With strangers.”
Sitting back, Jeremy absorbed this information with a touch of shock. It wasn’t truly a surprise that such places actually existed. London was a worldly, sophisticated city with worldly, sophisticated citizens who had probably seen, and done, more things than he could ever imagine.
“I see,” he said after a moment, striving for a level of sangfroid he didn’t quite possess. “Have you ever been there?”
“What do you think?” his cousin answered with a smile.
“I think I’d rather not know.”
“Good lad. They like to have entertainments at this club,” Marwood continued. “People performing sexual acts in front of an audience.”
Jeremy’s face and body nearly went up in flames. To take something so incredibly private and make it public . . . it . . . excited him. He couldn’t dream of making love in front of an audience, but watching something like that, seeing it happen before his very eyes while he stood nearby . . . would be an exercise in sensual torment. Wondrous sensual anguish.
Would Lady Sarah be excited by something like that? By his very interest in it? Or would she be appalled?
“I see,” Jeremy said again, his voice a thick rasp.
“Sometimes the acts are improvised,” Marwood went on. “And sometimes they stage scenes. From the Lady of Dubious Quality’s books.”
Jeremy’s eyebrows went up. “Oh.”
“Perhaps,” his cousin mused, “just perhaps, the lure of such a thing might draw the Lady out. The idea of seeing her work performed live might be too much for her to resist. She might be there. And you could go, too. Catch her in the act, as it were.”
Shooting to his feet, Jeremy declared, “I’m not going to any masked orgy.”
“Come now, Jeremy, if it really is that important for you to find her,” Marwood chided, “this isn’t the time to fall back on your vicar’s prudery.”
How could Jeremy explain? Prudishness wasn’t the issue. His whole body burned with the thought of it. His own reaction to the prospect alarmed him. It was . . . frightening. Alluring. Calling to all of his buried hungers, his hidden desires. Unfettered sexuality. Freedom. What if he was lost to it? What if it consumed him and he couldn’t find his way back?
“That’s . . . it isn’t . . .” Jeremy paced the length of the carpet, trying to marshal himself. His thoughts. His riotous body.
Marwood got to his feet and came around the desk. He seized Jeremy by the shoulder, holding him steady.
“Be at peace, cuz,” he said soothingly. “It’s just a night. One night. And right now, if you truly want to locate the Lady, it’s the best chance you have of doing so. If she isn’t there,” he continued, “perhaps someone at the club will have information about her. That’s all you have to do. Beard the lion in his den, and then emerge unscathed.”
Could he? Would it be possible? He didn’t have to participate in anything. Just look around, ask a fewquestions, and leave. He could hold temptation at bay for a little while—vicars did not participate in covert sex societies. If word somehow got out that he’d not only attended but also actively taken part in the club, the consequences to his reputation would be disastrous.
It would be like visiting another country. He didn’t have to become a native of that land, merely visit, and then return to the life that he knew. Staid and reserved. No one would have to know.
“Very well.” He exhaled. “If that’s the best option, I’ll go.”
His cousin grinned. He was altogether too invested in Jeremy’s descent into the underworld. “Wonderful.”
