Page 93 of A Gentleman's Wager
While Bella passed out papers and charcoal stubs, Lucerne arranged the candle so that it cast his shadow upon the wall. “Still you now,” she bade, adjusting the positioning of the flame to create his best aspect. Often the aim was to make a grotesque or humorous caricature, but she could not conceive of him as anything less than perfect. Louisa and Charles took to their tracery, while she studied Lucerne’s profile. She had never been so enamoured of a man before, never craved the company of one in the way she craved his. It wasn’t just because he was a breath of fresh air in her little world, they also complemented one another. Yet, it had become almost impossible to think of him without also thinking of Vaughan, who maddened her, dismissed her, tortured her. All things which made him utterly abominable. That he was ignoring her now, after what the three of them had done together… It was… well, it was entirely unacceptable. It hurt. The rejection stung more than she cared to analyse. And Lucerne, he did not seem to understand her exasperation.
A prickle on the back of Bella’s neck alerted her to Pennerley’s arrival. She inhaled, kept her attention focused on Lucerne, expecting Pennerley to leave as he’d been doing all week, but instead her discomfort grew. She refused to look at him, knowing the moment she did he would melt away.
Then she glimpsed him out of the corner of her eye, sleek as a panther and just as dangerous. He clasped the back of Louisa’s chair, immediately causing Bella’s hackles to rise. She had not forgotten his threats to involve her friends. He leaned forward over Louisa’s shoulder so that the ends of his dark hair brushed her neck. “You’ve an eye for detail I see.”
Louisa flushed and stilled her sketching. “Uh, thank you.”
Bella dithered, caught between a desire to leap to Louisa’s defence, and making an unnecessary display.
Vaughan made a low chuckle, warm and teasing. “Don’t worry, I don’t always bite,” he said, lips hovering just over her skin. “Though if you ever wish me to…”
Bella jerked to her feet. “Leave her alone, you fiend!”
“A little friendly banter, Miss Rushdale, that’s all.” He smirked so the corner of his mouth tilted upon one side. “Some port perhaps, Lucerne?”
“He is sitting for the game.”
To her consternation, Lucerne rose as if he were a footman and poured the marquis his drink. He placed it directly into Vaughan’s hand. Their fingertips brushed in the process. Bella saw the way their gazes met, could almost hear the silent exchange.
“Am I forgiven?”
“For what am I to forgive you?”
“It seems evident that I’m not.”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t play games, Vaughan. Tell me the truth.”
Vaughan shot the briefest look in her direction. “Thatwill always be an issue.”
“But it needn’t be.”
“Yet it is.”
Lucerne inhaled, then returned to his seat upon the stool. His expression had entirely changed. Bella went to him at once, using the fact he’d moved as a reason to fuss. She didn’t know quite what to say to him. How to ask what was going on, or if she could do something to help.
“Not chasing rain clouds today, Miss Rushdale?” Vaughan addressed her. His voice was full of crisp mockery. Oh, how she hated him. Why had she thought to seek his company, or ever consented to intimacy with the beast?
“No, my lord.”
“No doubt your groom is finding his sport elsewhere.”
Why, the abominable bastard was deliberately point scoring! She glanced at Lucerne. Had Vaughan already related the story of how he’d come upon her being tupped by her groom? Damn him. Damn the infuriating man.
“I’m done, might we switch about,” Louisa said timidly, making a surprising, and valiant effort to diffuse the growing tension.
Charles was pushing Lucerne from his seat in a trice and handing over his stick of charcoal. “I’ll sit. Which do you think is my best aspect?” He turned this way and that. “I’ve posed for some of the country’s finest artists, you know. If I recall correctly, they typically favoured the right.”
“I think you’re correct,” Louisa agreed, having him turn this way and that again to make sure. “Yes, definitely. Sit exactly like that.”
Having been displaced, Lucerne took Charles’s former position, only for Vaughan to settle beside him on that end of the chaise. Bella bristled, but she could hardly make a fuss over seating without appearing utterly hysterical. She wrenched her gaze away from them both, but her attention was too compromised to make anything other than a mess of her picture. She pushed it aside exasperated after a couple of strokes and looked for something on which to wipe her fingers.
“Here.”
Vaughan dangled his lacy handkerchief for her to take. Bella hesitated, half expecting him to whip it out of reach the moment she stretched out a hand, but he allowed her to take it without any dramatics. It didn’t make her trust him any better. Indeed, the silky grin he wore as he toyed with his glass increased her apprehension. He whispered something to Lucerne, which sparked the other man’s amusement. Dammit, what had he said? Why were they looking at her? Vaughan was taunting her but was Lucerne an accessory or a cat’s paw? Would that she could move closer to find out.
Perhaps—?
