Page 63 of Ruthless with a Rogue
“It is, but the actors and actresses are quite talented.”Livy would have preferred a lighter play.The death inMacbeth, the resulting madness, uncomfortably paralleled the happenings in her own life.
“Don’t worry, you both will adore the performance afterward.The pantomimes are hilarious.It will be a much-needed respite from the heaviness of the play.”
“Oh, a pantomime?”Aunt Mellie said excitedly.“It has been some time since I’ve seen one.”She turned to Livy.“You will find it most amusing, Olivia.”
Livy smiled and opened her mouth to respond when her eyes clashed with a gentleman across the box.Misty blue eyes widened.Warren.He disengaged himself from the guests he was currently speaking with and made his way over to her.No pretty brunette on his arm now.His sole focus was on her.
She carefully brushed her gloves over her skirts.“Is my coiffure in order?”she whispered from the corner of her mouth.
Franny’s gaze darted behind Livy before she reached up and gave Livy’s coiffure a small adjustment.“You look lovely, a woman to be shown off,” Franny said warmly.
Livy excused herself and made her way to meet Warren.
“Miss Forester.”He bowed briefly.
“Mr.Thorton,” she murmured while dipping a small curtsy.
He was still as handsome as ever, a sandy-straw blond wave of hair tumbling over his brow, the glint of candlelight flickering over his sharp jaw.But her heart didn’t skip a beat, her stomach didn’t flutter, and no warmth filled her chest.Had her attack broken her?Ruined her beyond repair?Beyond feeling?
“I was surprised to see you in London,” he murmured.
That was putting it lightly.He’d run from her like his breeches had caught fire at the Chesterfield Ball.“It had come to my attention,” she said meaningfully, holding his gaze, “that I was in need of new marital prospects.”
He glanced away, looking over the crowd, her barb, though soft, striking home.“Yes, London is the place for that, isn’t it?Are you enjoying the theater?”
Raising her opera glasses to her eyes, she scanned the other boxes, focusing on the lower boxes where the dowager had been looking earlier.“Yes, more-so due to the talent of the performers than the topic of the play.I feel it would say something about my character if I admitted to enjoying something so full of death.I have enjoyed observing the theatergoers as well, such a large array of people.”
She frowned as she spotted a box with women wearing scantily clad dresses, revealing much more than would be deemed proper.The fabric wasverysheer.“I am shocked by the dress of some of the ladies here,” she added.
Warren cleared his throat, and she glanced at him, noticing his cheekbones had darkened with a blush.She tilted her head at him in question.
“They are not all ladies.”
She looked back at the box in question and noticed one of the women had settled herself on a man’s lap.“Oh dear!”A hand flew to cover her mouth.Eyes wide, she looked back at Warren.
He chuckled, his expression landing somewhere between amusement and embarrassment.
“I had no idea men came here with such women,” she said in a hushed voice.She’d thought that was for places likeThe Devil’s Eye.But out in the open at the theater?She glanced curiously back at the box, surveying the inhabitants.And then froze.A pair of unmistakable broad shoulders and a head of jet-black hair stood with one such woman pressed up against his side.
The man turned.
Livy’s stomach filled with lead.The woman leaned up against Lord Dunmore, crushing her breasts to him as they exchanged smiles and whispered words.He leaned down, saying something in her ear, eliciting laughter from the woman.The lead went up in flames.Her fist clenched on her opera glasses as the woman trailed her fingers over Lord Dunmore.
Get off!You… you… strumpet!
A servant approached Lord Dunmore.He nodded, murmured something to the woman at his side—who appeared extremely put out, Livy noted with a satisfied little smile—before he strode out of the box.Livy lowered her glasses and took a calming breath.
“—more discreet about those types of things.”
What was Warren saying?Drat, she had no idea what they’d been talking about.She needed a distraction.“Are any of the boys in town?”
A smile spread across Warren’s face.“I just had word from Quinton that he’ll be in town in the next day or so.”
“Oh, I do hope I run into him!”The thought of seeing Quinton’s familiar face offered a small, much-needed reprieve from all she’d endured the past week, a small light in a bleak void.
“I’m sure he’ll be thrilled by that.As am I that our paths crossed tonight.”Warren glanced around the box and then discreetly reached out and squeezed her hand.She recoiled at the contact, and he frowned, his misty blue eyes clouding with confusion.
She quickly covered her unease with a smile.“I am as well.That our paths have crossed.”And you didn’t immediately turn tail and run.She bit the inside of her cheek.Was that bitterness she was feeling?
