Page 106 of The Viscount's Seduction
Jocelyn sat at a desk, thumbing through fashion plates. The gaze she lifted to him was coldly amused.
Damnation. He had the ire of three women on him this morning.
He bowed. “I do apologize. Thank you for waiting.”
“I hope it was due to pleasant reasons.”
The insinuation was clear, but he would be damned if he’d give her intimate details of his married life.
“The wedding ball is requiring more preparations than anyone expected.”
She smiled back tightly. “I’ll decline the invitation if you wish.”
He took Madame’s chair behind the desk and looked around, wondering at the contents of this room. There were drawings and fashion plates, ribbons and trims, scraps of fabric and measuring tapes, but no lists of ordered ribbons and trims and textiles, no accounting books, no delivery schedules. Madame might bring clients here but her real work was done elsewhere.
How private it was, he wasn’t sure. He lowered his voice. “My only consideration would be my new wife’s feelings, but since she wishes you to come, that consideration is moot.”
She blinked and he could not tell if she was hiding some sadness or plotting some mischief.
“Do not fear, Jocelyn. I shall not importune you in that way.”
One eyebrow shot up. “In some other way then?” She studied him and laughed. “What are you up to, Bakeley?”
The tension eased, and he settled back as if he was talking to one of his friends at the club and not a woman who’d been in his bed.
“We need your help,” he whispered.
“We?”
It was thewethat had given her pause, not the issue of helping.
“Sirena needs your help.”
“With what?”
He thrummed his fingers on the desk. Jocelyn gossiped like everyone else, and Sirena’s past was none of theton’s business.
“I won’t bandy her secrets about, if that’s what has you suddenly tongue-tied.”
His face heated. “I must have your word on that. Not for my sake, but hers.”
She nodded. “You have it.”
He told her about Sterling Hollister’s treatment of Sirena.
“So you rescued her from not just poverty, but disgrace should he choose to make the story known.” Her voice had softened with a sentimentality he’d never seen in her. “She is safe now. No one can touch her if she is under yours and Shaldon’s protection.”
“Yes, she has protection, but what we would like for her is—“
“Revenge?”
He paused, remembering the wedding night conversation.
“Justice.”
Her face froze and she sat up straighter. “Do not expect me to sleep with the man.”
“If he lays but a finger on you, he’ll answer to me and my brothers. But I’ve heard some tales recently that Lady Arbrough is capable of taking care of herself even in matters of combat.”
