Jenna Petersen - The Secrets of a Lady

“Yuck,” she muttered as she scrubbed a hand over her face.

“My curtains bother you so much?”

She spun around to find Griffin leaning against the doorway with a half-smile.

“Because if you hate them, I’ll have them removed immediately.” He straightened up to take two long strides into the room.

“The curtains are fine,” she said, laughing though the sound was shrill. “Trust that nothing about you or your home would ever make me react that way.”

“Then what is it that bothers you so much?”

“I was actually looking out the window.” She turned away from the gaze that was far too intense for comfort. “Watching something unpleasant move away from me.”

“Ellison,” he said under his breath, his teasing tone suddenly deathly serious.

There was no use in lying. “Yes.”

Pivoting to face him, she found he’d stepped even closer and was now mere inches from her. Reaching out, he took her hand.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked.

Until that moment, he hadn’t touched her bare skin. Gloves had always been a thin barrier of protection between them. But now the heat of his hand warmed hers, his palm rough beneath hers, and his grip strong, but gentle.

Struggling to maintain her calm, she said, “Because so much has been lost already. One agent is dead because of Ellison and his accomplices. He had a family and was a good man. If I do my duty perhaps I can prevent more pain and injury.”

She slid away from him to put distance between them. She needed it.

“I know about pain and injury,” he said. “But I know about risk, as well. Whatever you’ll prevent… is it worth the price you’re paying right now?”

She grimaced. Griffin was thinking of the little baby son he’d never know and the wife he loved so much. His loss was much greater than anything she could fathom.

She blinked back sudden tears. “Oh, Griffin. How I wish I could have prevented your pain. How I wish I could restore what you’ve lost in your child and your wife.”

For a brief moment he looked away. When he turned back, Audrey was surprised to see no emotion in his dark eyes. He’d hardened his face just as expertly as any agent for the Crown would have done.

“You tried to prevent the pain I went through,” he said softly. “Once you tried to warn me…” He shook his head as if he hadn’t meant to voice those words. “But that doesn’t matter now.”

Audrey tilted her head. What he had planned to say before he censored himself?

“Griffin, you would have made a wonderful father,” she whispered, compelled to comfort him, even as he withdrew into some dark place in his soul. A place where he didn’t want her intrusion.

A strangled noise in his throat was Griffin’s only answer before he turned his back and took several steps away from her. She ached to wrap her arms around him and hold him. Instead she cautiously followed and placed her hand on his arm.

At her touch, Griffin turned to look down at her. They were too close, he just inches away, her hand gripping the muscles of his lower arm. She didn’t know what he would do, and it seemed neither did he. Finally, he reached out and placed his hand on top of hers.

“I suppose we’ll never know that now, will we?” he choked out before he slipped away from her to pause at the door. “Luci made sure of it.”

Audrey froze as she watched him stand there and battle with his emotions. What was going on? Something had apparently been amiss between Lucinda and Griffin before her death. Audrey wanted to ask about it, to have him take her into his confidence.

But that would be a mistake. She hadn’t come to London to chase away Griffin’s demons or even her own. She was there to catch a killer. It would be best to get back to that and forget her dreams.

“Griffin?”

“Yes?” Naked need darkened his face. It was almost as if he wanted her to ask about Luci. As if he wished to share his secrets.

“I… Don’t forget the Covent Garden Opera is tomorrow.” It was so hard to ignore the opportunity he’d given her to glimpse his soul. “Douglas Ellison will be accompanying us and sitting in your box.”

For a moment he didn’t move, just held her in a heated stare that made her feel like an animal in a cage. Then he sighed. “I remember, Audrey. I’ll be ready.”

He turned down the hallway and disappeared from sight. She heard his long, steady stride until he was far away and she was alone. It was only then she realized her hands trembled.

***

Griffin stifled a groan as the footman pulled back the curtain on his opulent box and allowed him into the seating area of Covent Garden Opera House. The room was packed, brimming with the cream of Europe for this first public event of the Jubilee. The heat was already unbearable and the noise was worse.

What was he doing here? The last thing he needed or wanted was to be surrounded by the tittering, posing masses of the ton , all of whom wanted him to get over Lucinda’s death and begin a search for a new wife. He had no desire to be reminded of their frivolity that was so much like Luci’s.

But when the footman pulled back the curtain a second time, Griffin was reminded of exactly why he’d come.

Audrey.

She wore a gown that was dark as midnight and clung to her in a scandalous manner. It was the latest and most revealing fashion of the day, silk held together by a few ribbons and flowers.

But she didn’t wear the gown for his pleasure. No, she wore it for Douglas Ellison, a blackguard and a traitor who didn’t deserve to be in the same room as Audrey Jordan, let alone touch her hand, which he was doing at present as he guided her to her seat.

“Ah, a lovely box, Lord Berenger,” Ellison said as he stepped forward to take in the view. Griffin didn’t fail to notice how he stared in the direction of the Prince’s box before he stepped back to face his host.

“Thank you, Ellison. I’ve always enjoyed the theatre,” he ground out, trying to find any words that didn’t cause a fistfight. What he wanted to do was pick the man up by his starched collars and deposit him over the box railing and into the crowd below.

“Well, we’re happy you allowed us to share in your passion tonight.”

Ellison interrupted Griffin’s wandering mind by placing a long-fingered hand on Audrey’s, effectively claiming her as his property. His use of the word ‘we’ gave Griffin a cold chill. Apparently he believed Audrey was his — permanently.

Ellison continued, “With all the excitement, it would have been impossible to get into the show otherwise. And this is one I wouldn’t want to miss.”

With a smile, he took his seat next to Audrey. Immediately she shifted her attention to the man, leaning over to have a more private conversation with him.

“You might try to smile a bit, old man,” Noah whispered. “You look like you’re attending a funeral, not a celebration.”

“It will be Ellison’s funeral if he doesn’t take his hands off your sister,” Griffin whispered back, wincing as Audrey let out a quiet laugh at something Ellison had said.

She shifted her focus back to him. For a moment he could do nothing but stare, taken aback once more by how lovely she was. Two bright blotches of color tinged her cheeks as she stammered a response to one of Ellison’s questions.

She looked away from him with another, deeper blush and he was overwhelmed by a desire to pull her away from the man at her side. Before he could do something so foolhardy, the curtain to the Prince Regent’s box was pulled back and His Royal Highness entered, followed by several of the visiting Crown Princes. All were dressed extravagantly, with the Prince’s clothing clinging to his huge belly in a most unattractive fashion.