An Affair So Right (Rebel Hearts #4)(14)
“How can I not worry when you will not be honest with him, just as you weren’t with Daniel?” Her mother captured her face. “Your father only asked you to be nice to Daniel, and you ended up engaged to marry him. What else have you bargained away to the viscount?”
“Nothing at all.” She winced though, feeling a fool again. Her greatest bargaining chip was useless when a man had a mistress. He would be immune to flirtation, and his desires would be satisfied by another beyond her control. “My services in exchange for a roof over our heads, payment made month to month, and in advance. Generous terms. Maitland is rich enough that he can afford the expense of two extra women in his household with barely a ripple.”
Yet, it still smarted that her seduction had been so thoroughly rebuffed.
The mistress had been an unknown factor in her assessment of Lord Maitland, but what was done was done. She would make do with a position and go from there. She just had to survive burying her father and do her job well enough to be kept on.
Timing was everything. Theodora had long since learned that in business, emotions only slowed one down and prevented clarity of thought. But not everyone thought as she did. After years of practice, Theodora could easily suppress her emotions behind the busy activity of work.
She longed for such a distraction now. The well of sadness inside her was vast, and she shrank from the pain of losing another loved one.
She had cried copious tears for Daniel, and now would cry in the privacy of her bedchamber each night for years to come over losing Papa, too. In between, she had to be strong for her mother and wipe clean her father’s tarnished reputation.
She would win over the viscount to her cause soon enough. Her first step would be to prove herself invaluable in managing his business affairs and earn his trust—and along the way, she would satisfy her curiosity about this jealous mistress of Lord Maitland’s.
With those goals ahead, she convinced her mother to retire and rest in the hastily prepared bedchambers upstairs.
Chapter 6
Quinn moved out of the shadows and clapped. “Marvelous.”
On the stage, the performers turned to stare into the pit of the dimly lit Theatre Royal as the echoes of his applause died down slowly.
“Maitland! You beast,” Adele Blakely cried out once she recognized him in the shadows, hand clenched to her chest with all the dramatic flair of a superior performer in front of a captive audience. She rushed from the stage to meet him, golden blonde hair loose and billowing behind her as she threw herself into his arms.
“Why didn’t you speak up sooner?” she chided, after they’d greeted each other with a passionate kiss.
He and Adele had been friends, and lovers, for years. They had an easy relationship, one that had survived his long absences at sea, when he’d not been able to see her as often as they both wished he could. For all the days and months apart, however, he’d never felt closer to another living soul.
“Forgive me, my dear.” He kissed her again, and then caught her earlobe lightly with his teeth before whispering, “You know I like to watch you perform unobserved. It gives me a thrill to see you in your natural milieu.”
“And I prefer to know where you are at all times when you are watching me.” She’d complained of his sneaky habits before, but her smile grew as she leaned into him. “I’d rather have you seeing me work my magic on the crowd from the distinction of being in Rutherford’s box.”
He caressed her soft cheek, causing her delicate skin to flush with heat and her eyes to grow round with desire. Adele was a stunning woman. A virtuoso on the boards, as well as on her back in the home he provided for her on Wellington Street. “I’d prefer the melee of the pit over the indignity of public scrutiny watching me watching you. Imagine if my father arrived.” He affected a shudder. “I’d never enjoy another moment with him hovering and scowling.”
She pouted. “But the view from Rutherford’s box is so much better than the rest of the seats of the theater. It can seem as if we are the only two people in the room.”
He sighed. They’d argued this point far too often for him to yield now. “I wish I could oblige you in this, but my mind is set on the matter. I will never sit in Rutherford’s box when there is a chance my father might join me,” he promised. “You know what his presence does to my temper.”
Thankfully, Adele pressed her lips together and said no more to try to persuade him. She had never really understood how much he detested his father’s company. Unfortunately, Father had become an irregular patron of the theater this past year, invading Quinn’s favorite haunt so often, he’d largely given up regular attendance. If not for Adele, he’d have stopped coming altogether.
Adele looked up at him under a flutter of eyelashes with the steady regard of a wife in training. He’d won this round, for now, but the next discussion was coming. He could see her mind had turned to other matters. “I waited for you after my performance last night. How was the dinner?”
“Dull.” He took her hand in his. “I had intended to come as promised but there was a complication.”
“What happened?” Her face grew tense. “Were you that overcome with passion for the society debutant you met at dinner? They say Miss Cushing is lovely and her dowry rivals that of your sister’s.”