Natalia's Secret Spinster's Society (The Spinster's Society) (A Regency Romance Book)(7)

Zed’s eyes gentled. “You still see them as the innocent boys they were eighteen years ago, but that is not the case. These men do not fear violence.”

“Zed, promise me,” she whispered. “Don’t tell them. Not yet. I’ll continue to pay her until we can find a secret of hers that will put her in her place.”

Her brother grinned. “So, now you’re willing to stain your soul?”

“If that is what must be done then so be it.” But not death. No more death. Then she changed the subject. “How is he?” They were speaking of Julius.

“He is worried,” Zed confessed. “How would you be with a blackmailer at your door?”

Sarah had begun to taunt the men by sending messages through Lord Reinburg and his heir. She was a fool if she thought they wouldn’t find her and end her in the most vicious of ways. Leah had to find what she needed and soon. There was no other way that didn’t end in the woman’s death.

“Leah, if you told Julius what we’ve been doing all these years, if you told him that you’ve been paying his debt—”

“He wouldn’t care.” She cut him off and moved to the window in her room that overlooked the yard. Just on the other side of the hedge was the beginnings of the Valdeston backyard. Francis and his wife Genie hosted parties and sometimes when the men were outside, she saw him.

Julius.

It saddened her to know how much he hated her now, though she’d never done anything to deserve any other emotion from him. She’d been horrible to him and all his friends, hating them for taking Lorenzo away whenever they were in town… but that didn’t mean she wanted them dead.

“He’s not so blind as you think him to be,” her brother said from behind her. “He’d understand.”

“Then why do we live like this?” she asked. Over the years, the money from their land had grown less and less, and Romina had suspected Julius of taking a portion. Then, three years ago, he had delivered his final blow by crippling the family estate and sending them into complete financial ruin. Julius seized their land and its profits. Now, the only way to set the land to rights would be to come out of hiding, which was something Leah and Zed were unwilling to do if it meant death.

“He’s still angry,” she told him. “Our mother knew of our father and his mother’s plan to kill him and did nothing. He’s right to wish us all gone.” She’d watched her mother cry and pray for her damned soul every night while they’d lived in France. This knowledge came to her from the letters she’d exchanged with Sarah. Leah still wondered why her mother had done it. Had she feared their father?

“When this is over, we will tell him,” Zed declared.

Leah looked over her shoulder and nodded before she walked Zed to the door.

On the other side of it, she was startled to see Maura. She stood in the hall not far from her door with the calmest blue eyes Leah had ever seen. Maura didn’t even bother to pretend that she hadn’t been listening.

Had she been listening?

Surely, Maura didn’t know Spanish… did she?

Maura smiled. “Do you need anything, Mrs. Wells?”

“No, Mr. Sudworth was simply helping me bring in my trunks.”

Maura ran the Spinster House and was very good at seeing to every woman’s needs. The House took in women who were escaping violent husbands. Leah pretended to be one of them while she also taught classes.

The women had gone a week without classes while Leah had been gone.

“And how is your friend?” Maura asked, referring to the person Leah had claimed to be visiting.

“Better,” Leah said, slipping into a Parisian dialect. Then she turned to Zed. “Thank you, Mr. Sudworth, for your assistance.”

Her brother bowed and left.

Leah closed her door behind her and said, “I better start preparations for my class.”



“Of course.” Maura didn’t move, and so Leah went around her and made a note to find a new place to speak to her brother in the future. It would not be good for Maura to suspect anything out of the ordinary with Leah.








CHAPTER FOUR





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“If there be no other concerns...”



Maura lifted her hand, and seven pairs of eyes met hers. She was in a meeting with the rest of the heads of the Spinster’s Society, and though running the charity house kept her busy, she had made the time to come today.

A few months ago, she’d brought up her concerns about Mrs. Wells regarding whether or not the woman actually belonged in the charity house. It wasn’t that Maura didn’t like Mrs. Wells. She liked her immensely, but there was a strength in her that didn’t speak of a woman running from abuse.

Maura had been charged with the care of each of the women in her house, and though all of them kept a lot of secrets from her, Leah kept the most. At times, Maura wondered if Leah really had the past she claimed to have.

“What is it?” Lorena asked as she set her son down on the floor. He crawled away again the moment she let him go. Lord Owen had inherited his father’s black hair and gray eyes… and his mother’s stubbornness.

Lorena was Maura’s cousin and, as such, they favored one another with pale blond hair and blue eyes, though Lorena had always been curvier. But their temperaments were very different. While both could be defiant of Society’s rules, like the fact that they’d made the Spinster’s Society, which was still controversial in some circles, Lorena acted in ways that drew attention, while Maura tried desperately not to. Still, they were close, and Maura knew that if she had an issue, there was no one better to handle it than Lorena and their friends.