To Seduce a Sinner (Legend of the Four Soldiers #2)(8)
Author: Elizabeth Hoyt

“Oh!” Sally’s hands flew up and it seemed she might grasp Melisande’s in gratitude, but then she must have thought better of it and merely waved them excitedly in the air. “Oh! Oh, thank you, ma’am! Oh, thank you! You’ll not regret it, really you won’t. I’ll be the best lady’s maid you ever did see, just you watch.”

“I’m sure you will.” Melisande opened the door again. “We can discuss your duties more thoroughly in the morning. Good night.”

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am. Good night, ma’am.”

Sally bobbed into the hall, did a half-turn, bobbed again, and was still bobbing as Melisande shut the door.or.

“She seems a nice enough girl,” she said to Mouse.

Mouse snorted and leaped back onto the bed.

Melisande tapped him on the nose, then crossed to her dresser. A plain tin snuffbox sat on top. She briefly brushed the battered surface with her fingertips before taking out the button from where she’d hidden it in her sleeve. The silver V winked in the candlelight as she contemplated it.

She’d loved Jasper Renshaw for six long, long years. It must’ve been shortly after he’d returned to England that she’d attended the party where she’d met him. He hadn’t noticed her, of course. His blue-green eyes had drifted over her head as they were introduced, and shortly afterward, he’d excused himself to flirt with Mrs. Redd, a notorious and notoriously beautiful widow. Melisande had watched from the side of the ball, sitting next to a line of elderly ladies, as he’d thrown his head back and laughed with complete abandon. His neck had been strong, his mouth opened wide with mirth. He was a captivating sight, but she probably would’ve dismissed him after that as a silly, feckless aristocrat if not for what had happened several hours later.

It was after midnight, and she’d long since grown tired of the festivities. In fact, she would’ve gone home if it wouldn’t have spoiled her friend Lady Emeline’s pleasure. Emeline had bullied her into attending, for it had been over a year since the fiasco with Timothy, and Melisande’s spirits were still low. But the noise, the heat and press of bodies, and the staring of strangers had become unbearable, and Melisande had drifted away from the ballroom. She thought she’d gone in the direction of the ladies’ retiring room, until she’d heard male voices. She should’ve turned back then, crept away down the dark corridor, but one of the male voices had risen, had seemed to be weeping, in fact, and curiosity had gotten the better of her. She’d peered around a corner and had witnessed . . . well, a tableau.

A young man she’d never seen before leaned against a wall at the end of the corridor. He wore a white wig, beneath which was a pale and smoothly flawless complexion, save for the ruddy color in his cheeks. He was beautiful, but his head was flung back, his eyes closed, his face the picture of despair. In one hand, he grasped a bottle of wine. Next to him was Lord Vale, but a completely different Lord Vale than the man who’d spent three hours flirting and laughing in the ballroom. This Lord Vale was silent and still and listening.

Listening to the other man weep.

“They used to come to me only in my dreams, Vale,” the young man cried. “Now they come even when I wake. I see a face in a crowd, and I imagine it a Frenchie or one of those savages, come to take my scalp. I know ’tisn’t so, but I can’t convince myself. Last sennight, I struck my valet and knocked him down just because he startled me. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if it will end. I can’t rest!”

“Hush,” Vale murmured, almost as a mother would a child. His eyes were sad, his mouth twisted down. “Hush. It’ll end. I promise you, it’ll end.”

“How do you know?”

“I was there, too, wasn’t I?” Vale answered. With one hand, he took the bottle gently from the other man’s hand. “I survived and so will you. You must be strong.”

“But do you see the demons?” the young man whispered.

Vale closed his eyes as if in pain. “It’s best to ignore them. Turn your mind to lighter, more wholesome images. Don’t dwell on the morbid and hellish thoughts. They’ll capture your mind if you do and will pull you down with them.”

The other man sagged against the wall. He still looked unhappy, but his brow was clearing. “You understand me, Vale. No one else does.”

A footman came from the other end of the hall and caught Lord Vale’s eye. Lord Vale nodded.

“Your carriage is already waiting. This man will show you the way.” Lord Vale placed his hand on the other man’s shoulder. “Go home and rest. On the morrow, I shall call ’round, and we shall go riding in Hyde Park together, my friend.”

The young man sighed and let himself be led away by the footman.

Lord Vale stared after them until they disappeared around the corner. Then he tilted his head back and drank a long swallow from the bottle of wine.

“Goddamn it,” he muttered when he lowered the bottle, and his wide mouth twisted in pain or another less understandable emotion. “Goddamn it to hell.”

And he turned and strode away.

A half hour later, she saw Lord Vale again. He was in the ballroom, slyly whispering in Mrs. Redd’s ear, and Melisande would never have believed this careless rogue the same man who had comforted his friend, if she had not seen it herself. But she had seen it, and she’d known. Despite Timothy and the hard lessons learned about love, grief, and loss, she’d known. Here was a man who kept his secrets as close as she did her own. Here was a man she would fall helplessly—hopelessly—in love with.

For six years, she’d loved him, though she knew he did not know her. She’d stood and watched as Emeline became engaged to Lord Vale, and she hadn’t turned a hair. After all, what use was mourning when the man would never be hers? She’d watched as he’d engaged himself again to the insipid Mary Templeton, and she’d been serene—at least on the outside. But when she’d realized in that church yesterday that Mary had actually thrown Lord Vale over, something wild and uncontrollable had risen up in her breast. Why not? it’d cried. Why not try and claim him?

And so she had.

Melisande tilted the button until the candlelight flashed off its polished surface. She would have to be very, very careful how she proceeded with Lord Vale. Love, as she so well knew, was her Achilles’ heel. Not by word or deed must she let him know how she really felt. Melisande opened the snuffbox and placed the button carefully inside.