Tall, Dark & Irresistible: The Rogue's Disgraced Lady

Sebastian made an impatient movement. ‘Surely you are not suggesting that tiresomeness was enough to merit his being pushed down the stairs to his death?’

Dolly grimaced. ‘I am merely saying that Juliet might be forgiven if she did want to be rid of such a man. I believe that if Bancroft should ever become so pompous and self-important I might consider taking such action myself!’

Sebastian gave a throaty chuckle. ‘If every dissatisfied wife in Society were to follow Juliet Boyd’s example as a way of ridding herself of a disagreeable husband then I believe there would be only widows left—’

Sebastian broke off abruptly as he heard a shocked gasp behind him, turning sharply to see the edge of disappearing silken skirts as the eavesdropper on his conversation with Dolly made good her escape.

He stood up abruptly. ‘Dolly, please tell me that was not she!’ he groaned. But he knew by the consternation on his hostess’s face that it had indeed been the Countess of Crestwood who had overheard their damning conversation ….

Once dressed, Juliet had gone upstairs to check on Helena, who was thankfully much improved yet still in considerable discomfort, before proceeding down to the breakfast room. Her intention had been to seek out Sebastian and offer him an apology for some of the things she had said to him the previous evening. She had come to realise, through the long hours of a sleepless night, that it was herself she was angry with, not him.

She had heard the murmur of conversation as she’d approached the breakfast room, coming to a halt in the hallway when she heard Edward’s name mentioned. She’d regretted that hesitation almost instantly, as she hadn’t been able to help but overhear the rest of the conversation.

Sebastian St Claire believed her as guilty of Edward’s death as surely as did every other member of the ton!

Hateful, hateful man. And to think it had been her intention to apologise to him this morning for her insulting remarks to him the previous evening! How much more hurtful had been his own comments just now than anything she had said to him.

‘Juliet!’

She glanced back over her shoulder to see Sebastian pursuing her down the hallway, his expression grim as his much longer strides brought him ever closer, making a nonsense of Juliet’s attempt to avoid him.

She came to a sudden halt in the hallway and turned to face him. ‘Do you have more accusations you wish to make, Lord St Claire? Possibly to my face this time?’ she challenged scathingly. ‘Do you not think that overhearing you accuse me of killing my husband is enough insult for one morning?’ Her hands were shaking so badly that she had to clasp them tightly behind her back.

Sebastian frowned. ‘I do not believe myself guilty of having done that.’

‘No?’ Juliet’s chin was raised in challenge, her eyes sparkling angrily. Anger was by far a better emotion than the tears that threatened but which she absolutely refused to shed.

‘No,’ he maintained harshly, those whisky-coloured eyes dark and stormy. ‘I accept it was wrong of Dolly and I to repeat the—the speculation that has abounded since your husband’s sudden death. But at no time did either of us claim to be expressing our own views on the subject.’

Juliet eyed him in a seething fury. ‘Perhaps you would care to do so now?’

No, Sebastian did not believe that he would. Juliet’s mood was such that anything he said to her now, especially concerning his opinion of the circumstances of her husband’s death, was sure to be misconstrued by her. ‘Perhaps the speculation would not be so rife if you ceased to maintain your own silence on the subject …’

‘What would you like me to say, Lord St Claire?’ she scorned. ‘That it was I the servants believe they heard arguing with Edward only minutes before he fell to his death? That I hated my husband so much, wanted rid of him so much, I deliberately and wilfully pushed him down the stairs in the hopes that he would break his neck?’

No, Sebastian had no desire to hear Juliet say those things. He did not want to even think of this beautiful and delicate woman behaving in such a cold and calculating way. Nor to imagine what desperation she’d felt—what Edward Boyd’s behaviour towards her could possibly have been—to have driven her to such lengths in order to be rid of him ….

A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw. ‘Are you telling me that is what happened?’

‘Oh, no, My Lord.’ Her laugh was hard and humourless. ‘It is not for me to tell you anything. You must decide for yourself what you believe to be the truth.’

His mouth tightened. ‘Is that not difficult to do when you steadfastly refuse to defend yourself?’

She gave him a pitying look. ‘I am certainly not so naïve as to even attempt to proclaim my innocence to one who has so obviously already decided upon my guilt.’

Sebastian made an impatient move. ‘Then you presume too much, madam.’

‘Do I?’ Juliet Boyd snapped. ‘All evidence is to the contrary, My Lord.’

Sebastian had never experienced such frustration with another human being as he felt at that moment towards Juliet Boyd. Could she not see that her words and actions, her continued refusal to defend herself, only damned her as being the murderess the ton believed her to be? To others, if not to him.

Her eyes, those beautiful green eyes, viewed him coldly. ‘Are you not relieved, My Lord, that I did not take your attentions to me more seriously?’

‘My attentions, as you call them, were never intended to be taken seriously,’ he bit out curtly.

‘Of course they were not.’ She gave him a disdainful glance. ‘Everyone knows that Lord Sebastian St Claire does not take anything in life seriously!’

Once again she meant to insult him. And once again Sebastian realised he had no defence against those insults ….

Dolly claimed that if he felt so inclined Sebastian had the means and the ability to change his way of life. That, third son or not, he did not have to live the life of idleness and pleasure he had so far enjoyed.

Until the last twelve hours Sebastian had never had reason to even question that life! Nor did he thank Juliet for being the reason he was questioning it now ….

‘If you will excuse me, Lady Boyd, I have a prior engagement.’ He gave a less than elegant bow. ‘Please accept my apologies for any insult, real or imagined, that you may have felt during the conversation you overheard earlier. I do assure you that no insult was intended by either Lady Bancroft or myself.’ He turned sharply on his heel and took his leave.

Tears burnt Juliet’s eyes as she watched him go. She knew that Sebastian St Claire’s light-hearted pursuit of her was finally at an end. That she had rended his interest in her asunder with her criticism of him and the way he lived his life.

Chapter Six

‘You are here, too, Gray?’ Sebastian did not even try to hide his surprise upon finding his friend already seated in the Earl of Banford’s study when he duly presented himself there at the assigned hour of ten o’clock.

Nor did Sebastian attempt to conceal his irritation as he refused to take the seat the Earl offered, facing him across the width of his leather-topped desk; Sebastian had suffered through enough such interviews over the years with his brother Hawk, to know better than to meekly sit and accept the set-down he believed was coming. A set-down he deeply resented.

‘I am perfectly comfortable standing, thank you,’ he assured the older man, and he moved to stand with his back towards the window, hands clasped behind his back, the width of his shoulders blocking out most of the sunlight.

The Earl nodded. ‘My wife tells me that you and Lady Boyd have argued …?’

‘What the—?’ Sebastian’s scowl deepened as he stiffened resentfully. He had believed his earlier conversation with Dolly to be of a private nature, known only to the two of them. And in part to Juliet Boyd herself, of course … ‘Dolly had no right to relate any of that conversation to you,’ he said, outraged.

‘I am afraid that she did.’ The Earl’s expression was sympathetic, but at the same time determined. ‘You see, it is not in our interest that you argue with Lady Boyd.’

‘“Our interest”?’ Sebastian’s brow darkened ominously as he looked at the earl and Gray. ‘Would someone kindly tell me what on earth is going on?’

‘Calm down, old chap,’ Gray advised him.

‘No, I do not believe I will,’ Sebastian grated.

‘At least hear what Bancroft has to say before you threaten to call him out,’ Gray soothed.

The Earl rose to his feet, as if he too found the confinement of being seated irksome. ‘Have you not wondered why it was, when two weeks ago you made your request to my wife that she invite the Countess here to stay, she had already done so?’

‘Why should I?’ Sebastian shrugged. ‘The two ladies were friends once, were they not?’

‘Perhaps,’ the Earl acknowledged cautiously. ‘But I am afraid in this instance that friendship did not signify. My wife issued the invitation to Lady Boyd at my behest.’

‘You have lost me, I am afraid.’ Sebastian’s morning so far had not been in the least conducive to holding on to his temper, and the Earl’s enigmatic conversation now was only succeeding in increasing his annoyance.

‘I am sure you are aware of the … rumours surrounding the Earl of Crestwood’s death?’