The Clandestine Countess (Cloaks and Countesses Book 2) by Judith Lynne

Author:Judith Lynne [Lynne, Judith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Smart Cookie Books
Published: 2023-10-12T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

“So you see.” Bess had warmed to her story with the rising sun. “Once the consumption had taken my mother too, I had nowhere to turn but to the man who’d promised to marry her, then abandoned her.”

The more distance she put between herself and Road’s End, the more distant she felt from the Silver Duke’s mind-spinning. The swaying of the horse and the damp smell of water soothed Bess in a way that was completely new. She could see why rich people came to the country to rest.

Of course, the more she pushed the Silver Duke out of her mind, the more it filled with the startling revelations of the night before that had to do with the more important man.

Nothing about men had ever appealed in the same way before, and Bess doubted they ever would again. The appeal of that bristly edge to his chin as it rubbed her skin, the taste of the corner of his mouth against her tongue, the heat of him all around her, those things weren’t men. They were Dan.

And Dan was in love with someone else.

She had to find out more about this woman. Was she here? Was she the sort of woman who would follow him?

Bess couldn’t just go around killing people, and if she did, she’d have to start with the Silver Duke.

But wouldn’t that just push Dan farther into the mystery woman’s arms?

Mulling over the problem, Bess kept her face masked with this cozy new persona, the one gossiping about the Silver Duke. He was the root of her problems. Thus the consumptive mother who had been abandoned by...

“Not Lord Vellot!” Agatha was rapt, ignoring her reins. Luckily her horse seemed inclined to follow Bess’.

Bess nodded solemnly. “The same.”

“Ah!” Agatha sat back in her saddle. “The scoundrel. But he did find you a place. For here you are, and he is the one who sent you.”

Bess tread carefully into the necessary murk. “He is, but... he alarms me. He can do things, Agatha. Convince people to do things. Sometimes when he speaks to you...” She must just admit it. “When he spoke to me, I didn’t know my own name for a second. It’s as if he can direct the movements of your soul.”

“Oh!” Agatha's soft exclamation was salted with horror. “Is that what it feels like? Everyone knows he studied some disreputable sort of medicine abroad. Apparently he lectures at parties, but I haven’t seen it.”

“Medicine? Like the kind you drink? What about the mind?”

“Your mind is in your body, so I suppose it is all one.” She thought for a moment. “I remember; he calls it magnetizing his patient. Lady Villeneuve told me she is very suspicious of it, and him.”

“Tell her she’s right.” Just thinking about him in that darkened room reminded Bess it was winter-cold. “She shouldn’t let her charges talk to him alone.”

Agatha nodded vigorously.

When Madame Franck talked about varma kalai, she talked about the body’s life force, how it flowed. Today that felt confirmed.

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