Celeste Bradley - [Royal Four 04]

Author:Seducing the Spy
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

17

Once in Lady Dryden’s room, seated in a circle about the warming fire, with a tray of tea and cakes at the ready, Alicia found it wasn’t as bad as she had dreaded.

It was much, much worse.

“So Lady Alicia,” Julia began without preamble. “You’re ruined, I hear. Are the stories true?”

Alicia put her teacup down carefully. “Oh, there is no mistake, my lady. My own parents discovered me in bed with the stable boy. At a house party, of course, so it was all very public, very . . . irrefutable.”

Julia’s beautiful eyes narrowed. “And yet you tried very hard to refute it, didn’t you?”

Alicia narrowed her own eyes right back. “Well, one must always try, mustn’t one?”

Lady Greenleigh leaned forward, breaking into the staring contest. “How did you and Wyndham meet?”

Alicia blinked, hesitating. “We—there’s little to tell. Our meeting wasn’t terribly romantic, I’m afraid. It was . . . highly irregular and I’m sure not something you wish to hear about.”

Olivia laughed. “I doubt it was more irregular than the ways we met our husbands.”

“No, really . . .”

Lady Reardon dimpled. “More irregular than shooting his horse out from beneath him with a slingshot and then spending the night beside his unconscious body?”

Alicia’s eyes widened. “Er—”

Lady Greenleigh laughed aloud. “More irregular than being thrown off a bridge and having him leap in after me, only to require me to rescue him?”

Alicia considered that. “I suppose that’s rather romantic.”

Olivia made a face. “It was the Thames.”

“Oh right.” Alicia shuddered. “Ew. Perhaps not, then.”

Lady Julia was watching her. “More irregular than having him read my diary and use all my secret fancies to seduce me?”

Alicia’s jaw dropped. And all I did was overhear a plot against the Crown and then become his mistress to help find the traitor.

She became aware that the other three ladies were staring at her with eyebrows raised and teacups poised in mid-sip.

She swallowed. “Ah . . . did I just say that out loud?”

Julia put her cup and saucer down quickly. “Yes, and you must be very careful not to do that again.”

The other two were nodding sagely. Alicia looked from one to the next. She saw concern and interest, but that was all.

“You aren’t surprised,” she said slowly. “Why are you not shocked, or appalled, or even a little bit taken aback—by the conspiracy if not the immorality?”

Willa flapped a hand. “Oh, we know all about the conspiracy—”

Julia looked at her sharply. “Willa.”

Willa made a face. “Oh, Julia, leave off. Alicia isn’t anything like you thought she would be, admit it.”

Olivia nodded. “Alicia’s one of us, Julia.”

Julia looked frustrated. “You cannot operate solely on your feelings, Willa—”

“Oh, pooh.” Willa turned her brilliant smile on Alicia. “Alicia’s a peregrine.”

“Oh!” Olivia turned a delighted gaze on Alicia. “A falcon lady for the Falcon lord! How perfectly wonderful!”

Julia dropped her face into her hands. “Olivia,” she muttered in muffled agony. “You’re going to be the death of me.”

Olivia picked up her tea. “Dane says that all the time.”

Alicia was looking from one beautiful, surprising, exalted lady to another.

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