Once Upon a Temptingly Ruinous Kiss - Bree Wolf Page 0,112

lower and all but waving it in his face. Oddly enough, she did not seem to depend upon it in that moment. “In recent weeks, my granddaughter has grown strong under your tutelage.” A glimmer of appreciation lingered in her eyes before it dimmed, replaced by sadness and regret. “Look at her now.” She turned to where her granddaughter stood with a bowed head, hands clenched in front of her. “A scared lamb.”

“Then what do you suggest?” Drake demanded, regretting the harsh tone in his voice, nonetheless, certain that the dowager would not take offense.

A surprisingly warm chuckle rumbled in the old woman’s throat. “Remind her of what she has learned, of what you taught her. She is strong,” a menacing glare came to her eyes as she turned to look at Gillingham, “stronger than this pitiful excuse for a man.”

Drake nodded, feeling his insides tense the moment Gillingham made to stride across the ballroom, his eyes fixed upon Leonora.

“Go to her,” the dowager urged, poking him in the shoulder with her cane. “Now.”

Chapter Thirty-Nine

In Agreement

Whenever Leonora thought back to the events that had taken place in Hyde Park earlier that day, she felt sick to the stomach, panic nearly blinding her, almost sending her fleeing from the room. And so, she tried her best to distract her thoughts, to keep her mind off the subject at hand. She did not even dare call it by its rightful name but instead used abstract descriptions, hoping that they would calm her nerves and allow her to think rationally once again.

The time between Hyde Park and arriving at the Hastings’ ball was nothing but a blur to Leonora. She remembered voices speaking around her, near her. She remembered answering, but she knew not what she had said. Somehow, she had ended up in a gown, her hair styled in the latest fashion, and made it to the ball.

Now, she stood here, surrounded by her family and she had never felt more awful in her life. Inevitably, her thoughts drifted back to earlier that afternoon. Instantly, panic reawakened in her heart, and she had to stomp on those thoughts, forcing them back down and directing her attention toward something harmless.

“Who are you glaring at?” Harry mumbled nearby.

When Leonora turned her head, she saw Christina standing side-by-side with her childhood friend Sarah, who had once lived in the townhouse next door. While Sarah looked almost as miserable as Leonora felt herself, Christina looked furious, arms crossed over her chest as she did indeed glare at someone across the room. “Him,” Christina snapped in answer to her sister’s question.

“Him?” Harriet inquired, inching closer and all but looking over Christina shoulder. “Who is he? What has he done to deserve such hatred?”

Leonora noticed a slight shiver go through Sarah, her eyes still averted and her hands balled into fists at her sides. Of course, Leonora did not relish the thought of Sarah suffering—for some unknown reason—yet, it posed a most welcome distraction.

“His name is Mr. Sharpe,” Sarah replied in a small voice, her gaze briefly darting across the room to the man in question. “He is…my mother intends…”

“She intends to have her married to that man,” Christina hissed, bolts of lightning shooting out of her blue eyes.

Harriet frowned. “And you object to him because…?”

Christina all but threw up her hands. “I have spoken of him before, have I not? Do you ever listen?” For a brief moment she closed her eyes, no doubt counting to ten in her mind before facing their youngest sister once more. “He is nothing but a merchant, a lowlife, someone who acquired what he possesses through unspeakable means. He has no place among polite society, and the only reason he wishes to make Sarah his wife is to gain her connections. It is despicable!”

Interest sparked in Harriet’s eyes as she looked past her sister at Mr. Sharpe. “I must say, he is not unpleasant to look at,” she remarked with a grin, her gaze sweeping over the man’s tall stature. “And how do you know he’s a lowlife? He seems quite amiable to me.”

Doing her best to keep her thoughts focused on what her sisters were saying, Leonora turned to look at the man across the room herself.

While there was nothing villainous in his appearance, Leonora did detect a bit of a wicked gleam in his eyes. He stood tall with broad shoulders and angular features that betrayed little of what he thought, except for that amused smirk that seemed to