Page 25 of A Relentless Rake

Beth followed his gaze. “So whoisthat woman who’s wearing my dress?”

Alec grimaced, although she had the right to be curious. After all, she’d helped him in her dressing room at six o’clock that morning, still half-asleep and blurry-eyed, while he’d looked through her clothes to find the perfect dress. One deserving of blackmail. He hadn’t shared any details with her, and Beth loved him enough—or had been simply too sleepy—to demand answers.

Until now.

“She’s Miss Olivia Everett.” When she glanced at him blankly, not recognizing the name, he added, “Manageress of the Everett School in Westminster.”

“She’s the one you had Mama invite!” Incredulousness rang in her voice as she made the connection, and her mouth fell open. “Aschoolmistress?”

He slanted an irritated glance at her. “You thought I’d ask Mother to invite a courtesan?”

“Well, no…not exactly.” From the tone of her voice, though, that was exactly what his family had expected. At least Beth had the decency to look chagrinned. “But you have to admit”—she gestured at Miss Everett as the woman moved through the room toward the refreshment tables—“a schoolmistress isn’t exactly the sort of woman to snag your attention.”

“She hasn’t, not in the way you’re implying.” He dismissed that notion by lifting his glass to his lips. “I’m not interested in repressed spinsters.”

“Perhaps you should be. It’s the repressed ones who go wild when given the chance.”

Alec choked on his Madeira. He forced out between coughs, “Wheredid you hear that?”

The little imp had the nerve to look offended. “I’m no longer in the schoolroom, you know. I’m twenty-three, and I know that half the misses at Almack’s shouldn’t be wearing white.”

His eyes narrowed. “Has Mullins ever tried—”

“Goodness, no!” She squeezed his arm again. “I have one of the deadliest dueling shots in all of England for my brother. Arthur is a bit unconventional, but he’s not a bedlamite.” Her eyes drifted back to Miss Everett as Lady Gantry pulled her into a group of guests. “So why did my rake of a bachelor brother invite to our ball a chaste schoolmistress whom none of us have ever met, and why is she wearing my gown?”

Good God, Beth was worse than a tenacious hound after a fox. “She’s wearing your dress, imp,” he answered irritably, “because she doesn’t own a ball gown and otherwise wouldn’t have been able to attend tonight, special invitation or no. And she was sent that invitation because her brother is an expert at mathematics who recently lectured before the Royal Society.”

A brother who was being followed by Reed at that very moment in hopes the man would lead them to Scepter tonight while his sister was here. Alec’s job was to keep Olivia Everett out of trouble and learn whatever more he could from her.

“Her brother?” Beth blinked with confusion, his vague explanation not nearly enough to satisfy her. “What does that—”

“She’s also a very dedicated, hard-working woman who deserves to spend an evening enjoying herself at a ball. An opportunity she wouldn’t otherwise have.”

For some reason Alec couldn’t name, it rankled him that he and Miss Everett occupied two very different social circles. There was no better reminder of that than the scene in front of him. A wave of his hand took in the ballroom and the sea of sparkling jewels, silk dresses, superfine jackets—hell, the diamond cravat pin worn by the Duke of Dartmoor was worth more than a schoolmistress would earn in ten years.

“You take all this for granted, Beth.” When she opened her mouth to protest, he cut her off. “Which is how it should be for the daughter of an earl. But what is a dreadful bore and obligation for you is a fairy tale for her. Why is it so wrong to want to give her this experience?”

“It isn’t, I suppose.” Her dubious gaze followed Miss Everett as Lady Gantry introduced her to the group. Then they swung sideways to Alec and narrowed suspiciously. “Just very unusual foryou.”

Unusual?He nearly laughed. His sister had no idea just how strange his life had become, with Olivia Everett only one part of it.

He set his glass onto a table behind him. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a dance to request.”

He slipped away before she could trap him in a new barrage of questions.

As he moved through the ballroom, he nodded to acknowledge the women who smiled at him or called out to get his attention, yet he otherwise ignored them and kept walking. There were dukes and marquesses at the party who outranked him and gentlemen with estates and fortunes that outweighed the Sinclair wealth. But he was the only man present to possess rank, wealth,andbachelor status. He was certain Isabel Sinclair had carefully planned her guest list just so to make him even more appealing to the unmarried ladies and their mamas. She could have spared herself the waste of time. He had no intention of considering any of them.

Tonight, his attention rested fully on a spinster schoolmistress.

When he reached Lady Gantry’s group, he bowed politely to the women and nodded to the men. He fought down his annoyance that everyone’s eyes lit up at his presence.

“St James.” Lady Gantry sank into a low curtsy that would have done the regent honors but only served to irritate him with its ingratiating demeanor. “What a pleasure to see you this evening!”

“And you, my lady.” Despite himself, he knew his duty, and he accepted her hand to bow over it. “You’ve been well, I hope.”

“Certainly.” She sent him a beaming smile and gestured her fan at her husband. “Gantry was just wondering if you’d be present tonight or if you’d escaped to the hells of Covent Garden instead.”

“Well, the night is still early.” Alec kept his forced smile in place and shot a sideways glance at Lord Gantry. “But duty brings me here.” The baron had blocked many of the bills Alec had proposed in the Lords during the last session, done to serve the man’s own financial interests rather than for the good of England. “You understand duty, don’t you, Gantry?”