Page 32 of A Relentless Rake

Lady Rowland squeezed her arm.

“It was an accident,” Olivia whispered, unable to speak any louder for fear of sobbing openly. “That man didn’t mean to spill his drink on me.” Although, at the time, Olivia was certain he’d been aiming straight for her. Her heart broke as she choked out, “But it was such a beautiful dress.”

“Maybe it can still be saved,” the baroness suggested helpfully. “My maid uses soda ash to treat stains. I can ask one of the footmen to bring some from the kitchen.”

Tears of gratitude blurred her vision, even though Olivia doubted it would work. “Thank you.”

“Why don’t you take off your dress to make it easier to clean?” Lady Rowland gestured toward a screen in the corner of the room before dashing toward the door. “I’ll be right back. Wait here.”

Olivia glanced into the mirror, and the stain glared angrily back.Wait here?Where had the baroness expected her to go looking like this? She bit her quavering lip. She didn’t even have a cape to cover herself for the ride home, having brought with her tonight only a small shawl that barely covered her shoulders.

With no choice but to do as Lady Rowland asked, she stepped behind the screen. She managed to unfasten the buttons down her back after a series of twisting contortions, and then she kicked off her slippers, stepped out of the dress, and tossed it over the top of the screen. The satin material was thick enough that her shift and corset were undamaged, and relief swept through her that they’d escaped the punch. She’d lied to the masked man when he’d been searching her dresser. Shedidn’thave a drawer full of shifts and stays; in truth, she owned less than a handful, and these two old things were her best.

She heard the door open.

“That was quick,” she called out, then stepped out from behind the screen. “I would have thought—” She looked up and gasped.

The Earl of St James leaned casually back against the closed door.

“You.” She angrily slapped her hands on her hips in the same pose she took with misbehaving girls at the school.

He lazily trailed his gaze over her front, which was hidden only by the thin layer of undergarments that scooped down low across her breasts and barely reached her knees. He arched an appreciative brow. “And…you.”

With a shocked cry of embarrassment, she dove back behind the screen, only for her cry to transform into a low curse at his deeply amused chuckle.Just wonderful.Could she be any more humiliated tonight?

“Leave!” she ordered through clenched teeth. “Go back to the party where you belong.”

“But it’s so much more entertaining in here.”

She reached for the dress so she could scramble back into it and salvage whatever trace amounts of her dignity remained. But the satin slipped through her fingertips as he pulled it away from the other side of the screen.

She made a desperate grab but missed. “Give that back!”

“Sweet Lucifer, that’s a big stain,” he murmured, as if surprised himself at the damage one glass of punch could do.

“Please, go! If anyone finds us together—”

“No one will find us.”

“You can’t guarantee—”

“I locked the door.”

“You locked…” She darted around the side of the screen and pointed a stern finger at the door. “Well,unlockit!”

He clucked his tongue. “And risk someone coming inside to find you undressed? I think not.”

His hazel eyes traveled slowly over her again, and this time, she refused to cower. Mustering as much decorum as she could scrape together, she lifted her chin and bravely stood her ground, even when his gaze lingered at her breasts, thrust up by her corset. The dress’s bodice had been just a little too small, so she’d had to lace up far tighter than normal. But no one except Mrs. Adams should have seen—

Oh, fate was surely laughing at her!

“Undressed withyou, my lord,” she warned, an idea striking her. “Surely, you wouldn’t risk a situation that might force you in front of a priest.”

“Not if the door’s locked.” He smiled confidently, as if he locked himself into rooms with half-dressed women all the time. For all Olivia knew, he probably did just that. “At my mother’s balls, half the rooms are locked by the first waltz by couples seeking their own privacy. No one trying this room would think anything amiss.”

“But Lady Rowland is due back any moment and knows I’m inside.”And undressed.

“The baroness is a friend who won’t mind leaving if I ask.”