Sexual Hunger (28 page)

Jason shook his head. “What I’ve seen surpasses my tolerance for—” He looked away. Couldn’t watch that steely-haired stranger devouring his mother against a secluded wall of the steamer, in a kiss that would’ve made him grab Maria, were it any other passionate couple he’d spied upon. “How long was I gone? Hell, I’m not even sure what day it is, much less—”

“Years, it seems.” Maria smiled sadly. “In reality, we should’ve been married for two months, as of today.”

“I have a lot to make up for, sweetheart,” he murmured. “But right now, I believe this bastard is an opportunist, taking advantage of our mother’s grief and vulnerability before Father is even cold in—”

“Oh, she glowed like a candle at Christmas the first time she met Polinsky. And Father was there with her.” Jude, perhaps to add fuel to the flames, plucked the spyglass from Jason’s hand. “Yosef Polinsky has appeared in various homes to conduct séances and perform magical tricks, most of which involve making ladies’ jewelry disappear, as a jest.”

“And then in actuality, we hear,” Maria continued. “Mrs. Golding reported some gems missing after she invited Polinsky to be her…houseguest.”

“You can’t be serious! She’s eighty if she’s a day!” Jason snatched the spyglass from his brother for another look at the man in question. “This fellow can’t be
that
desperate. If he weren’t somewhat attractive, I’d think—my God, now he’s fondling her, with his knee between her—that’s it! This has to stop,
now!
”

“No! Wait!” Maria grabbed him from one side and Jude from the other. “If you confront them, you’ll exacerbate the venom she’ll spew at
you!
”

“Exacerbate?” he demanded. “Let me think. The root word there is
ass,
and I’m about to kick that fellow’s to Kingdom Come!”

Jude tightened his grip. “Polinsky uses his charisma on all the ladies—”

“Charisma? Like I call mine Blackbeard and yours is named Longfellow?”

Maria snickered in spite of their unpleasant exchange. “He’s a medium, like my brother. Uses his power to mesmerize women…and then ingratiate himself. When Mrs. Golding threw him out, Martha MacPherson was waiting in the wings to welcome him.”

“He’ll know you plan to rip into him even before formal introductions are made. You can’t fool these fellows with psychical powers, Jason.” Jude stood taller, listening to something. “There’s the bell, announcing dinner. An occasion not to be missed, in that ugly, crowded room. Polinsky and Rubio have been snarling at each other the entire trip, and Mum has been her usual bossy self—only more so, because she’s seducing a new lover—”

“And Jemma is witnessing this?” he demanded. “That alone is reason for me, as the head of the family, to reprimand their brazen behavior. And Mother barely into mourning, too.”

“She refuses to weep and wail over your father’s passing,” Maria remarked quietly. “Has informed us she didn’t marry Phillip for love, and that she’ll put on no false airs about her feelings for him.”

Jason’s mind reeled. How had so many things gone awry since his abduction and his father’s death? And why did he suspect this charmer, Yosef Polinsky, was behind most of them? He set the spyglass on the windowsill. “Shall we go down to dinner? See who gets chewed and who does the chewing?”

M
aria held her breath as footsteps approached. The tiny dining room had become even more airless while they waited five…ten…fifteen minutes for Lady Darington and Yosef Polinsky. Jemma fidgeted; made a face at the bowl of cabbage that swam in grease and the platter of unidentifiable meat beside it. Rubio and the twins glanced repeatedly at their watches.

“This is inexcusable!” Jason muttered. “When I get my hands on—”

“Shhh! They’re coming!” Maria braced herself for the accusations that would spew like steam from a teakettle. Her brother’s predictions still rang in her mind, about revelations and revenge, and she sensed they might come true sooner rather than later.

Lady Darington paused in the doorway, looking serenely poised in a fresh gown of robin’s-egg blue. Her smile hid secrets…strategies intended to get her what she wanted. “Good evening, children—and Miss Palladino and Rubio, of course. Jason, may I present Mr. Yosef Polinsky, whose spirit guides helped us search for you these past—”

“Yes, Mother, we’ve
seen
what Polinsky is searching for, when he kissed you behind the lifeboats.” Jason stood to establish his superior height—and his mood. “I find your behavior repugnant, in light of how little time has passed since Father died. This
charismatic
opportunist is taking advantage of your unsettled emotions and—”

“Let’s call a spade a spade, Darington.” The silver-haired medium stepped around Dora, his gaze afire. “Your mother and I are adults, mature enough to know an extraordinary bond existed even before we’d met. Out of respect for her
unsettled
emotions, you can keep your presumptuous opinions and accusations to yourself!”

“Not when my sister is present, I won’t! And not when the two of you so lewdly
paw
each other, in plain sight!” Jason raked his hair back from a face flushed with disgust. “As the head of this family, I should take you down to the hold and chain you to the ring in the wall—the spot reserved for prisoners and those who might endanger others on board!”

“
Do
it!” Polinsky challenged. “Chain me wherever you think I belong! I guarantee you, I’ll be no less a part of your mother’s life!”

“Let’s go, then!”

“Jason!” Maria struggled to rise from her tightly tucked chair. “Please don’t incite any more ill will than—”

“No, no, Miss Palladino. I insist that your fiancé follow through on his foolish threat,” the middle-aged medium replied in a calm voice. “He shall prove his point—just as I shall prove him impotent against my powers. The sooner the better, I say!”

When the two men left, their taut retorts drifted back to the little nook where everyone else sat crammed around the table. Everyone but Dora, who stood behind her chair with a scowl fixed on her face. “We need to discuss a few basic premises,” she said sourly. “But I shall wait for Jason to return, so I need not repeat them.”

The room became unbearably warm as Lady Darington eyed each of them in turn. Jude looked cautiously at Maria, masking his expression with the confusion and curiosity they all felt. Jemma tapped her fork tines against her plate.

“Enough of that racket, damn it!” her brother finally rasped.

Jemma’s face curdled. “Mummy—Mummy, I’m not feeling well! I’m going up to the room with Willie—”

“You’ll remain right where you are! What I am about to say affects you as much as it does your brothers.” Dora’s sour expression mirrored Jemma’s. “High time, daughter dearest, that you act your age, is it not? From what I’ve seen of your…
relations
with Chief Officer O’Keefe and with Quentin, we should find you a suitable husband before your reputation ruins our chances for that.”

Jemma turned deathly pale. She focused on her empty dinner plate, as though she wanted to disappear into its network of tiny cracks.

Only Rubio seemed unfazed by Dora’s mood or by the time Jason took to return. He sat with his hands clasped in his lap, his eyes nearly closed, swaying slightly as though he’d entered a trance state.

Maria hoped he was gleaning powerful, worthwhile information to deal with whatever Dora was about to drop on their heads. Jason’s mother looked none too comfortable, despite the way she’d taken control of this room, this voyage home. When she gripped the back of her chair, Maria noticed she no longer wore the gold wedding band Phillip had given her. In its place rested a sizable chunk of aquamarine, which matched her gown. The ring’s asymmetrical design differed distinctly from her other jewelry.

Maria composed herself when she heard quick, purposeful footfalls approaching. And then she prayed that whatever happened during this family gathering, she would still return home to marry Jason. Pandora looked formidable enough to make those sweeping changes her brother had described during Jason’s tarot reading. Revelation and revenge might not cover it, the way she was seething.

“You needn’t have waited.” Jason gestured toward the food as he took his seat. “I was securing Polinsky to that iron ring in the hold with a double chain because—”

“Oh, for God’s sake, Jason!” his mother muttered.

“—he
goaded
me into doing it!” her son continued with a pointed glare. “You couldn’t have chosen a more pompous, arrogant asshole for a companion, Mother! Are you happy now?”

Dora’s lips twisted. “Matter of fact, my dearest children, it is indeed time to talk of my
happiness.
Now that you’re the head of the family, Jason, I can reveal the realities of my marriage to Phillip so you’ll know who you are. And whose.”

Maria’s throat went dry. Jason widened his eyes at his twin as possible meanings of his mother’s announcement sank in.

“What on earth do you mean, Mummy?” Jemma whined. “If we’re not going to
eat
this repulsive food, may we please hold this discussion elsewhere? I’m going to absolutely
retch
if I continue to inhale—”

“Enough out of you!” Dora’s knuckles turned white even as she smiled, as though she were about to grace them with a revelation far more delicious than the congealed meat on that platter. “Perhaps, as you grew up, you noticed your father and I were not particularly…affectionate.”

“Mum, it was never our place to say—”

“Silence! Must you torment me in my moment of truth?” Dora shot her younger son a look that withered any inclination for him to speak again. “There’s no easy way—no pretty, polite way—to explain the details, so I’ll just blurt them out. Your father didn’t marry for love, nor did he acquire any such feelings for me in our thirty-two years under the same roof. He was a nobleman in need of an heir, and I was…the tarnished daughter of a prominent family, seeking refuge and respectability. It was a match made in hell.”

Maria glanced nervously around the table. The twins and Jemma sat tensely, ready to spring from their seats, yet they appeared too stunned to move. Rubio remained somewhat distanced. Why hadn’t Lady Darington excused him from this potentially damning discussion? Why on earth would a wife of thirty-two years say such uncomplimentary things to her children about their father—even if she’d been so unhappy? Why not bury her feelings with Phillip and move on—as she obviously had, by taking up with Polinsky?

“And it went downhill from there,” Dora continued in a whisper. “Can you imagine the irony of marrying a dashing, wealthy nobleman who desires an heir, only to learn he’s been rendered impotent by the
pox?
”

Jason and Jude exchanged a guarded look. “Mother, if this is a subject best confessed to the vicar or laid to rest—”

“Cowards!” she cried. “I’m doing you an enormous favor, telling you Phillip was not your father! Perhaps this will free you from whatever disappointment or disagreement you found with him, for he was as frigid and unlovable with you as he was with me!”

She inhaled noisily to keep from crying. This time no one interrupted: they all felt too uncomfortable to even shift in the hard wooden chairs.

“Had he been slightly agreeable or accommodating, considering how I spent the prime of my life keeping his reprehensible secrets, I might have at least respected him,” she continued in a wavering voice. “As it was, I bedded his two best friends—with his consent—to disguise his condition, and to find occasional satisfaction for my…sexual hunger. I might be your mother, but I
do
have needs!” she blurted. “I refuse to mourn the man who never loved me! And I will no longer deny myself the physical delights I have done without for so long.”

Was this one of Dora’s dramas, scripted to cast her in a more auspicious light? Or to divert their attention from matters she did
not
want to discuss? Maria glanced at her brother. Rubio’s face remained serene as he looked directly at Lady Darington…which suggested her recitation had rung true for him.

“Please let me add that the joy of raising you three children was the only thing that made my marriage to such a boorish, peevish nobleman bearable,” she said softly. “Most of the time.”

Most of the time, her children had made the marriage bearable? Or most of the time it was a joy to raise them? Maria didn’t address this difference aloud: she still wondered why
she
had been included in this discussion, along with her brother. If Dora had asked for her support or encouragement, woman to woman, she wouldn’t have proposed Yosef Polinsky as the antidote to Lady Darington’s loneliness.

“Well, then,” Jemma mused in a high, childlike voice. “If Daddy was not my father, who was?”

“And how does this affect Wildwood? And Darington Shipping?” Jason queried carefully. “While I’m sorry your marriage was unfulfilling, Mother, I cannot believe Father groomed me to assume his estate—his business concerns—only to let me drop off the edge when he died.”

“He couldn’t let that happen, don’t you see? His friends were never to know of his infirmity. He covered it well, as he did everything else.” Dora shifted her weight and sighed heavily. “It’s all spelled out in his will and the other legal agreements in his files. We’ll dig them out when we return home. It is such a
relief
that we found you, Jason, and that you’ve returned to your right mind. I couldn’t have dealt with the
messiness
of—”

“All’s well that ends well, milady. And despite this valley of the shadow you wander in, I assure you the best is yet to be.” Rubio stood, slowly, so he wouldn’t knock the table into anyone. His gaze remained on Dora as he squeezed behind Maria and Jason to slip a reassuring arm around her shoulders. In his turquoise shirt emblazoned with stars and crescent moons, he looked like a wizard ready to impart his wisdom, yet his youthful face glowed with vitality…and with a
knowing
.

Maria prepared herself: she
knew
that expression. All had not yet been revealed. And none of them were home free, as far as remaining unscathed for their own little secrets.

Dora looked deeply relieved. “Thank you, Rubio,” she murmured. “I truly appreciate your assistance as we searched for my Jason. Forgive me if I’ve seemed rude or ungrateful.”

“Forgive
me
if I fueled the flames of confrontation when Polinsky challenged my predictions.” He gazed at Dora until she looked up at him…succumbed to his bottomless brown eyes. “Shall we finish what you started? Answer that most indelicate of questions, which is foremost on your children’s minds? Please correct me if I’m wrong, or if I speak out of turn.”

Lady Darington nodded slowly, entranced.

“I sense Lord Fenwick sired your fine twin sons…” He waited until Dora’s dreamlike smile confirmed this. “And was it not Lord Galsworthy who gave you Jemma?”

Lady Darington blinked when he released her from his powerful gaze. “You truly amaze me with your powers of perception, Mr. Palladino. No wonder the Queen and her court adore you.”

“Thank you, milady. And if I might venture one more prediction—”

“Reginald
Galsworthy
? That old
toad
is my—Mumsy, how
could
you?” With a sob, Jemma grabbed Willie’s cage and looked for the easiest way past the backs of their chairs. “My God! You pointed the finger at
my
relations, when you bedded
two
old goats who—”

“Once again, Jemma, you jump to your childish conclusions.” Dora blocked her daughter’s exit; turned sideways to face Jemma with her arms crossed. “As part of the bargain with those upstanding
gentlemen
, I secured
your
future, young lady, as well as Jude’s! In exchange for my favors, I insisted Galsworthy pass his estate to you upon his death—bypassing his new bride, Rowena—just as Lord Fenwick agreed that Jude, the second son, would inherit his estate after I bore his twins! I chose childless men of means for this very reason! I prostituted myself to get this in writing, all tidy and legal. For
you!
”

Jemma glared at her mother. “Just move, damn it,” she blubbered, “before I retch all over your—what a
wretched
way to learn about these things! Jesus!”

Rubio stepped aside. Maria looked away, embarrassed…empathizing with Jemma’s shock and disgust while noting her mother’s cool, calculated air. Jude and Jason gazed at each other across the table, in that way twins shared information. When Dora moved, her daughter rushed toward the stairs, bawling. Poor Willie’s birdcage banged against each metal step.

The room’s silence became stifling again.

Rubio cleared his throat. He moved to Lady Darington’s side once more, this time taking hold of her left hand to admire the stunning aquamarine ring. When he touched it with an inquisitive fingertip, his eyebrows flickered. “More revelations will be forthcoming. Just as your Mr. Polinsky is,” he murmured. “Be very careful, milady. Things are not as they seem.”

Maria held her breath. Oh, how she itched to take up Miss Crimson’s pen and report on what she’d witnessed these past few minutes! News would soon leak out about who had sired the Daringtons’ children, for Jemma couldn’t keep such a secret. And certainly, when Lord Galsworthy and Lord Fenwick died, the passing of their estates to Jude and Jemma would confirm the gossip Miss Darington stirred up as she sought the sympathy of her friends. No doubt Phillip’s affliction would come to light, as well. And where would this leave Rowena Galsworthy?