~001~ Utterly debauched
“STOP THAT WOMAN AT ONCE!”
Cornelia ran through the crowded street of Crystalis, cursing under her breath at how she had gotten herself into trouble yet again. At this rate, Cornelia was certain problems seemed to follow her no matter what she did to avoid it.
"Hey, catch her,” someone yelled from behind, and she didn’t bother looking to see who it was. Surely it was the guards that had stormed the coffeehouse she had been in, intent on finding a certain Lady Midnight.
She thought of what had happened just hours earlier. As a lover of books, she had been invited along with her friends for a book reading at Lady Marlise’s coffee house and had been devouring Lady Willow’s tales of love and lust when it happened.
“Have you heard? Apparently Viscount Torin is desperately hunting down the mysterious Lady Midnight?”
Polly whispered to Cornelia, but Cornelia just brushed her off, her eyes glued to Lady Willow as she described the shaking of the bed in an intimate scene in her latest novel.
But to Cornelia's right, Thessa replied Polly, and her words finally drew Cornelia's attention, causing her to frown. “I hear he is dangerously close to finding out who she is, I cannot wait.” Thessa squealed in excitement, but Cornelia couldn’t help thinking how disastrous it would be if her identity were known.
Not good, not good at all.
She couldn’t concentrate on Willow’s words anymore, so she shifted her attention to her friends, one on each of her sides, and asked, “Really? How close is he?”
“Well, I hear he is offering a generous fee to whoever might have any information, and quite a number of people have stepped up already.”
Cornelia relaxed internally, only one person other than herself knew the true identity of Lady midnight and she trusted that person with her life.
“I for one hope he never finds her,” Polly said, “Viscount Torin is absolutely furious after her last release and there’s no telling what he will do to her once he gets his hand on her.”
Thessa frowned as if it dawned on her too. Though she was excited at the prospect of meeting her favorite author of all time, she was also aware that said author would be in trouble should she be discovered.
“I still don’t know why he is so mad, No names were mentioned in the book, why is he assuming he was the viscount Lady Midnight refered to.” Polly said, referring to Lady Midnight's last release, The Unruly Ways of a Viscount, which had indeed been about Viscount Torin. The novel detailed the juicy and scandalous secrets of an unnamed viscount who engaged in secrets trysts in dark hallways and garden corners with numerous ladies who may or may have not been aware that the Viscount had not been exclusive with them.
“But everyone knows he is the Viscount Lady Midnight wrote about.” Thessa was right. Everyone was well aware of the Viscount’s scandalous ways, and though no names had been mentioned, it didn’t take a genius to figure it out, and that was exactly what was happening.
Since the release of her novel, lady Sienna Grant and Lady Erin Lance, two of the viscount’s paramour had long dumped him and the Lady the viscount had been courting in hopes of getting her hands on her rather generous dowry had publically rejected his advances. His life was basically ruined now as the ton had shunned him and he needed someone to blame for it all and who better than the author herself, Lady Midnight.
Luckily, no one actually knew who Lady Midnight was so as long as she treaded carefully she should be safe or so she thought.
Just then, the doors slammed open and all the ladies present jumped in surprise. Soon the viscount himself walked in accompanied with capital guards.
All the ladies were immediately frightened as they wondered why capital guards had decided to storm their book reading. Though what they had been listening to was utterly debauched, it was not a crime. Only Cornelia knew exactly why they were present as soon as she spotted the Viscount. Her palm started to grow sweaty as the Viscount scanned the room, as if searching for someone. His eyes seemed to settled on her and her breath caught but he soon continued his search in silence. She sighed in relief, he doesn’t know I’m Lady Midnight.
But then why were they here? Her question was answered as the Viscount announced, “I’ve been told that one of you ladies is none other than Lady Midnight.” Gasps rang out as the ladies began to look amongst themselves, wondering which of them was Lady Midnight. Cornelia pretended to be shocked herself and muttered along with them, “How shocking?” Though she was anything but shocked.
Lady Marlise stepped forward to address them. “You are frightening these poor ladies, Viscount Torin, I hope you will take responsibity should anything happen to any one of them.”
Cornelia had hoped the Baroness would ask them to leave but it seemed even she couldn’t. The viscount nodded and then he stepped to the side and yet another person stepped into the tiny coffee house. It was then that Cornelia’s heart skipped a beat and she inched backward to hide behind Thessa who luckily for her was quite tall.
The person who had stepped in was one of the boys that worked at the publishing house Lady Midnight used to publish her novel. Though he didn’t know she was lady midnight, he would recognise her as an associate to the author.
Cornelia looked around her desperately, searching for an escape route. Luckily for her, one of the noble ladies present fainted at the sight of a weapon and the men immediately rushed to attend to her.
During the chaos, Cornelia dashed off into the street, ignoring the screams and shouts as both her friends and the Viscount screamed at her to stop. But she didn’t, instead she ran faster as she was well aware that capital guards were after her. They were surprised that a lady could run as fast as Cornelia did but she was no lady. Having grown up in an orphanage, Cornelia was no stranger to the harsh ways of life.
Knowing she couldn’t out run them, she looked for a place to hide and spotted a seemingly empty carriage at the next turn. Deciding to risk it, she threw open it’s door, not bothering to check if it was indeed empty, and slammed it shut.
For a minute, she shut her eyes, calming her racing heart. Only when she had calmed down did she open her eyes to see the most astonishing thing ever.
Staring at her with a familiar warm brown eyes and long black hair was...herself.
