A Precious Jewel Read Online Free PDF Page A

for a few weeks, try another house maybe.
    Perhaps he should try celibacy for a while. Except that for all his fear of entanglements, the thought of celibacy was quite unappealing. He needed a greater closeness to another human being than his male companionship could bring. And that could only mean casual physical union with a woman, since he had no intention of ever having any
relationship
with a female.
    He had an appointment with Prissy the next evening. He would keep it, and then he would decide whether to call on Kit on his way out to make an appointment with someone else or just not make an appointment at all.
    Either way, he was going to have to stop seeing Prissy for a while. If he did not, he was going to feelobliged to continue seeing her forever after and she and Kit were going to take for granted that she was his sole reason for going there. He had broken away from Sonia after three months. Now it was time to break away from Prissy after two.
    Except, he thought as he approached his lodgings, that she was so damned good. And it was not even midnight. He redirected his steps to White’s. He would see who was there. He would never sleep if he went to bed this early.
    His loneliness washed over him and was pushed out of his consciousness as he entered the club and handed his hat and cane to the doorman.
    I T HAD HAPPENED at last after almost four months. Despite all of Miss Blythe’s care, it had happened.
    Two of Priscilla’s regular clients were out of town, and Miss Blythe had assigned her to an impeccably dressed gentleman of middle years and quiet manner.
    Priscilla had taken him to her room and asked him, as she always did with gentlemen she was unfamiliar with, what she might do to please him. When he had replied and she had informed him that the rules of the house did not permit what he asked, he had raised a hand and smacked her hard across the jaw with the back of it.
    She had not called out. During her training she had learned that she must never do that unless her verylife seemed to depend upon doing so. She would alert the whole house if she called out and give it a bad name.
    She had submitted quietly, consoling herself, as she had also learned during her training, with the thought that that particular gentleman would never be allowed inside Miss Blythe’s doors again.
    She did not go to Miss Blythe immediately after. She would report on the incident the next morning. She spent far longer than the usual half hour cleansing herself with shaking hands and finally vomiting.
    She had another client coming within an hour, she thought as she washed her face and rinsed her mouth and wished that her jaw would stop throbbing. She could not for the life of her remember who it was.
    And then she did remember. It was Sir Gerald Stapleton. Oh, thank God, she thought, sinking into a chair beside the fireplace and looking about the room to check that she had not forgotten to turn down the bed. Thank God. She could be sure of courtesy and gentleness with him. She could be sure that there would be no heavy demands on her depleted energies. Thank God it was he.
    But the thought had no sooner consoled her than she realized that he was the very last client she wanted to have next. She was too agitated. Her jaw was swelling and darkening.
    Not him. Not Sir Gerald. She wanted to be at her best for him. He was the only one of her clients whosevisits she unashamedly enjoyed. Despite herself, the fantasies had never stopped in two months. It was a long time since she had even tried to banish them from her imagination.
    It was a long time since she had fallen guiltily in love with him.
    She did not want him to be next. She would go down to Miss Blythe, she thought, getting to her feet. She would have Miss Blythe tell him she was indisposed.
    But she stopped when her hand was on the doorknob. Sonia had been indisposed two months ago, and he had come to her instead. He had never gone back to Sonia. Sonia had complained of it,