Beyond Seduction Read Online Free PDF Page A

yourself."
     
    "But—"
     
    "For your own good," she repeated, her jaw as firm as iron. "We're giving you a week, Meredith, to reconsider your position. At the end of that week, if you have not come to your senses, we shall put
    your horses on the block."
     
    "No," Merry protested, the shock like a kick to her gut. Not her horses. Not Flick and Sergei and her
    new Arabian mare. She tried to catch her father's gaze but he would not meet her eye.
     
    "That's not all," her mother added, her voice so low Merry knew old Ginny could not hear. "Once your horses are gone, we're going to make some changes in the staff. We're going to hire a real lady's maid, one who can keep you on a lead."
     
    "No," she said, a whisper this time. The thought that they'd find her a keeper didn't bother her half as much as the thought of losing Ginny. "You can't, Papa. I don't believe it."
     
    Her father cleared his throat. "You know what you have to do if you want to stop it."
     
    Still not looking at her, he strode to the threshold and paused. "A week," he said, and pulled the door
    shut behind him.
     
    The fire crackled in the silence as his footsteps faded down the hall. Merry's face was hot and a pulse beat raggedly in her neck. Tears burgeoned behind her eyes but she fought them back. She was not
    going to cry. She was not.
     
    But she almost did when her mother stroked her cheek. Merry's senses must have been more disordered than she thought, because her mother's fingers seemed to shake. Her tone was caressing. "It's for your own good, darling. Truly, it is."
     
    Merry pressed her lips together. She could not speak for fear of saying the unforgivable. As if she sensed her turmoil, Ginny's brush resumed its careful stroking of her hair.
     
    "Perhaps you should leave now, Lavi," the maid said with the familiarity and the tenderness of one who knew the family well. "Give everyone a chance to settle down."
     
    Lavinia started at the sound of her voice, but did not disagree. "Yes," she said dazedly, "perhaps I should."
     
    Merry did not release her tears until her mother had left the room. Even then, she struggled to contain
    her angry sobs. She had never liked crying, not even as a child.
     
    "Don't you worry," said Ginny, her strokes as steady as a stable lad currying a horse he meant to soothe. "Sometimes a creature has to follow its heart. Sometimes its nature doesn't give it a choice."
     
    Her words made Merry's tears fall all the harder. Her own mother didn't understand her as well as her dear old nurse. She couldn't believe her father would really let Ginny go. Simply couldn't. Not if she
    lived a hundred years.
     
    Which left her with one conclusion.
     
    Her mother was the evil genius behind her father's stand.
     
     

Two
     
    A night of restless sleep hadn't shaken Merry's conviction. Her father hated punishing her, even when
    she deserved it. So now she had no choice. She had to change her mother's mind before she could
    change her father's. No matter how long the odds, this was a challenge from which she could not shrink.
     
    Not surprisingly, she found the duchess closeted with her dresser. The changing tides of fashion were the chief concern of her mother's life. When Merry proved not only indifferent but a poor frame on which
    to hang an elegant gown, Lavinia had lost most of her interest in her daughter. She's a fencepost , she'd lament to anyone who'd listen. Gets it from her father's side . And then she'd run her hands down her
    own more generous curves, as if anyone could possibly doubt her claim.
     
    Merry didn't think her mother did this to be cruel. She simply could not conceive of a life where anything mattered more than being perfectly turned out. To be fair, were it not for the duchess's efforts, Merry knew she'd be considered even plainer than she was. And her mother could be affectionate, in her absentminded way, though Merry was tempted to forget that now.
     
    When she entered the suite, Lavinia was