Caroline Linden Read Online Free PDF Page A

woman, it would of course be most important.”
    “Ah, but think of all it can atone for: a sour disposition, a shrewish temper, or looks fading with age.” His hand shifted, as if he were testing her figure, and he cast an appraising glance downward. Charlotte went rigid.
    “Release me at once,” she said between clenched teeth.
    “You,” he said, his voice dangerously soft and calm, “are a hypocrite. You flaunt yourself to show how depraved I am, yet freeze up like an outraged virgin when someone else plays that same game. And yet, you’re nothing like a virgin, are you?” Charlotte gasped in shock. He lowered his head to murmur the rest in her ear. “Don’t think I consider this contest over. It’s only begun.”
    Without regard for the social consequences, Charlotte drove the heel of her shoe into his toes, and whipped out of his grasp as he choked on a curse. The musicians were still playing, and although there were other couples on the floor, most of the guests were watching. In full view of eighty members of the best society Kent had to offer, Charlotte turned her back and walked away from a furiously angry Stuart Drake.

C HAPTER T WO
    They left the ball almost immediately. Susan was shocked speechless. The other guests had whispered in glee at the delicious scene unfolding before their eyes; it was Kent, after all, and there was precious little in the way of gossip. Aware of every glance of bewildered longing Susan cast at Stuart Drake, Charlotte wasted no time in marching her niece from the ballroom, feeling his eyes on her all the while. Lady Kildair came scurrying out to bid them farewell, blatantly prying for information. Charlotte put their hostess off, promising to call the next day and hoping she would have a story by then that would avert a scandal. Thankfully their carriage arrived quickly, and they even made it home before the argument started.
    The instant they reached home, however, it quickly became a screaming row. “How could you do that to me? To him?” Susan cried. “You humiliated both of us!”
    “Susan, dearest,” said Charlotte, “he’s not a respectable sort of man. You’ll understand when you’re older.”
    “Oh, oh!” Susan waved her hands. Her face was blotchy pink, her voice high and shrill. “When I’m older! Because I’m so naïve now? I must be, if I don’t see how you can be rude to anyone you choose and yet expect me to follow every silly rule about the color of my dress and the number of times I may dance with a gentleman!”
    “He was insulting,” Charlotte said evenly. “And rude.”
    “He wouldn’t be!” Susan gulped back a sob, and pressed one hand to her stomach. “He’s charming and polite to everyone, not just to me, and you must have said something to make him rude, if he was rude at all!”
    “Do you think I’m lying?” Charlotte was indignant. “He’s a rake. A rogue. He’s not decent enough for you.”
    “He is, he is,” wailed Susan, the very picture of misery. “I love him!”
    “Susan, I only want—”
    “I know what you want! You only want to ruin my happiness, so I’ll end up as miserable as you are!”
    Susan was hysterical, but it still stung. Charlotte lifted her chin and repressed a cutting reply.
    “I won’t, you know! I’m not going to wind up alone and bitter, too. I’m going to marry someone who will know how to be happy and have fun and enjoy life!”
    “And I want to make certain you will be happy. He’s a fortune hunter. What do you think life will hold for you, when he’s spent your inheritance and you’re both destitute?”
    “You’re just jealous!” Susan lashed out, tears quivering in her eyes. “He’s handsome and charming and you’re jealous because he’s not paying attention to you! Does it hurt you so much that he might want to marry me instead? Why do you think the worst of every man who isn’t cow-eyed at you?”
    “Now, Susan,” Charlotte began.
    “I don’t care, I don’t care! I