City of Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page B

him, Mrs. Malcolm?”
    “No, but I should like to be,” Maddie said, “perhaps ... as a fair exchange for my sitting for you?”
    Mr. Fox considered this proposal and found it satisfactory, if unorthodox. “I should be pleased to perform the introduction for you, ma’am,” he said. “When would be a convenient time for you to come to my studio?”
    “Shall we say, the day after I meet Mr. Kropotkin?”
    Mr. Fox grinned appreciatively. “So it shall be, ma’am. If you will excuse me, then, I shall go away immediately to make the arrangements.”
    He held out his hand to shake hers in a businesslike fashion, and Maddie heard herself saying for the second time that day, “Good-bye. I look forward to hearing from you again shortly.”
    “Be assured of it, ma’am,” Mr. Fox said, retrieving his hat and tipping it to her. “Good-bye.”
    Maddie watched him go, giving him a little wave when he turned at the door for one more look at her and blushed to find her observing him. She smiled, sighed, and rose to go up to her suite, very soon putting even the winsome Mr. Fox out of her mind in anticipation of a long, hot bath.
    But she found it difficult to soothe away entirely the events of the day, even in a luxuriously fragrant tubful of steaming water, with Louise within earshot and a glass of champagne within reach. Teddy had taught her that trick, saying a warm bath was always more invigorating when accompanied by chilled champagne. It was nonsense, of course, but Maddie had fallen into the habit, and now Louise brought the wine even when she hadn’t asked for it.
    She took a thoughtful sip. Teddy was full of ideas that sounded like nonsense but were not always far from wisdom. He believed life was to be enjoyed, and since Maddie had never had any reason to believe otherwise, she had joined in his games.
     
    #
     
    Teddy had been so eager to initiate her into every pleasure life offered, and Maddie was a willing student from the first heady days of his courtship. He had stood out at once from the rest of her beaux, if only because he really seemed to enjoy coming to see her and doing nothing more when he got there than sitting in the parlor gazing at her. Of course that didn’t satisfy Teddy for long. After he had sized her up and guessed that she was open to a little fun, he began to tease her, trying to lure her into impropriety. He would stand against the parlor wall, where the others could not see him, and make faces or imitate their lovelorn looks, until finally she did laugh, unable to explain why to the others, for as soon as she laughed, Teddy immediately sat down again and behaved himself.
    Soon his games became verbal. He would pass her in me street or sit next to her at someone’s dinner party or dance past her in the Virginia reel and whisper something in her ear to make her blush, innocent compliments at first, then real words of love, then more intimate confessions that she blushed at even as she tried to laugh them away. The truth was that they thrilled her. She would go home at night and remember them, and her body would behave inexplicably at the thoughts that ran through her head. She looked forward eagerly to seeing Teddy again, to hear what outrageously improper thing he would say next.
    When he began to touch her discreetly—still in public, stealing kisses like sugared almonds from the glass dish in the parlor—it seemed only the next step in the courtship. Constance had never told Maddie what she should allow, or not allow, from her beaux, and Maddie did not want to ask now. She was vaguely aware that “nice girls” did not admit to such stirrings as she felt at the things Teddy said and did. So she did not admit them, but she did enjoy them. Teddy’s kisses never went beyond the gently chaste caresses she had seen depicted in romantic paintings—except once, and that had been her doing.
    They had gone with a party of friends for a moonlight cruise on the river, and Teddy had lured her