Deceived Read Online Free PDF Page B

made her feel all odd and hot and not herself. Because she didn’t like him.
    Except there had been moments when they were sitting together when he’d smiled that she’d sort of…forgotten how much she didn’t like him.
    “Oh, why can he do that to me?” she snapped, happy to be alone outside so she could berate herself in private. “Why?”
    Except she feared she knew why. That little candle she’d burned for him as a girl hadn’t ever fully gone out. Even when she hated him with all she was, she’d still found herself watching him. Just like she had all night tonight.
    “Idiot. I’m an idiot,” she muttered.
    The door behind her opened and Josie tensed as she turned to face the intruder. She truly hoped it wasn’t her mother or, God forbid, Evan himself. But instead Audrey stepped out into the fresh air and Josie found herself smiling. She had not had the pleasure of more than a few moments of her happy friend’s time.
    “Are you running away from your wedding?” Josie teased as Audrey came up beside her and took a long breath of air.
    She laughed. “Oh, heavens no. I’m far too happy to run. I only needed some air. Do you know that the moment you say ‘I do’ they then start harassing you about having babies?”
    Josie shook her head. “Not being married, nor even close to it, I did not know that.”
    Audrey glanced at her. “Well, to be fair, until just a few weeks ago I was no closer to marriage than you are now. And a few months before that Edward would have told you he would never wed again. We are proof positive that you never know what is going to come around the next corner.”
    Josie stifled a laugh. “Oh, please don’t try to tell me that fairytale that my prince is just waiting for me and I haven’t met him yet.”
    “Perhaps you have met him,” Audrey suggested. “You just don’t realize he’s right there.”
    Josie suddenly had the oddest image of Evan standing across the ballroom, watching her from the receiving line at the beginning of the night, but she shoved it aside and tried desperately to find a way to change the subject.
    “I suppose it makes sense that everyone is pressuring you to immediately have a child or eight. We are brood mares, after all. Some of them see our only value as providing more people for the Empire.”
    Audrey’s smile went soft. “Luckily that is not what the man I married thinks.”
    “No, he stares at you like you are a diamond that he must protect,” Josie agreed, and heard the unintentionally wistful sound to her voice.
    Why did she sound like that? She certainly didn’t expect a man like Audrey had found. At twenty-six, the best she could hope for was a man with a bunch of motherless children who was willing to offer her a name or a title in exchange for her help. At the rate she was going, she couldn’t even truly expect that .
    “Yes,” Audrey said. “And I do love him, Josie. I know people have talked about our marriage and wondered why everything went so swiftly. The truth is, I love him so completely.”
    Josie couldn’t help but smile at her friend’s joy and wrapped her arms around her. “Well, you deserve that, Audrey. You deserve it and a lifetime of happiness producing those eight beautiful children Society demands.”
    Audrey giggled at her quip and then both women let out a simultaneous sigh.
    “I wish Claire were here,” Audrey whispered.
    Josie nodded. “I was just thinking the same thing.”
    She almost said more. She almost admitted that she knew Audrey had seen her sister just before her engagement was announced. But that would mean admitting she sometimes heard from Claire. And her friend had made her promise not to do that. Josie kept her promises.
    So instead she merely stood there with Audrey, staring up at the moon above, their arms around each other. When a few moments had passed, Audrey stepped away and her sad smile brightened.
    “You were my sister’s best friend.”
    Josie shook her head. “No, she