Edith Layton Read Online Free PDF Page A

confusion. “All right. But we have to talk this thing out. I can’t be known as a flirt! It’s all very well for young ladies of fashion to step over the line. They can cuddle in the shrubbery all night and everyone looks the other way. They’ve got pedigrees to back them up. I’ve only myself. I don’t want to bring gossip down on the Sinclairs and my sister.”
    “It’s absurd,” Damon muttered. “It was only a kiss.”
    “I don’t mean yours!” she said angrily. “I mean what Dearborne said. All they have to do is start thinking I’m ready for a bit of pinch and tickle in the shadows and it’s all over for me!”
    He laughed. “Don’t worry. We made Dearborne look like the cad he is.”
    “By saying we’re engaged,” she said through gritted teeth. “By lying about those letters. By—”
    “By acting as though we are engaged. I won’t find it a hardship, if you won’t.”
    She eyed him suspiciously. “But you’re looking for a wife, or so they all say.”
    He raised an eyebrow.
    “Well, a person hears gossip even if she don’t add to it,” she said hurriedly, “but if that is true, being tied up with me won’t help you much.”
    “We can untie when the Season is over,” he said reasonably. “There’s always another. I’m not exactly ancient, you know. There are other Seasons left for me. I may act old and wise,” he added, grinning, “but, in fact, I have only eight and twenty years to my name. And you?”
    “Oh. I’m just turned twenty.”
    “Congratulations. Now, I suggest we carry on as though we had something to carry on about. I’ll take you for drives in my carriage—which reminds me, I’d better buy one. What colors do you like? We can discuss that later. Any rate, I’ll escort you to balls, the opera, the theater, anyplace you’d like to go. I’m newly returned, newly retired from my work, there are many things here in London I want to do. You’ll see. This will be a pleasure if we play it right.”
    She stared at him, stricken. “You’re newly retired from work? But I don’t even know what you did—or where you come from, apart from having just returned, as they all said. Don’t you see? I don’t know a thing about you.”
    “Easy enough to remedy. For a start, I originally come from near Dover, but I’ve just returned from America. I went to make my fortune. I did. I traded English goods, chinaware and silver, for American furs and sugar…there’s too much to tell in a stolen moment on a terrace. But see? Don’t be afraid we won’t have conversation. There’s so much we can talk about. I spent two years abroad and saw a whole new world filled with wondrous things, but nothing prettier than you.”
    She scowled. “Well, if we’re going to get along I have to tell you right off I don’t want compliments. Unless saying them gives you pleasure, you might as well cutline. Because they don’t do anything for me. I don’t believe them, nor trust them neither. No reason a man has to keep pouring butter over a person just because she’s a female. It’s annoying, to tell the truth. Well, you’re a handsome sprig. How would you feel if I kept telling you how beautiful you were instead of talking sense?”
    “W ould you?” he asked, entranced, “Oh, wonderful. It’s been so long since anyone composed a sonnet to my eyes. And I can’t tell you how long it’s been since anyone even spoke of how pure my skin is, not to mention how they’ve neglected commenting on my hair!”
    She couldn’t help it, she laughed. He was very pleased. “Now, I return you to the viscount,” he said, offering her his arm. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow morning. Don’t worry. We’ll stay engaged until the need for it is gone, and it doesn’t trouble me, nor should it bother you. Unless,” he said on a sudden thought, his face suddenly serious, “I hadn’t considered…what a clunch I am. Is there someone you’re attached to? Do you think this fiction of ours will