Enticing the Earl Read Online Free PDF

more ample breasts—he felt another surge of desire at the memory—of a woman, not just of a girl barely out of the schoolroom, and thus he could believe she understood what she was doing with this offer.
    No, he didn’t wish to send her away. He would risk the consequences, dammit all! He was no faint heart, afraid to take the first fence, afraid of what lay beyond—
    When he picked up the bill of lading, he stared at it for a good five minutes before he realized he had no idea what he was seeing.

    The valet was an older man who wore an expression of unqualified disapproval. Lauryn thought his haughty politeness was much more alarming than his master’s. The carriage ride made her tense with nerves, and she was relieved when she could step down at last and enter the couturier’s shop. But then she found she had wasted the ride worrying about Boxel when she should have spent it thinking what she would say to the dressmaker. How did one explain that one had taken up a life of disrepute? Did the dressmaker have some code word for expressing that fact without excessive embarrassment to all concerned?
    A young shop assistant was the first to greet them. “Yes?” Her glance at Lauryn’s shabby black dress made her expression doubtful, as if they did not appear to merit an enthusiastic welcome. “Perhaps you are seeking the shop next door?”
    Lauryn blushed, still not sure how to explain, but she had not allowed for the sheer efficiency, disapproval or not, of her escort.
    Boxel fixed his stern stare on the shop assistant. “This lady is the companion of the Earl of Sutton. I believe Madame duPree will be pleased to assist her? Or should we take our business elsewhere, to the Austrian couturier on Bond Street, mayhap?”
    â€œOh, oh, no, indeed, sir,” the assistant stammered. “You don’t want to go nowhere else. Indeed, she will wish you to stay. If you’ll just step into the fitting room here, ma’am.”
    Boxel was left with a glass of wine, sitting in a gilt chair that looked too fragile for his sturdy frame, and Lauryn was soon measured up, down, sideways, and every other way she could imagine, and shown fabrics of the most delightful hues and textures by Madame duPree herself, as well as not one but two assistants, including the first, formerly supercilious one who now oozed nothing but politeness.
    When Madame heard that they were leaving at once for the country, and speed was highly desirable, she was helpfulness itself. “Fortunately, Madame Smith,” she said, waving her measuring tape as if it were a magic wand. “I have several gowns almost done for customers who are, unlike yourself, not in such a ’urry. The dresses are near your size, and in pleasing colors that will suit your complexion. They can be made over for you with very minor inconvenience, and you will ’ave a few costumes ready to take with you, and then the rest will be sent out for you within a few days, as soon as they can be completed.”
    â€œThat’s very kind,” Lauryn said, a bit taken aback. “But will not your other customers object to—ah—”
    â€œNot at all, they will be delighted to be of service,” Madame duPree predicted with complete lack of guilt.
    And one of the assistants added, in a conspiratorial whisper. “Don’t worry. They won’t know. The earl pays very well, you see!”
    Obviously, the earl had done business here before, Lauryn realized, trying not to blush. With which one of his many conquests? Oh, well, best not to dwell on that. Think instead about the wonderful new gowns she could enjoy. And the ladies she was depriving of their gowns—they would get their dresses, just a bit more slowly, she told herself, as she submitted to having a creamy silk dinner gown dropped over her head and the waist adjusted to her own measurements, while a gold-thread trim was loosened to allow for her