Indulgence 2: One Glimpse Read Online Free PDF

his friend, Michael Sills, collapsed into a fit of laughter. He was seated on the opposite bench in John’s closed town carriage, his grin as wide as it had been half the morning. In fact, everyone had seemed to be damned pleased with themselves, and now John knew why.
    “So you thought it was amusing for me to stand there asking what happened with Mr. Smith, when all along you knew it was Sir Samuel Shaw? I was unaware that my friends enjoyed making a fool of me.” John turned his eyes to the window.
    “A fool of you? No, no, you don’t see the joke at all.” Michael crossed his legs, clad in the tight buff trousers that were the current fashion. “Any amusement to be had was on Shaw, I assure you. You know everyone , Darny, so not knowing his name was just too much.” He shrugged.
    “Too much amusement?” John submitted. He was not at all pleased to discover that he had unwittingly participated in humiliating someone. Further humiliating someone, for he had heard all about the little incident involving Evers and the broken glass. Elliot Evers was a pompous ass who got far too much enjoyment from the discomfort of others, and it was only worse when he was in his cups.
    “In the future, be so good as to exclude me from such childish displays. I don’t even know the man,” John said. Thinking back on it, he was certain he had seen Shaw around town but had never spoken to him. He probably just moved in different circles, had different interests. A pity, too, since he boasted some of the finest green eyes John had ever seen.
    “Relax, Darny. If you’re feeling guilty, don’t bother. Everyone knows that Shaw is a moody old curmudgeon, more likely to snap at a man than say hello. Don’t worry yourself.”
    “Moody old curmudgeon? If he is more than six and twenty, I’ll eat this glove.”
    “True, and you make my point even all the more. He’s stodgy and dismissive long before he’s of an age for it. He looks at everyone sideways, like some little sneak, and I hear he’s vicious in business dealings. Must be, to have as much money as he does. I tell you, it’s not right for a mere baronet to be so fat in the purse. There are plenty of peers who can’t boast half of what he’s got.”
    Like yourself, Michael? John didn’t utter the thought, thank goodness. Michael had a rather generous allowance from his viscount brother, but every farthing disappeared either at the gambling tables or into the palm of some whore. It was a sore point with the man.
    “There’s a mill Thursday night, set to be a good one, even if the fighters are unknowns,” Michael said, dropping the subject of Shaw like a piece of lint from his coat. “Plan to go?”
    “I may,” John replied, “if nothing else comes up.”
    “If the little wife gives you permission?” Michael chuckled.
    John turned his head sharply but remembered to cool his response just in time. “Lily is no clinger, as you well know. And she hardly keeps me from going wherever I wish.”
    “I don’t doubt it. What I’m saying is that you don’t wish .” He laughed again. “As for her being your mistress rather than wife, well, that’s just sophistry, isn’t it?”
    John pursed his lips in the irritated yet tolerant pose he had learned to perfect whenever his mistress was mentioned. The whole ton knew that Lord John Darnish had committed the ultimate foolish sin of falling in love with his mistress, Lily. He bought her presents constantly, often mentioned her in polite conversation as if he had forgotten she was a fallen woman, and it was known that he even had a daughter by her and spent a fine bit of coin hiring all the best tutors and nurses for her. The whole world knew he was smitten.
    And once upon a time, the whole world knew the Earth was flat.
    “Please,” John replied with a teasing smile. “Don’t give me another display of your foolish jealousy. I’ll never tire of the sweet thing, so you can forget about moving in on my territory some