Lady Amelia's Secret Lover Read Online Free PDF Page B

begun…” He searched for the right words. “Interviewing applicants.”
    “Interviewing applicants?” She laughed. “Goodness, Robert, I’m not hiring a servant, I’m looking for a lover.”
    “This morning you mentioned advertising in the Times ,” he said in a matter-of-fact manner.
    “This morning you were paying no notice to what I was saying.”
    “And yet I did notice that.”
    “Very good.” She raised her glass to him. “I’m impressed.”
    He stared at her for a long moment, all humor gone from his eyes. “How did we come to this, Amelia?”
    “How? The usual ways, I suppose.” She drew a deep breath. “When I discovered you had a mistress—”
    “When you jumped to the erroneous conclusion that I had a mistress.”
    She ignored him. “I was, needless to say, upset, hurt, and angry.” She glanced at him. “Not unexpectedly, I might add.”
    “Not at all.”
    “However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized infidelity might not be the problem in and of itself, but rather an indication, a symptom, if you will. While I would much rather blame everything on another woman, and you—”
    “Understandably so.”
    “I do suspect that I am as much at fault for the state of affairs between us as you are.”
    His brows drew together. “What state of affairs?”
    “There’s a distance between us that I never dreamed could happen. The passion we once shared appears to have vanished. So if you have sought passion elsewhere…” She shrugged. “As I said, it is as much my fault as it is yours.”
    “It seems to me”—he chose his words with care—“if I agree with you, I am something of a cad. If I disagree, taking this all upon my shoulders, then I am an even greater cad.”
    “Noble, however. If one can be noble and a cad.”
    “I doubt it.” He sipped his brandy. “I don’t feel the least bit noble, and whether I accept full or partial blame, I do feel like a thoughtless cad.”
    She cast him a polite smile. “Then perhaps you should say nothing at all.”
    “Saying nothing at all may well have brought us to this point.” A rueful note sounded in his voice.
    “The point where I am looking for a lover and you do not deny that you have a mistress?”
    His eyes narrowed. “You’re twisting my words.”
    “I know.” She took a sip and gazed at him over the rim of her glass. “It’s great fun.”
    He studied her carefully, and she imagined this must be how he looked at prospective clients, as if assessing the truthfulness of their nature. As if looking into their very souls. Well, she was his wife, and if he didn’t already know what was in her soul, they were worse off than she had imagined.
    “You do realize, as your husband, I am well within my rights to forbid this endeavor of yours.”
    “Why not simply lock me in the attic and be done with it?”
    “Any number of men would.”
    “But I did not marry any number of men, I married you.”
    “And I have failed you.” His gaze met hers, and for the first time in a long time, her heart fluttered. “I wanted to make you happy for the rest of your days, and I have not done so.”
    “I haven’t been especially unhappy.”
    “No, even I would have noticed overt unhappiness. No doubt you’ve simply been…comfortable?”
    “I suppose I have.”
    “Content?”
    “Why yes, for the most part.”
    He shook his head. “I’ve become nothing more than an old shoe for you. Or a well-worn glove.”
    She straightened in the chair. “You most certainly have not.”
    “But there is no longer passion between us. Excitement. A sense of adventure. I bore you. You said it yourself.”
    “I don’t believe I said bored .”
    He waved off her protest. “You needn’t say it aloud; it was implied. I have been derelict in my duty as a husband. By God, I’ve failed as a man!”
    “Don’t be absurd.” She laughed. “Now you’re being as dramatic as your brother, and you are never dramatic.”
    “You intend to take a