Masquerade Read Online Free PDF

asking after Lottie, he appraised Dora’s attire. “Where is your cap and apron?”
    An explanation would take too long and would not be understood. “Flung to the wind in a fit of freedom,” she said.
    “Excuse me?”
    She strode to the door. “No, excuse me. Miss Charlotte is waiting.”
    Mr. Davies called after her. “You’ll have to pay for those.”
    As Dora headed upstairs to Lottie’s room she heard a commotion coming from the drawing room.
    “I demand an explanation!” Lottie shouted.
    Dora paused on the steps, wanting to hear. But when Lady Gleason closed the doors, Dora continued up the steps. She’d hear the details soon enough.

    “Do calm yourself, daughter,” her father said. “We shan’t talk to you when you’re in such a state.”
    “I’m in such a state because of you.”
    “Watch yourself …”
    It was good advice. Lottie knew her parents and knew the way to handle them was through gentle persuasion, not outright confrontation. While moving to a chair, she caught sight of herself in the mirror above the fireplace. She looked like a crazed hag escaped from some asylum. She patted her hair for hairpins, but finding only one intact, secured just one hank of hair. It was a single bandage on a gaping wound.
    She let the hair be and sat down. With great effort she calmed her breathing and the beating of her heart. “No one came to my party.”
    Her mother raised a finger. “Didn’t Suzanna—?”
    “Oh yes. Suzanna came—for a moment. I understand there were other regrets? Notes received?”
    Her mother pulled at the lace on her handkerchief. “A few.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you continue with the preparations and let me anticipate and wait?”
    “I …”
    Her father took over. “Check your tone, daughter. Your mother meant well.”
    Mother nodded. “I hoped some would still come and—”
    “And you didn’t want to face the reason why they weren’t coming,” Lottie said.
    “Fickle rumors,” her father said.
    A sliver of hope split open the rock of her worry. “So the rumors are false? My friends are mistaken?” she asked.
    He walked to the fireplace and hit the bowl of his pipe against its stones, emptying it. “It’s true we have suffered a series of financial setbacks.”
    “Ralph implied there was some …” How could she say it? Should she say it? “Some impropriety?”
    Lottie watched her father’s face redden. “I assure you I meant no harm. The deal seemed legitimate and …” He fiddled with his pipe, then retreated to his favorite chair.
    He focused only on the financial. Was he choosing this lesser evil over the other, more lurid, sin? Yet Lottie couldn’t bring it up in a blatant manner—for her mother’s sake. “Ralph mentioned something else, another more personal issue.”
    Her father avoided her gaze—and that of his wife. “I don’t know what to say. I—”
    Her mother moved to her usual place behind her husband’s chair. “Do you see why it’s so important you marry well—marry Conrad Tremaine?”
    How could Mother be so forgiving? Her husband’s infidelity had been revealed for all the world to gawk at and whisper over. Where was her pride? Her dignity?
    And yet, seeing her parents united in spite of everything … Suddenly the world fell into place and one plus one equaled two. If her parents could marry Lottie off to a rich American, it would give the appearance that the Gleasons were still a well-respected family. It would also help hide their financial difficulties.
    “We didn’t seek this arrangement for you, daughter,” Father said. “But when this current downturn began, and then the murmurings of this other situation began to brew, it coincided with your uncle George’s return from New York City after meeting the Tremaines. He was the one who brought forward the idea of uniting our two families. We appreciate the financial stability of the Tremaines’ rising fortunes, and they are enamored with the thought