Miss Foster’s Folly Read Online Free PDF Page A

honor.”
    “That isn’t funny,” Millie said. “It’s disgraceful.”
    “It’s both, but then something else interesting happened. I just met the strangest man.”
    Jack patted her hand. “Tell Uncle Jack.”
    “An Englishman. He says he’s a marquis.”
    “Derrington,” Jack said. “That scoundrel. No wonder your feathers are all aflutter.”
    She pulled her hand back. “I don’t have feathers, and if I did, he wouldn’t flutter them.”
    “Is he really a scoundrel, Mr. Carter?” Millie asked.
    “No one in Manhattan seems to know of his reputation,” Jack said. “But I have sources overseas.”
    Interesting. Maybe she’d underestimated the English. She could hardly call that man stodgy. He groomed and dressed himself the way other men of her set did. Expensive, but understated. He would have blended into the crowd except for a wicked twinkle in his amber eyes. It had only flashed once or twice during their encounter. She’d thought she imagined it, but if Jack had the story straight, there was more to him than she’d thought.
    “Someone’s intrigued,” Jack said.
    “Hmm?” she said.
    “He’s captured your imagination,” Jack said.
    “He’s a curious sort,” she said.
    Jack laughed. “Maybe that’s what you call it.”
    She glared at him. “All right, let’s have the whole story.”
    “Well, do you know how half the inns in New England say ‘Washington slept here’? Derrington puts the general to shame.”
    “A rake,” Millie said.
    “Of the worst kind.” Jack leaned toward them. “And yet, there’s a mystery to him.”
    “Really?” Juliet said.
    “Word has it that since he arrived in Manhattan, any number of women have expressed interest in an affair of the heart,” Jack said. “He’s turned them all down.”
    “Why would he do that?” she said.
    Jack shrugged. “No one knows. It’s a complete mystery.”
    “Interesting,” she said.
    “Oh, no,” Millie said. “I don’t like that look.”
    “What look?” she said.
    “You’re making plans. I can see the wheels turning in your head.” Millie turned to Jack. “Has she told you her crazy idea for going to Europe, Mr. Carter?”
    Juliet glared at her. “Remember, this trip is for you. You’re ill, Millie. You’re very, very ill.”
    “Honestly.” Millie huffed. “I’ve never been healthier, and you know it.”
    “Juliet?” Jack said. “The truth.”
    “I’ll tell you later. You’ll approve.”
    Millie crossed her arms over her chest. “I doubt that.”
    “And you keep quiet, Miss Tattler.”
    Millie huffed again.
    “Can your sources find out where Derrington’s staying, Jack?” she asked.
    “Juliet, don’t you dare.”
    She shushed Millie and turned to Jack, placing a palm on his chest. “You can find out for me, can’t you?”
    “I can never say no to you, love.”
    ***
    The party for Gerard Foster went into the wee hours, but Derrington spent most of his time searching for the man’s daughter. Not the elder daughter. She was easy enough to find, along with her husband. And her brother and his wife. None of them interested him in the least. Juliet Foster, on the other hand, still occupied his mind even as he undressed and prepared for sleep.
    His valet moved around the room with his usual efficiency and nary a complaint about the lateness of the hour. But then, James had probably put the long evening to good use. With all of New York’s finest at the party, ladies’ maids had spare time and nothing to do with it. No doubt, James had found his way into a young lady’s good graces in one of the other houses.
    Derrington sat on his bed and picked up the letter that had instigated this trip to the wilds of the United States in search of a suitable wife, or perhaps more accurately, an unsuitable one.
    My dearest Bump, it began.
    I’d beg you to visit me again in Italia, but I’ve become reflective in my old age, and I don’t think you’d find the same collaborator in misbehavior I’ve