Murder While I Smile Read Online Free PDF Page B

deep distrust. “She might have arranged to have Yarrow there to authenticate the original Poussin, then slip you a copy today when you go back,” she said to Coffen:
    Luten’s thin lips parted in an anticipatory smile. “In that case, I had best go with you, to make sure she don’t fleece you,” he said.
    It was exactly what Corinne had feared. The comtesse was a magnet, drawing men to her. To object would reveal her rampant jealousy to Luten, to say nothing of bringing Reggie’s contumely down on her head. Luten would not want her to go with him. Reggie, on the other hand, would push for it to bring Chamaude into fashion. She would go, if she had to tag along behind in her own carriage. She would not let that man-eating Frenchie get her talons into Luten.
     

Chapter Four
     
    “We were to go for a drive this afternoon, Luten,” Corinne reminded her beloved.
    “Of course. We’ll go now,” Luten replied, with just a wisp of impatience. “I’ve sent for my carriage. What time do you plan to pick up the painting, Coffen?”
    “I didn’t set a time, but some wine merchant is to look at it today. I wouldn’t want him to beat me to it.”
    “Then we shall go to Yvonne’s first, and I’ll return for our drive shortly, Corinne,” Luten said. A certain something in her eyes caused him to add with unusual thoughtfulness, “If that is all right with you, my pet?”
    “Why don’t I go to Chamaude’s with you and we can continue from there? I’ll get my bonnet,” she said, and darted out of the room before he could object.
    She heard his objection perfectly well from the hallway, however. “You take her for a drive, Reg,” Luten said.
    “I? I know as much about art as you. More! I’ll go to Chamaude’s and make sure the painting is original. You go ahead for your drive with Corinne.”
    When she realized Luten was trying to get rid of her, she had no compunction about lingering at the mirror by the open doorway, ostensibly arranging her bonnet, but with her ears on the stretch and her heart pounding angrily in her chest.
    “I don’t want Corinne calling on Yvonne,” Luten said.
    “What harm can befall her when she is with us?” Reggie parried.
    “Dammit, a woman like Yvonne is no fit friend for her. You shouldn’t have taken her there yesterday.”
    “I did not take her,” Reggie said. “It was Coffen.”
    “Didn’t know at the time there was anything wrong with the comtesse,” Coffen said.
    Sir Reg saw that Corinne’s jealousy was succeeding in forwarding the comtesse’s entr é e into Society where an appeal to humanity had failed. “We don’t know there is anything wrong with her,” he said. “I think if the Berkeley Brigade took her up, she’d be accepted anywhere.”
    “I suppose there’s no getting out of it now. Ah, there you are,” Luten said, smiling as Corinne came in with her bonnet tied and her pelisse over her arm. She sensed that the warmth of his return had already cooled noticeably.
    “It shouldn’t take long to buy a picture,” she said, looking at him from eyes bright with suspicion. “We will be on our way for that drive in no time.” She handed Luten her pelisse, and he helped her put it on.
    His carriage had arrived when they went to the doorway. They had only to wait a moment while Prance darted home to pick up a few spare copies of the Rondeaux. The four entered the carriage, and they were off to Half Moon Street. While the roué butler went to inquire if Madame was “at home,” Corinne pointed the Watteau fête champêtrepainting out to Luten.
    “Now, if it were that painting Coffen was buying, I would not object,” she said. “Lovely, is it not?”
    “Charming. I’ll ask her what she wants for it.”
    “Oh, it is not for sale. I’ve already inquired.”
    The butler returned within seconds to admit them. The comtesse sat alone in her elegant little saloon, reading by the light of one lamp and looking extremely demure and pretty in a dark green