My Fair Temptress Read Online Free PDF Page B

him, but he needed to know. “I…I can’t go into society with his lordship. I don’t know if Lady Bucknell made my circumstances clear, but it is impossible.”
    “Lady Bucknell did make your circumstances clear.” He pshawed as if the scandal was of no matter. “If I say you shall go into society, then into society you shall go. Let anyone who disagrees carry their complaints to the duke of Nevett.”
    She stared in fascination at the aristocrat so sure of himself he feared neither society’s censure nor judgment. “Sir, with all due respect for your influence, I’ve found that society will gossip about a single woman who is unprotected by her family regardless of who is her patron, and in fact the higher the prestige of the patron, the greater the delight in the gossip.” She could imagine how Lady Reederman would harrumph, how Mrs. Gibben would hide behind her fan and smile as she spread the most vile rumors conceivable.
    After all, they had done it before.
    With finality, Nevett said, “I need you to accompany my son into society. Every facet of society. How else will you supervise and correct him?”
    The situation was fast escaping Caroline’s control. If she weren’t careful, she lose this position before she even started. “I’ll create situations like the ones he’s going to face at the theater, at balls—”
    “No.” Nevett struck the arm of his chair. “You’ll go with him to the balls and the theater. I depend on you to introduce him to the right young women. The ones who’ll engage his interest. And at the same time you’ll guide him in the correct behavior for a gentleman seeking the delights of matrimony.”
    The very thought of going to a ball made Caroline shudder with horror. To face those outraged matrons with their freezing contempt, those smirking men with their lascivious eyes—she couldn’t do it. Wouldn’t do it. Not even for Lady Bucknell. Not even for this job. “I can’t,” she said faintly. “It won’t work.”
    “I admit it,” he said. “You’re right.”
    She breathed a sigh of relief.
    Like a charging bull, Nevett continued, “You need parental approval bestowed upon you. So I’ll make your father approve of you at once.”
    Had Nevett run mad? “Your Grace, my father and I haven’t spoken since he threw me from his home in a theatrical production worthy of Shakespeare.”
    She might as well have not spoken, for all the notice Nevett took. “We’ll arrange a meeting between the two of you. He’ll speak to you courteously. You’ll answer him with daughterly respect. It will be done.”
    “But…he won’t do it.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous. He’ll do as he’s told.”
    It seemed Nevett had used that phrase already. She tried to think back…ah, yes, he had said that same thing when talking about his son and heir. And, as a matter of fact, about the young ladies who would attend his soirees.
    She pictured her father’s corpulent face, his ingratiating smile. She remembered his fervent desire to lift himself in the ranks of society, in his worship of the aristocratic state.
    His Grace was right. Manfred Ritter would do as he was told.
    “We should easily have this thing wrapped up before the end of the Season.” Now Nevett’s gaze rose to rake her face, and she realized he hadn’t been deep in thought. He had been biding his time. “Miss Ritter, you heard what I said to Huntington. I’ve arranged it so the lad will do his best to learn from you. Now hear what I say to you—I know your circumstances. All of your circumstances.”
    Mortified, she asked, “Your Grace, what does that mean?”
    So he told her.
     
    Caroline went to the servants’ entrance. She rapped softly, and when the door opened, she slipped down the stairs and into the dim, cavernous kitchen below her father’s town house.
    “Miss Caroline, ye’re taking a terrible chance. ’E’s at ’ome.” Cook wrung her hands. “If ’e catches ye, ye know ’ow mean ’e’ll be