My Lady Scandal Read Online Free PDF Page A

would like some of that Madeira, if you please. One of the bottles I found in the cellar the other day.’
    Emma gave her master a bland look. ‘T’is broke, Sir. Happen’ I dropped the bottle. Clumsy o’ me.’
    ‘What, all three of them?’
    ‘Terrible sorry. Miss. Nell will pour the tea.’ And the woman swept from the room, allowing no more conversation on the subject.
    Nell’s lips twitched. The problem with servants that had been with you practically from birth was that they had none of the due deference that one expected from the average underling. ‘How unfortunate,’ she said sweetly, ‘but I’m sure Mr. Carlisle will not mind tea. Especially at this time of day.’
    ‘I adore tea,’ he agreed with such sincerity that Nell immediately assumed he loathed the stuff.
    ‘There’s always sherry,’ Perry protested.
    ‘The cook drank it,’ Nell returned. She lifted the teapot with an effort that did not show on her face, surely a social grace within itself. It felt as if it were a hundredweight!
    Perry remained silent, although – apart from Emma, who believed spirits of any kind were the work of the devil – they did not actually have a cook. He reluctantly accepted a cup and they sat together in silence for a few moments.
    ‘Well,’ Nell looked at their guest. Despite the fact that he had not seemed to show the slightest interest, she was well aware that he had absorbed his surroundings most thoroughly; a subtle man. ‘Are you staying far from here, My Lord?’
    ‘Not two miles away. Farthingale; do you know it?’
    ‘Nice house, that,’ Perry said, helping himself to a scone. Emma might browbeat him mercilessly, but she made the best scones in England. ‘It belongs to the Audleys, does it not? They very kindly called when we returned from abroad.’
    ‘I’m staying with them for a few days.’ Carlisle smiled at Nell and she returned it, wondering what his intentions were.
    It must be admitted that he had a wickedly attractive smile; quite sinfully attractive, really. That, along with an aquiline nose, a full, strong mouth and that fine pair of eyes, made him quite delicious and she could not recall the last time she had seen such a handsome man. He must have heard all manner of things about the eccentric Marriotts. Had his horse really thrown a shoe, or had that just been an excuse?
    ‘Tell me, if I am not impertinent; will you be in mourning for many more weeks?’ His eyes rested on Nell’s simple mauve cambric gown. She was glad she had put it on that morning. At least she looked as if she were still observing a period of half-mourning. ‘The neighbors are most anxious to make your acquaintance.’
    ‘Actually, my sister and I were discussing that very thing when you arrived. We are planning to start attending local events,’ Perry replied cheerfully. ‘In fact, we are most eager to meet people. It has been a solitary time for us. I was worried my poor Nell would fall into a decline.’
    Nell blinked; a decline? She lowered her eyes to the floor – hopefully, much as a frail female bordering on a decline might do – and wondered if Perry might like his ears boxed. ‘It has been a difficult time for us,’ she agreed softly.
    ‘I understand.’ Carlisle’s own tone was suitably grave. ‘Where were you staying on the continent when the – was it an accident?’
    ‘A carriage accident in Italy,’ Perry supplied. No need to fill in the sordid details of their father’s gambling career or the fact that, at the time of the accident, he and their mother were being pursued by a discontented card-player and his cadre of friends, who had been out foxed by the wiliest fox of all, Thomas Marriott. They had been traveling too fast and the road had too many bends. In the space of five minutes, Perry and Nell had become orphans.
    ‘How tragic. But life goes on, yes? I think it would be a dreadful pity for somebody as lovely as your sister to languish here without admirers,’ Carlisle