My Wicked Little Lies Read Online Free PDF Page A

friend where she’d danced with a dashing older gentleman. And while he was quite charming, she had decided then and there that she would not marry simply to survive. Although she had no idea what she would do. When the gentleman, Lord Lansbury, escorted her onto the terrace and said he had a proposal for her, she’d had more than a moment of unease. If she was not going to become a wife to save herself, she was certainly not going to become some man’s mistress.
    She’d been seduced by then, of course, by the first man who had tried. A dreadful mistake and she knew it at the time, but she had fancied herself in love and she had learned a great deal. She’d learn to trust her instincts as well. So when Lord Lansbury said he had an honorable position for a young lady of her background, and a few casual questions around the room confirmed his identity and his credibility, she believed him.
    The next day she went to the address on the back of his calling card, a large mansion not far from her own house. A discreet plaque by the front entry declared it to be the Department of Domestic and International Affairs. She very nearly left then but she had few options as to what to do with her life and decided to hear what Lord Lansbury had to say. She met with him in the very room she had met with Max, as nondescript then as it was now. Before she knew it, she was living the life of an heiress in public all the while ferreting out secrets of those who appeared to the rest of the world to be loyal British subjects. With Celeste by her side and often with Max as well, the course of action and directions issued in writing by Sir.
    Celeste was right; it had been a grand adventure. But it was long over and her life now was all the adventure she wanted. If the price for keeping it was one more assignment for the department—so be it.
    “You’re absolutely right.” Evelyn raised her chin. “There’s no need to fret at the moment. This may come to nothing at all. Max was indeed notorious for his Plan B’s, C’s, and so forth.” She narrowed her eyes. “Annoying beast of a man.”
    “Excellent attitude.” Celeste nodded in satisfaction.
    “Now, then, due to your meeting with Sir Maxwell and your subsequent distress, we are a bit behind today.”
    “You are exceptionally competent, you know.” There was far more to being the Countess of Waterston than most people imagined. That Evelyn handled the position with ease and grace was entirely due to Celeste’s efforts.
    “Yet another role I play well.” Celeste handed her a slim file. “This is today’s correspondence, which includes a few invitations you might want to consider as well as your schedule for tomorrow. Don’t forget you have a meeting of the Ladies’ Literary Society as well as a dressmaker’s appointment.”
    Evelyn nodded. “I shall deal with all this tonight after dinner.”
    “Then I shall be off.” Celeste now resided in Evelyn’s town house, which gave her the privacy to live as she pleased. She rarely mentioned how she spent her evenings, yet another area where Evelyn did not pry. Celeste would tell her what she wished her to know. “I shall see you in the morning.”
    Celeste bade her good day and took her leave.
    Evelyn glanced at the file. Her life might seem staid and even dull to a casual observer, but it was what she had always longed for. She was part of a family with a husband who loved her and, hopefully, one day children of their own. She belonged now. She had everything she’d ever wanted and she would do whatever was necessary to keep anyone from destroying it.
    Even herself.

Chapter 3
    S omething was wrong.
    Adrian Hadley-Attwater, the Earl of Waterston, surreptitiously studied his wife over the top of the book he’d been trying to read. Evie sat at the desk on the far side of the small parlor and allegedly attended to her correspondence. Said attendance punctuated by the impatient tap of her pen and her unfocused gaze out the window