No Proper Lady Read Online Free PDF Page B

price she’d have to pay.

Chapter 5
    Whatever the servants might have thought of “Miss MacArthur’s” curious appearance or of the story Simon had put forward to explain it, they kept very much to themselves. Mathers, Simon’s valet, was the only one who knew him well enough to inquire about the matter. “If I may be permitted to ask, sir,” he began, as Simon dressed after his bath, “how long do you believe that Miss MacArthur will be with us?”
    “I can’t say. She doesn’t remember any family, and she looks like she’d been in the devil of a situation for some time. Unless you’ve heard of any missing women”—Simon paused long enough for Mathers to shake his head—“she’ll stay here for a while.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    Simon nodded, running a hand absently through his hair. By God, it was good to be clean and dry again—and well fed too. He hadn’t realized he was so sharp-set, but he’d attacked dinner thoroughly enough to nearly leave the plates gleaming. Being near death is very good for the appetite, of course. Ask any jailer.
    A quiet cough drew his attention back to Mathers. “Yes?”
    “With your permission, sir, I’ll have one of the maids engage the village dressmaker tomorrow. And the cobbler as well.”
    “Ah. Yes. Good idea.” One, Simon was embarrassed to realize, that had never crossed his mind. He knew very little about the essentials of female life.
    Realizing that made him think of Eleanor—and wonder.
    However aware Ellie had been of the unseen world before her fateful encounter with Alex, she certainly knew about at least a part of it now. Joan would have no need to pretend amnesia with Ellie. Besides, Ellie knew more about women’s life than Simon. She could be a guide where his own experience failed him.
    If she could stand the experience.
    Simon frowned into the mirror. If he could trust Joan to keep quiet about the more alarming parts of her history and about her connection with Alex, the arrangement might benefit everyone. Still, it wasn’t a decision to make lightly, and he was glad that he had at least one task to put behind himself before he could speak to Eleanor.
    ***
    There was some benefit to having a house far too large for its occupants. Simon had taken over the smallest of the bedrooms, in addition to his own suite, and had sent the room’s furniture upstairs for the servants’ use. The gesture had, as he’d hoped, left most of them unwilling to question the source of their luck too closely. He claimed that he used the room to practice fencing. One of these days, he kept thinking, he should buy a foil.
    The room was an airy little place with a good eastern view. The walls were light colored and the floor was bare wood, far from comfortable on a cold and rainy day but most convenient for Simon’s purposes. The only object was a large rosewood chest against one wall. The chest’s contents would have amazed most people, disturbed others, and told all more about Simon than he particularly wanted any of them to know.
    Before Simon took out the key to the chest, he locked the door behind himself and then tried the handle. He’d never seen a spell interrupted, and while quite possibly he would survive unharmed, he preferred not to take chances.
    Once he’d made certain that the room was secure, Simon took a small silver censer from the chest and lit it. The room began to fill with the smell of rosewood almost at once. That was a good sign and one that eased his mind considerably. The day and hour, after all, were less than favorable for the sort of magic he intended.
    The power came easily, though. Simon began to sense it building before he’d done much more than unfasten his jacket. As usual when he’d gone some time between women, he felt the sensual aspects most strongly. By the time he’d undone his trousers, his cock had risen, thick and hard against his stomach.
    He bit his lip and turned his mind sternly to the task ahead of him. Unlike with some of