Scandal's Reward Read Online Free PDF Page B

think?”
    Captain Morris leaned forward. “May I?” he said, taking the diamonds. “These must be worth a fortune, Charles.”
    “Before the Revolution my father had considerable wealth, and my mother, they say, was a beauty. The diamonds she wore at the court of Marie Antoinette and sometimes she displayed these pearls entwined in her hair. I remember it. They’re all I have left of her.”
    “Should you not have had these years ago?”
    “Well, of course. But I was under age when I left Lion Court and then I was abroad. I didn’t learn until I came back to London this May that George had seen fit to hold them for safe keeping and would refuse to give them up.”
    Captain Morris turned the diamond necklace over in his hands, blue fire sparking in each facet. “What will you do with them now?”
    “It’s a problem, isn’t it? Slightly odd possessions for a man who is otherwise without a penny to his name. Until I can find a woman who deserves to wear my mother’s jewelry, I rather hoped you would keep them for me in your safe.”
    “Of course.”
    Dagonet wrapped the pearls and gave them, too, to David Morris. The captain stood and laid them carefully away before returning to his chair. “So your cousin just handed you your property without a squeak? I don’t believe it. Surely he had hidden such valuables?”
    “He squealed like a stuck pig, but he couldn’t deny that he had my mother’s things, because they were happily on public display. My aunt and my cousin Charlotte were wearing them. And George himself had graced his burgeoning chest with my father’s French watch and diamond pin.”
    “Good God! I’m surprised you didn’t knock him down.”
    “If Catherine Hunter hadn’t been there, I might have done. Yes, your fiancée’s sister. She appears to have taken a post as companion to Lady Montagu. Why didn’t you tell me, I wonder?”
    “Well,” Captain Morris said, “it’s rather damnable, isn’t it? But she wasn’t involved in all this, was she?”
    Dagonet laughed out loud. “She rather involved herself, I’m afraid. I had to kiss her.”
    Morris leapt to his feet. “You did not! I ought to call you out.”
    Charles turned the considerable power of his attention on his friend. “Why? You know you would die if you did, unless I was foxed enough to merely lie down before your chivalrous onslaught and let you slay me. Besides, I rather believe Miss Hunter can take care of herself. A remarkable young lady! She very nearly called for the butler and ruined everything. I had to stop her.”
    “By kissing her?”
    He shrugged, though he felt less casual about it than he wanted to admit. If he closed his eyes, he could see her slim elegance as vividly as if she still stood before him. Her dark hair had been drawn back in a simple knot which only accentuated high cheekbones and magnificent hazel eyes, lashed like a deer’s. In that moment she had become stunningly lovely, infinitely desirable. Without even trying, she had shaken something in him, too deep for comfort.
    Ruthlessly Charles suppressed the memory of her brave defiance, of her innocent passion, and smiled.
    “Indeed! Anyway, I’m hardly in her good graces. I almost ran her down with my horse on the moor on my way here, and she had not forgiven me.” He stood up in one fluid movement and took up a violin that had been lying on the table. “Not having seen Lion Court in seven years, I regret that I was victim to several rather maudlin sentiments and was unforgivably rude. Now I have compounded it.”
    “Good God, I should think so!”
    “Nevertheless, I do promise you, David,” Devil Dagonet said with a bow, “that I shall not involve you in my sordid affairs any more than I can help it, and I certainly shan’t compromise either Miss Catherine Hunter or her sister.”
    Then, with casual skill, he began to play.
    * * * *
    There was to be no more music at Lion Court that evening. Lady Montagu, proclaiming herself prostrate