Secrets of a Scandalous Heiress Read Online Free PDF

confession to make.”
    Emily raised herself to one elbow. “That you’re pretending to be a widow named Mrs. Flowers? Or is there something else you wish to confess?”
    A glove shook free and fluttered to the floor. “Uh. I. Yes, that’s—that’s basically all.”
    â€œBasically all,” Emily repeated. “All right. I can be satisfied with that.”
    â€œHow did you know?”
    The countess gave an airy wave. “I bestirred myself to the Pump Room this morning to try the famous mineral water and thought I’d sign the guest book while I was there. The master of ceremonies informed me that my young friend had already seen to the matter and showed me the entry.” She frowned. “The water is quite nasty, by the by. It looks like old milk and smells like old eggs. I must assume something so foul is doing my health some good.”
    â€œYes,” Augusta said vaguely. Anything she said might be too much, now that Emily knew Augusta had taken advantage of the countess’s benevolence.
    â€œShall I ask why you are passing under a false name?” Emily’s light eyes caught Augusta’s for just a moment before Augusta bent, scrabbling for her fallen glove. Coward . “No, I shan’t press you. We all need to flee ourselves sometimes. Though if you wish to tell me what has caused your flight, I shall be glad to hear it.”
    The second unexpected kindness of the evening, following Joss Everett’s insistence that he would keep her secret. Which was, apparently, not nearly so much of a secret as it ought to have been.
    Now, and many a time before, the countess would have been within her rights to cut Augusta’s acquaintance. But Emily’s goodwill was unstinting.
    â€œThank you, ma’am. I suppose I did need to flee myself, and becoming a widow seemed as good a way as any to do that.” Augusta straightened, glove in hand, and blurted, “Do you ever regret marrying Lord Tallant?”
    The young countess leaned back against the settee again, her gaze drifting to the plaster roundel on the ceiling, then to the fireplace. “I don’t think,” she began slowly, “there’s an honest woman alive who doesn’t sometimes regret her marriage. Human beings can be so irritating, and when both spouses are irritating at once—well.” She smiled. “But I am fortunate not to be troubled, as so many are, by financial worries or by mistrust of my husband. So the irritating moments pass, and we are still married, and I am glad of it. The permanence of marriage is one of its finest qualities, if one is married to a good man.”
    And if one was not… marrying a bad man would make a prison of each day. How could a woman ever know? A man could fake a smile indefinitely, unless some accident forced him to show his true face.
    It was better to leave marriage to women with less money and more power. A false widowhood was quite enough for Augusta.
    â€œOught I to worry about you? Are you troubled by regrets?” Emily’s voice was quiet.
    â€œNo more than usual.” Augusta made herself smile, meeting her friend’s eye. A quick image of Joss flashed into her mind, how he had appeared regretful as he declined her offer. She was unsuited to a dishonorable liaison, he thought.
    Yet once Colin Hawford had thought her unsuited to an honorable one. So really, she was suited for…nothing. Always, she had been in between. Caught between trade and society, between the life she’d been born to and the one her parents wanted her to have.
    We all need to flee ourselves sometimes , said Emily. Yet Joss had insisted there was no way to do so; that Augusta was still herself, no matter how she might pretend to be a merry widow. And if he was right, there was nowhere she could go to get away. No name she might adopt that would let her be free.
    Enough. Enough. She had dwelled on this enough for