Seduction in Mind Read Online Free PDF Page A

seduction was just beginning, and glancing out the window, he took note of the position of the sun in the sky. The races would be starting soon at Ascot, the entire week scheduled with prestigious races, the Season bringing all of society to the track.
    Including Miss Ionides, if he didn't miss his guess.
    Rising from his chair, he walked to the bellpull and rang for a servant. He needed a bath.
    His butler walked into his bedroom a second later, not in response to his summons—with a message instead.
    "There's someone to see you, sir."
    Owens's tone was such that Sam's gaze turned wary. "Who?"
    "Your mother, my lord."
    "At this damned hour?" Already bad-tempered and moody after his dissatisfying night, the last person Sam cared to see was his mother. "Does she know I'm home?"
    "She saw your hat and gloves on the console table."
    The viscount swore. "I don't suppose you could tell her I was sleeping?"
    "She ordered me to wake you, sir."
    The viscount swore again. "Don't send her up." His voice was brusque. "I'll come down."
    "She's in the breakfast room, sir, having her breakfast."
    "While she's ruined mine," Sam said.
    The butler glanced at the glass of cognac the viscount held in his hand, his expression bland. "A shame, sir, but she wouldn't be deterred."
    "Is she ever?"
    It wasn't a question that required an answer, or certainly not one by a servant.
    "Tell her I'll be down in ten minutes," Sam said curtly.
     
    When the viscount entered the breakfast room a half hour later, bathed, dressed, and more tranquil for the three additional drinks he had imbibed, he was able to say "Good morning, Mother" with a modicum of courtesy.
    "Your chef burned my toast," his mother noted irritably.
    "I'll have him fired on the spot."
    "I see your caustic sense of humor is undiminished."
    "You're up early," he replied, not about to trade insults. He and his parents agreed on very little; they saw each other less. And if his mother was calling on him at what was for her the crack of dawn, she brought trouble for certain. He remained standing.
    "I came to remind you of our dinner party tonight."
    "I'm sorry. Did my secretary send an acceptance?"
    "Of course he didn't, and that's why I'm here. Clarissa Thornton will be there with her parents, and I wish you to attend. The earl and countess always ask for you, and their land borders our Yorkshire estates."
    "And their daughter is angling for a husband."
    "You needn't be so crass, Samuel. Is it a crime for a beautiful young woman to wish to marry well?"
    "Just so long as it's not to me."
    "The Thornton family goes back well before the Norman invasion. Their bloodlines are as pure as ours. No taint of industry stains their heritage, nor does the stench of new money—"
    "You may stop, Mother. I've heard the lecture a thousand times more than I wish, and the taint of industry or new money doesn't concern me. Nor does Clarissa Thornton." His smile was tight in spite of the fact that he was well sedated with cognac. "Is that clear enough?"
    The Countess of Milburn sat up straighter, her blue gaze cool. "I told your father you would be obstinate as usual."
    "You should have listened to him and saved yourself a trip to
Park Lane
so early in the morning."
    "Your marriage to Penelope has left you bitter."
    "Your persistent efforts to marry me off then and now have left me bitter, Mother. Kindly stop interfering in my life. Penelope was a disastrous mistake I have no intention of repeating."
    "You shouldn't have been so cruel to her, and she would have been perfectly content."
    A tick appeared high on his cheekbone and he restrained his temper with difficulty. "In the interests of peace in the family—however strained—let's not discuss Penelope. You know nothing about the matter."
    "I know perfectly well what her mother told me. You treated her abominably."
    "No, I did not," he said, his voice taut.
    "She loved you to distraction."
    "No, she did not." The tick was more pronounced.
    "You don't know