Tempting the Heiress Read Online Free PDF Page A

alighted!”
    Turning away, Amara fixed her attention on a twelfthcentury lance. She bit her tongue, hoping the pain would arrest the laughter burning her throat. Her dear cousin had indeed been a sight, flailing and screeching about the room trying to remove the curious insects. Perhaps it was horrid of her, but she could not think of another individual so deserving of an infestation.
    “Although I find their evening chirr pleasant, they can be destructive little pests.”
    Aghast, Miss Novell said, “Only you would find something noteworthy about the unremarkable. Your mama believes your dabbling with that little charity—oh, what is it called? The Benevolent Sisterhood? She fears it has made you shamefully provincial. I have lost count of the numerous occasions upon which she has expressed her disappointment.”
    “I do not doubt it. I fear her condition is terminal,” she said lightly, ignoring the tightening in her chest. Her mother was never one to suffer in martyred silence. Amara was all too aware of her numerous grievances. What she found nettlesome was that her mother considered this poor relation nonesuch. Miss Novell’s father had sent her to London for the season in hopes that her beauty and connection to the Keyworth title would secure his daughter a respectable marriage. A sad tale, indeed, and Amara sympathized with the impoverished bookseller who had five daughters to marry off. It was regrettable that her young cousin was an opinionated,
devious harpy. Their uncomfortable situation was becoming insufferable.
    “What providence stumbling across my most devoted sister.”
    The amiable masculine voice reverberated about the large exhibition hall, commanding everyone’s attention. Amara could not help admiring her brother’s commanding presence, even when she dreaded being the focus of his attention. Bidding farewell to his male companions, Mallory Claeg strode purposefully toward them. She supposed most thought him a handsome gentleman, a tall imposing figure with eyes a blue hue lighter than her own. He wore his brown hair longer than most, and he had hastily tied it back as if he could not be troubled with it. Always the artist, he had his sketching journal tucked under his arm. She noticed his hands were bare.
    “Amara!” Dropping his journal, he swept her into a crushing embrace and spun her as he had when she was a child. Distance and eight years stretched between them, so she assumed deviltry more than affection motivated her older sibling. Allowing Amara to regain her balance, Mallory shifted his gaze from her face and lingered on their cousin’s. “And who is your companion?”
    Wary of his interest, she declared, “Our cousin, Miss Pipere Novell. Miss Novell, this is my brother, Mr. Mallory Claeg.”
    Bowing, he said, “Miss Novell, pray ease my heart and tell me you are a distant relation. Very distant.” Not diverting his focus, he retrieved his journal from the floor.
    Amara was amazed. Mallory’s flirtatious nature had actually flustered their beautiful cousin.
    “M-my father is the son of your great-uncle through Lord Keyworth’s lineage. That makes us—”

    “Temptingly distant, it appears,” he murmured. It was obvious to Amara he was silently contemplating the wicked possibilities.
    She decided intervention was required or her mother would blame her for the paragon’s ruination. “You are too young for her, brother. And she is too poor for you.” She did not acknowledge her cousin’s unintelligible protest. “Her papa has high hopes of matching her with a respectable gentleman.”
    “You wound me, sister. I turned thirty last month and Miss Novell—”
    “Is far too old for you even at the tender age of twenty. Come, Miss Novell, allow me to rescue you from this bounder’s clutches before he begs you to pose as his Helen.”
    Unrepentant, Mallory followed after them and said to Amara, “I am more inspired to paint you as Eris, my fractious goddess of discord.”