The Accidental Courtesan Read Online Free PDF Page A

runaway courtesans. Eva helped the women change into respectable young ladies and matched them with husbands.
    While Eva was away, Noelle had promised to check on the women and make sure they were settled in for their stay. How could she know such a simple task would change so quickly into a crime caper?
    Fatigue weighed heavy on her as she slumped into the nearest chair and closed her eyes. But the scandalous night had left her nerves frayed.
    She’d actually kissed a stranger, a married stranger, and enjoyed his caresses. Immensely. Even now, her nipple budded against her chemise with the memory of his hands running over her body and tugging at that very same nipple.
    Fire burned her face. She’d not only kissed him, she’d cupped his erection, caressed the most private part on a man. Never once had she experienced more than a chaste kiss on the cheek or hand from a suitor. Though her strokes had been delivered under the guise of a courtesan, she didn’t feel any less troubled by her behavior.
    She so desperately wished her sisters were in London! They would certainly know how to distract her from her lascivious thoughts and direct her attention elsewhere.
    What they could not do was settle the aches the very married earl’s attention had caused in her body. Or erase the shameful actions she’d committed to keep herself and Bliss from arrest.
    Noelle dropped her face into her open palms and groaned. Thankfully, he was gone from her life. Forever, surely.

Chapter Three

    N oelle decided that a shopping excursion was just what she needed to get her mind off the unavailable earl. There was no need to dwell on last evening when she would never see him again. Yet Noelle didn’t feel entirely calm. Though Bliss had promised not to seek out the earl, some anxiety over the whole situation remained. Spending an enormous amount of money on new gowns would certainly turn her thoughts in a more frivolous direction.
    Her cousin Brenna Harrington had recently returned to London and was in residence at her family’s Berkeley Square manor. Noelle sent a note asking Brenna to meet her at Madame Fornier’s dress shop for a day of shopping. She changed into a simple blue day dress and set off with plans to think of nothing but gowns and hats for the rest of the day.
    Brenna was one of the three blackest sheep in the Harrington family, a family that had, through the years, an entire flock of black sheep to choose from. Having been born to—gads!—the daughter of a common Irish mother and a rapscallion Harrington father, the three were seen as untamed by the Ton. One could rob coaches, or run off with a married lover, or throw oneself off the Tower of London over a broken romance, but one didn’t dare marry an Irish commoner.
    Uncle Walter had fallen instantly and madly in love with a dark-haired beauty, Kathleen, while visiting Dublin with friends, and wed her nearly on the spot. The tumultuous thirty-year marriage produced Simon, Gabriel, and Brenna, all of whom shared their mother’s coloring and fiery temperament.
    In spite of their inauspicious beginning, Noelle’s aunt and uncle were still happily squabbling.
    â€œThere you are, Noelle.”
    Noelle watched Brenna alight from the carriage, a picture of loveliness in a pale green day dress that matched her eyes. The cousins kissed cheeks and shared a brief embrace. After the turmoil she’d been through, Noelle took comfort in the presence of her cousin.
    Brenna looked her over. “I do love you in blue.”
    â€œI thank you, but it is you, my dearest Brenna, who makes heads turn.” Noelle discreetly indicated a young man in a sensible brown coat and trousers staring at her beautiful cousin. “That poor man nearly tripped over Lady Pemberley’s pooch while craning his neck to get a look at you.”
    Brenna sent him a flirtatious look and the poor fellow turned a bright shade of red, obviously shamed to be