The Accidental Mistress Read Online Free PDF

around her shoulders and left her serviceable blue wool on. It’s high neck helped to conceal the bruises that had formed around her neck, compliments of his lordships too ready temper.
    She stared at her reflection ruefully. Nothing had gone according to plan but with any luck she would be able to persuade her host to return her to London on the morrow. By now he must have realized the entire thing was foolish. And he would undoubtedly be just as eager to be rid of her as she was to go. It had been a perilous undertaking but at least Sophie had the satisfaction of knowing that Roxburghe would not trouble Alice any longer.
    Standing up, she shook out the skirt of her dress, squared her shoulders and prepared to beard the lion in his den…
     
    Curse all women , Dev reflected sourly, pouring himself another glass of claret. What kind of world made creatures that could be so fair of face and yet possess such black and cunning hearts? By their very nature, women were meant to be tamed, to be possessed and then put aside before they could do any real damage.
    Dev had given his heart once, years before and it had not ended well. He had no intention of ever making that mistake again, which was why he pursued foolish girls like Alice, so sure of their charms that they gave themselves freely. He knew they expected something in return. But he never promised them anything other than what he could deliver.
    He still had a steady hand and knew that, if he spoke, he would be lucid enough but he had indulged in a great deal of wine since he had started drinking several hours before and he was forced to admit, he was well under the weather. Not that it would impair his plans for the evening ahead. Anger had clouded his reason after he had discovered the woman he had taken from Half Moon Street was not Alice Gaskell. So extreme was that anger that he had no very clear idea of what the creature he had brought with him actually looked like, but he was sure he would have remembered if she had been too hideous. He thought, briefly, of how he had reacted, reaching out for the girl’s throat. The memory of how that warm, slender column had felt beneath his hands had driven him to the bottle earlier, shame and anger pushing him on.
    Now, he had convinced himself that she had deserved the rough treatment he had meted out. She was clearly no better than her rapacious cousin. Perhaps, he thought savagely, she had hoped to land him herself.
    Well, if she pleased him, he was prepared to reward her in exactly the same way he had been going to reward Alice.
    An unpleasant smile curved his mouth as he thought of the night ahead. The girl had made her bed and now she must lie in it or, more precisely, she must lie with him for he intended to extract something from this waste of his time. Dev disliked being duped and the knowledge that he had been taken for a complete fool by a couple of shameless harpies burned like fire. The girl upstairs would learn to her cost that it was a mistake to play games with Roxburgh. He raised his glass, draining it while the servants moved around the room at his back silently as they laid the table. They recognized that he was in a temper and were determined not draw his fire until he’d recovered.
    He was also aware of the fact that Mrs. Chambers was not happy with him; she’d made her disapproval quite clear even though she hadn’t said a word. In the past she had always seemed philosophical about his various amours but there was something about this particular adventure that met with her disapproval.
    Dev took another long draught. To hell with Mrs. Chambers. To hell with all women who delighted in making fools of men.
    He did not give a toss about any of them!
     
    Making her way downstairs, Sophie had nothing to guide her but the clink of crockery and she followed the sound into a candlelit dining room. A serving girl came scurrying through a doorway, nodding to her nervously as she passed and Sophie