The Courtesan's Daughter Read Online Free PDF Page B

fingers toying with the strand of pearls at her throat, “I have done what you have deemed impossible. I have arranged a marriage for you.”
    “You have? When? With whom?”
    “I have, just now, with Lord Ashdon, heir to the Earl of Westlin. A tidy match, wouldn’t you agree?”
    Caro walked toward her mother, the pearled light of London casting gentle light upon them both. “He offered for me?”
    “We have reached a marriage arrangement.”
    That was rather too carefully worded for comfort.
    “He did not approach you?”
    Sophia shrugged and turned from Caro to walk over to the fireplace where she fussed with the arrangement of tulips there. As a very strict rule, Sophia did not fuss.
    “How was this arrangement proposed?” Caro asked.
    “If you must know, he had some outstanding debts, which I covered, and now, well, darling, I hoped you’d be happy. I paid his debts and now he is going to marry you. Isn’t that lovely? You could hardly wish for a better match, and he is both young and handsome enough to credit you.”
    “You bought me a husband?” Caro sputtered.
    “Yes. Isn’t it delicious?” Sophia said smoothly, smiling in delight. “And he’s all yours. Now, I was thinking that the wedding could be six weeks from Tuesday. Wouldn’t Denmark be lovely for your honeymoon? ”
    “Mother, I am not going to marry a man you had to buy for me!”
    “Why ever not?” Sophia said. “How else do you think marriages are made if not on a solid financial foundation?”
    “Not everything is about money!”
    Sophia laughed. “And you thought to be a courtesan? Darling, you obviously don’t have the necessary commercial interests that drive such an enterprise. Best you marry and see to producing lots of lovely grandchildren for me.”
    “I am not going to marry him,” Caro said stiffly, staring her mother down.
    Sophia was not in the habit of being stared down and she gave every appearance of being disinclined to learn.
    “But I’ve already paid for him,” Sophia said. “He’s yours, darling, all you need to do is simply collect him.”
    “Then you’ll have to return him, or whatever it is one does with unwanted … merchandise!” Caro snapped.
    “Well,” Sophia said, a mild scowl forming between her brows, “I certainly never anticipated this. I suppose I shall have to tell him, or would you rather?”
    “No, I think you should do it. I should die of shame to look at him.”
    “Now, Caro, are you completely certain this is what you want, because I don’t think I can possibly arrange to buy another husband for you. This took quite a bit of effort and planning and just plain good fortune on my part.”
    “Mother, please . Just do it. Make him go away. I’d like us both to pretend that this never happened.”
    “If that’s what you want,” Sophia said, shaking her head ruefully and walking toward the bedroom door. “But I will not tolerate any more of your ridiculousness about becoming a courtesan. I forbid you mention it again, do you understand?”
    “Yes, Mother,” Caro said serenely. “I promise to never mention it again.”
    Which, of course, wasn’t at all to the point.

Six
    “I’M sorry, Lord Ashdon, but she just won’t have you,” Sophia said.
    The daughter of a courtesan would not have him ? Was this the world as it was meant to run? It was most definitely not.
    “Pardon me, madam?” he said crisply, standing almost at attention in her famed white salon. As the story went, Sophia had once been gifted with a rare and priceless porcelain cup, fully two hundred years old, out of the depths of mysterious China. The blanc de Chine cup was worth a tidy fortune and the room had been designed to showcase it. Only those few who had danced their way into the next level of intimacy were allowed into the white salon. The parquet floors were waxed to a dark sheen, like a lake at midnight, while her furnishings were all of milk blue damask and ice white velvet, ice floes on a winter