The Ghost Who Loved Me Read Online Free PDF Page B

divan, watching his companion model the new wardrobe delivered from the tailor that afternoon.
    Simon stayed in luxurious rooms rented under an assumed name to hide the connection between them. He enjoyed being kept by the Duke of Westerleigh, and lived in opulent splendor here for the last year.
    Simon met Edward’s blue eyes in the mirror as he removed the coat and tried on another. “Does she agree to your plan? What have you threatened the lady with now? It’s dreadful the way you torment the poor creature, Edward.”
    Edward rolled his eyes, taking a pinch of snuff from a silver case. “Elizabeth will do as she is told. Just get her with child quickly so we can settle all of this and be gone from here.”
    “And you will not mind me going to her bed? Won’t you be jealous to know I stick my cock into her and not into you?” Simon stared at him in the mirror, his handsome face filled with mockery. “I shudder to even think of it.”
    Edward smiled fondly. “When my heir is born, we will leave England and travel the world to our leisure, Simon. We will have more money than we know what to do with. We will be free of this place. But it is my obligation. Mama insists I beget an heir before I do anything rash. For that alone we must see this through. I’ll not give my dead father the satisfaction of allowing Cousin William to inherit my title.”
    “Why must it be me to bed the bloody woman?” Simon made a face of disgust in the mirror as he tugged the coat off and selected another. “Her Ladyship has little fondness for me, I should think. And I’ve not lain with a female in years. I quite forgot how to do the deed, come to think on it. Do not blame me if I fail to rise to the occasion.”
    “Who else can I trust to sire my heir? Who else would not seek to blackmail me for the rest of my days?” Edward wore a pained expression. “I could not manage it. Even on my wedding night I couldn’t do it, as lovely as she is. I see no other solution in sight or we are done for.”
    “Certainly, I will do my best. But what if Lady Elizabeth makes trouble? What if she accuses me of defiling her? I would be clapped into prison for what you ask!”
    “She can do nothing but allow it,” Edward informed him coldly. “She thinks her family and her lover’s futures depend upon her silence. The little fool believes everything she is told. Her father is no more a thief than mine was. The man makes his money in common trade. He hides it from his wife. Lady Camden is a dreadful snob who abhors the idea of her husband dirtying his hands. She was overheard by my mother questioning the many crates of liquor Lord Camden kept stored in the stables. They weren’t on the list the butler was checking. Mama jumped to the wrong conclusion but it gave me an idea. Elizabeth has always been naïve. She believed every word I said of that, without ever confronting her father. She will stay silent of this, I’m sure.”
    Simon turned this way and that, admiring the coat’s fit. “Is Wakefield truly engaged to an American heiress or did you make that up too? Your Elizabeth is starting to sound more the twit by the moment. If it were me, I would have seen through you in an instant, my love.”
    Edward rolled his eyes and chuckled at his lover’s jest. “I don’t wish to test Wakefield’s affections for Elizabeth. While it’s true he meets with a Boston banker and I learned the wife and daughter are travelling with the man, it is not as she thinks. Wakefield is merely investing his inheritance. That is all it is about.”
    “How do you come by such information? I find it fascinating how a man who never goes out in society knows all of what goes on.”
    Edward shrugged his narrow shoulders. “My wife’s servant is fast friends with Lady Wakefield’s maid. She informs for me on occasion. The lady talks too much. She bragged of her third son becoming rich with his successful investments in America. The maid overheard Lady Wakefield