The Husband Trap Read Online Free PDF Page A

dress, completing the outfit. Settling the fashionable hat upon Violet’s head, Jeannette tied the candy-striped ribbon in a tight, saucy little bow, set off at a stylish angle to one side of her chin.
    Violet waited as Jeannette stepped back to survey her work.
    “Perfection,” her twin declared. “Shame I couldn’t wear that outfit myself at least once. Raeburn is bound to find you quite fetching in it.”
    “Do you think?”
    “Oh, yes, definitely.”
    Violet turned around to take a look at herself in the dressing-table mirror, forced to squint at her image. “I wish I had my spectacles,” she murmured low. “Everything is so frustratingly blurry.”
    “Well, you had best get used to that. Lord knows I would never wear them, not unless forced to, that is.” Jeannette pointed to the eyeglasses perched on her face. “I have been doing a bit of thinking upon that issue. It seems to me that
Violet
may soon undergo a change of heart about wearing her spectacles. In fact, I believe she may soon undergo a change of heart about a great many things. This trip to Italy will do her a world of good.”
    Alarmed, Violet grabbed her sister’s arm. “Oh, Jeannette, don’t do anything rash.”
    Jeannette plucked Violet’s fingers away. “Don’t worry.
Violet
will change ever so gradually. No one will suspect.”
    Her stomach pitched in a long, slow roll, fresh tension slamming her like a hard wave in a raging tempest. Her hands began to perspire. “Perhaps we shouldn’t do this, after all. There is still time to change back, change places again.”
    Her heart sank even as she spoke the words aloud. It would mean losing her chance with Adrian for good. But lying to him was so dreadfully wrong, wasn’t it?
    Jeannette’s face hardened. “There is no changing back. You are the Duchess of Raeburn now.
You
married him, I did not. If you want to be a fool and reveal everything to everyone now, be my guest. But know this, it will all come raining down on your head. The scandal, the disgrace and the punishment. Mama and Papa will likely disown you. At the very least you’ll be sent away somewhere dreadfully remote, Scotland or Ireland perhaps, and never be heard from again.”
    She was right, Violet thought, that is precisely how their parents would react, what they would do. Jeannette would be fine; nimble as a cat, she always landed on her feet. No, she was the one who would reap the brunt of the blame for the deception. She would be seen as the truly guilty party for having agreed to participate in the ruse at all.
    When she’d slipped into Jeannette’s wedding gown this morning and assumed her sister’s identity, she had sealed her own fate. Made a choice from which there could be no retreat. Ever.
    “So put away your guilty conscience and show some pluck,” Jeannette encouraged. “Everything is going well, will go well, as long as you don’t start confessing. Now, come along. Like Mama said, Raeburn’s horses must be growing restive, and he anxious to be off.”
    Violet drew in a deep, rallying breath. She could do this, she repeated silently. Everything would be fine. Forcing her shaking hand to still, she reached for the doorknob.
    A few doors down the corridor, Adrian stood conversing with his brother, Christopher. His words drifted her way. “…since I shan’t be seeing you again before you leave for University. Have a good term and don’t do anything foolish. You are there to study, remember, not drink and carouse to excess.”
    “Don’t worry, brother,” the younger, dark-haired man murmured. “I’ll make you proud.”
    “See to it that you do,” Adrian concluded, not sounding terribly reassured.
    The men turned to watch her and Jeannette approach.
    Just as she had done, Adrian had changed out of his wedding attire into clothes more suited to travel. Coat and trousers of the finest dark blue broadcloth. White shirt and tan waistcoat embellished with a modest gold stripe, his neck cloth tied in