The Improper Wife Read Online Free PDF

with a glimpse of her ample bosom, giving him the bizarre thought that the last breast he’d seen had had a baby attached to it. He suspected that was not the image she’d intended to invoke.
    The girl brought a bottle and a second glass. Gray nodded his thanks to her. He poured for his cousin.
    Harry held the glass up to what scanty light was available and cautiously peered at its contents.
    “So what brings you here?” Gray asked.
    “Well you know, Gray”—Harry took a wary sip, raised his brows in surprised approval, and followed it with another bolder one—“I have in my care a young lady and an infant, and I came to inquire what you intend to do about them.”
    Gray gazed lazily at his cousin, the twitch in the corner of his mouth betraying an amused irony. “Do about them? I thought myself rather clever to fob them off on your good-hearted wife.”
    “Just so,” Harry muttered.
    “They are not my responsibility.”
    “You cannot mean that.” Harry placed his glass on the table. “Surely you have not sunk so low.”
    He shrugged and took a long swig of his drink.
    Harry’s eyes kindled. “What are you about, Gray? Are you still ill? Has your injury troubled you? I wish you would have accepted my invitation to stay with us at Curzon Street. You’ve been a recluse. No one sees you in town. Are you certain you are well?”
    “I have never been better,” Gray lied. “The wound is a mere nothing. I am in no need of a nursemaid.”
    “Are you not?” Harry raised his eyebrows. “You look the very devil.”
    He took a gulp of his brandy. He had no wish to spar with his genial cousin.
    Harry went on, “And now this Miss Smith, as she calls herself. I declare, Gray, it astonishes me that you would dishonor a female, let alone abandon her to her fate. I cannot believe it.”
    A vision of Rosa flashed through Gray’s mind, that vision he could never escape. What would Harry think of him if he knew about Rosa?
    But he’d be damned if he’d be leg-shackled to another such female. “Miss Smith is not my responsibility. Her presence in my rooms was a lamentable accident.”
    Harry shot him a very skeptical look.
    Gray sighed. There was no point in arguing. “I will call in two or three days.” It appeared God would not be so kind as to rid him of this annoyance quite yet.
    His cousin smiled. “Very good.” Harry raised his glass and regarded him with a friendly gaze. “Gray, perhaps you might clean yourself up a little before calling? Where is your valet?”
    Gray laughed. “I have little need of a valet. I grew used to taking care of myself while in the Peninsula.”
    Harry raised his quizzing glass to his eye. “Yes, I can see you care for yourself very well. All the same, I could send my valet to assist you, if you like.”
    “Spare me that. I will contrive to look presentable, do not fear.”
    “Excellent.” Harry reached in his pocket and pulled out his timepiece. “And I must leave presently. I have promised to escort Tess to the Harrington rout, though I believe she’d rather stay home and play nurse.”
    Harry stood up and retrieved his handkerchief, folding it with precision and returning it to his pocket. “We will expect you soon.” He offered Gray his hand and Gray accepted without further comment. Harry then took a deep breath and resolutely picked his way back through the untidy throng.
    Gray sat twirling his glass with his fingers.
    His cousin would like to play Gray’s conscience, it seemed. If Harry only knew he needed no auxiliary in that department. His own conscience was quite skillful at tormenting him.
    Let Harry take responsibility this time. Gray refused to consider this woman any charge of his merely because she’d found her way to his door with a story of being his wife. He needed no wife and certainly did not need family to dictate his duty. He’d joined the army and traveled to the Peninsula to avoid family demands, and well Harry knew it.
    He took another long