The Secret Mistress Read Online Free PDF

from what they are now.”
    “And you?” he said. “What are
your
feelings in all this, Eunice?”
    “If you remember,” she said, “I told you four years ago that I had no intention of marrying until age makes my spinsterhood somewhat of a burden to both me and my brother. That time has not come yet. I am only twenty-three. Let us officially release each other from any obligation that agreement laid upon us, then, even if it is only guilt and fear of hurting each other.”
    “Is that what you really want for yourself?” he asked. “Complete freedom? Even from me?”
    “Life,” she said, “is not always or even often about getting what we want, Edward. Far more often it is about doing our duty, doing what is right, taking other people into consideration.”
    He sighed aloud. She had neatly avoided answering his question, he noticed. Or had she? Perhaps she was embarrassed by that long-ago agreement. Perhaps she was glad of the excuse to bring it to an end. And perhaps not. Perhaps she was being noble. Or merely sensible.
    And what about him? How did her willingness to release him make him feel? Disappointed? Relieved? He really was not sure. There was perhaps a bit of both.
    “You are released, then,” he said. “And so am I, if you insist upon it. But I will not give up our friendship, Eunice. And I will not give up the possibility that at some future time … Well, I will not burden you with that.”
    “Your thoughts, your opinions will never be a burden to me, Edward,” she said. “I will always consider you a very dear friend.”
    He had to leave it at that. But he felt somewhat depressed as he took his leave—depression more than relief. For he had already accepted the necessity of marrying soon, and if he must now give up the comfortable thought that it would be Eunice he would marry, there was a distinctly
un
comfortable void where she had been. If not Eunice, then
whom
? Was he going to have to meet and woo a stranger and marry her and get her with child? It was a rhetorical question, of course. That was
exactly
what he must do. It was one of his two reasons for leaving behind the peace and safety of Wimsbury Abbey for London. London in the spring was the great marriage mart, and he had come to shop.
    Unless Eunice could be persuaded to change her mind. She had avoided his question about her personal feelings on being set free of their agreement. Perhaps she was secretly hoping that he would refuse to be set free.
    It did not take long for the family committee to compile an alarmingly long list of marital possibilities for him, though it took even less time for them to whittle it down to a few probabilities and then to one overwhelming and unanimous favorite.
    Lady Angeline Dudley.
    Everything about her made her supremely eligible.
    She was about to make her come-out. Her come-out ball was to be held less than one week hence, in fact—on the evening of the very day appointed for Edward’s maiden speech in the Upper House. She was the daughter and sister of a duke, and her fortune was said to be astronomical. She had lived a sheltered life in the country under the tutelage of an assortment of the finest governesses money could buy. She was at the very top of
everyone’s
list of eligible hopefuls this Season and would be snapped up within weeks or even days of her first appearance on the marriage mart.
    For Edward there was only one impediment—and it was a huge one. Lady Angeline Dudley just happened to be the sister of the Duke of Tresham.
    Of course, he admitted to himself, she could hardly be blamed for the wildness and dissipations of her brother. Or for those of herlate father. Or for the scandalous reputation her mother had enjoyed before her untimely death a couple of years or so ago.
    Indeed, it might be altogether kinder to pity the girl.
    Either way, he soon found himself committed to firing at least the opening volley in what his family hoped would be a rapid and successful courtship