Twice the Temptation Read Online Free PDF Page B

not have protested as her friends took on the majority of the assignments, but two days in a row was excessive.
    “’Tis Lord Billings.”
    Meghan’s explanation squelched any further objections Catherine would have made. A baron of modest fortune, adequate looks and temperance, Lord Billings had courted Catherine two years ago with no success. She’d been relieved to hear of his betrothal to a young American woman, who boasted a dowry of fifty thousand pounds.
    “Have you met this Miss Fairchild?” Catherine asked, picking up her cup to take a sip of her long-neglected tea. As expected, it was barely lukewarm.
    Meghan shook her head. “I will—we shall,” she corrected “—all meet her tomorrow evening at Lady Ever’s ball. Miss North says she’s quite the beauty.”
    “Does she wish to marry the baron? Given she hails from America, this has the look of one of those mutually advantageous arrangements. Coin for a title. A fair trade some might say.”
    Unless the legitimacy of your birth deemed you forever unsuitable a match. One must never forget that.
    “From what I was able to gather, she may be looking for a way out of the betrothal. Should he pass muster, however, she will consider him,” Meghan said.
    Olivia nodded emphatically. “Clever girl. As you stated, Catherine, such gentlemen are few and far between. The odds are, she mightn’t find another like him again should he prove the faithful sort. I believe this will turn out to be all a numbers game.”
    Catherine had never fared well in games where fortunes were left to chance by the roll of a dice or capricious turn of a card. She fared even worse in the matters of courtship and love. Mr. Samuel, Lucas, and Lord Braddock, disasters, all of them.
    Her expression must have conveyed her thoughts for Meghan reached over and gave her hand a pat and a light squeeze. “Lord Braddock is a loathsome man.” Meghan’s voice was as venom-filled as the fateful day she’d learned of the incident. “A proper pounding is what he deserved for what he did to Jillian. I thank God every day you didn’t marry that pompous arse. You are too good for him.”
    “Truthfully Catherine, did you intend to accept when he proposed?” Olivia peered at her over the rim of her cup. Without waiting for Catherine’s response, she continued, “It’s just that I sensed a lack of interest, quite unlike the interest you had in Mr. Beaumont. We scarcely saw you the entire time he was in England.”
    Catherine sucked in a breath.
    Memories of him came unbidden, assailing her with such stark longing, her heart hurt. It had already been a year since his return to America. She missed him still. Truly, she tried her best to forget him, his touch, his kisses. But it was an exercise in futility as the most minute of things brought with them more memories of him. Yet every day, she would start the process anew, trying to thrust him permanently from her mind and other inconvenient places.
    Stifling those errant emotions, she stated, “Mr. Beaumont is in America and I am here.” Her tone was hard and final. Discussion of said American was irrevocably closed.

 
     
     
     
    C HAPTER T HREE  
     

    T wo hours later, Catherine followed the footman who’d accompanied her on her call into Gretchen Manor, her sister’s residence and hers temporarily until James and his family returned from London.
    The entrance hall was empty and she was struck by the silence. It was frightfully quiet when her five-year-old nephew, Nicholas, was not about. He was boisterous, energetic, and everything excited him. He was a boy.
    Charlotte appeared just as Catherine handed the last of her outer garments off to the footman.
    “Thank goodness you are back.” Her sister rushed toward her in a flutter of mauve merino and silk. Three months past the birth of her second child Rose, Charlotte literally glowed. Her skin bloomed an iridescent pink, her ringlets shone like newly spun gold, and her figure had been