Utterly Devoted Read Online Free PDF Page B

But I did dance with Lord Nathaniel. He requested to call later in the week.”
    Her father’s pale blue eyes were thoughtful. “Does this please you?”
    Even before Jareth had appeared she hadn’t been certain of the answer to that question. Now that he threatened her future, she was even less sure. “He’s a good man,” she said defensively. “Stable. Courtly. He honors me with his interest.”
    “He should be the one to feel honored,” her father told her. “But I look forward to meeting this paragon. Now perhaps you should retire. You look tired.”
    “I am a bit fatigued,” she allowed. She dropped a respectful curtsey. “Good night, Father.”
    Her father inclined his head, and Bryerton stepped away from the wall to lead her to her bedchamber.
    Normally, the pale blues of the bed hangings and draperies in her room were calming and peaceful, but tonight they did not comfort her. Neither did her maid, Martha. The older woman had a round face that was surprisingly stern and narrow-spaced eyes. Her movements were quick and sure. Eloise was never tempted to linger over brushing out her hair at night or bathing in the morning. Everything ran on schedule with Martha.
    Still, she thought as she slipped beneath covers that Martha had efficiently warmed with a heating pan, at least Martha was better than the chaperone she had had the last two years. Miss Tidwell had had endless advice, but Eloise had soon found that the woman had little interest in acting on that advice. Instead, she used any excuse to leave Eloise to her own devices. When Eloise had had a near-scandalous run in with Leslie, before he had married Cleo, Lord Watkin had been convinced to discharge the chaperone and hire a maid instead.
    Eloise had hoped that Martha would be someone in whom she could confide, but just as Miss Tidwell had been all talk, Martha was all action. And her actions were as strict as the whale-bone corset into which her considerable bulk was constrained. She did her work with a prim, “Yes, Miss,” “No, Miss,” and disappeared into the nether regions of the house. Once in a rare while, Eloise actually won a smile from her, but it quickly vanished. Like Bryerton, Martha seemed to feel that it was singularly inappropriate to mix with the master and his family.
    When Martha left her alone that night, Eloise sighed. She felt unaccountably blue-deviled. It would be all too easy to cry. But she’d shed more tears than she liked over Jareth in the past, and a few tears weren’t going to change her life today. Better to focus her attentions on how she might achieve her goal of living happily ever after now that Jareth had reappeared.
    She knew she would not feel comfortable entering marriage without explaining her past to her prospective husband. However, she certainly didn’t want Jareth to be the one to make the explanations. Of course, he might say nothing, but she couldn’t take that chance, not when Lord Nathaniel was so close to proposing. Yet how could she ensure Jareth’s silence?
    He had no conscience, or he would never have abandoned her. His family was wealthy, so he hardly needed money. She could offer him neither position nor connections that could not be bettered by a simple conversation with his brother. The only thing left to bargain with was her virtue, and she refused to give him a chance at that a second time.
    The one factor in her favor was that the story of their passion reflected no better on him than it did on her. He’d been the youngest son of a wealthy earl, and terribly cozened. Even then, few were foolhardy enough to censure him.
    She’d been the only child of a couple much in love and just as prone to be spoiled by their attentions. But when her mother had died, her father had withdrawn. More and more his work took him away, and she was left in the care of others—nannies, governesses, chaperones. Still, she tried to please, always eager for praise. She knew the reports to her father glowed