Heiress in Red Silk, Hunter, Madeline [good beach reads TXT] 📗

Did she only imagine that his embrace altered a little? Tightened? She could not see his face well.

“I made a most practical decision. A desperate one. Then I thought, if I’m going to do that, I may as well get a roof over my head for the doing. I went to the park and watched until I saw a group of women who looked to be whores of a better sort. They were playing together like children. That made me feel better somehow. I followed them when they left. They went to a house near Portman Square.”

He said nothing, but she sensed his concentration on her and her story.

“I presented myself to the owner, Mrs. Darling. She asked me some embarrassing questions. Then she told me I would not do.” She laughed at the memory, then sighed. “I was shocked. I never thought I would be turned down. All that thinking and anguish for nothing. I wanted to laugh at myself, and also cry. Goodness, to be turned down even for that—”

“Did she say why?”

“She said that I was too inexperienced, and not of good character for the trade. ‘Barely willing won’t do,’ was how she put it. However, they needed a servant to serve as a chambermaid and to help with laundry. So I took that work, and lived there.”

“I’m glad Mrs. Darling recognized desperation when she saw it and offered you other employment. The owner of the next door you knocked on probably would not have turned you down. One look at your face and avarice would have won out over any decent sentiments.”

“For almost two years it was my home. I still have some friends there. I would be very discreet about them, if we—That is, if you still think you want to—”

“How did you meet the duke if you were a servant? I assume you met him while you were there.”

He didn’t sound suspicious. Only curious. “He was a patron on occasion. I ate with the women, and they spoke of him, and one of them pointed him out. He and I met when one of the women he favored became very ill. Marie, her name was. Mrs. Darling believed it was cholera, so she put her in a chamber and said no one was to go in there, only leave food by the door. I disobeyed her and took care of her and prayed I wouldn’t get sick too. I told Mrs. Darling she needed a physician, but none was sent for.”

“I am liking Mrs. Darling less now. Avarice won anyway. She did not want her house known as a place where there had been disease.”

“One night, while I was tending to Marie, the duke came in as if he didn’t worry about getting sick. Maybe dukes are special that way too.”

“Hardly. He was not very careful with his health, however.”

“He sent for a physician, and while we waited for the man to come, we talked a bit. When it was all done, he paid the fee, then left me a small purse too. Ten guineas. I had never seen so much before. Not in my whole life.”

He continued embracing her under the trees while the sounds of the gardens came to them, distant but joyful.

“It was good of you to care for this woman. Dangerous, though. Did she survive?”

She nodded. “Once she was better, she left.” She slipped out of his embrace and faced him. “There it is. I needed you to know.”

They continued strolling the path. They passed a lantern and she looked over at him. His fine profile had set itself into an expression she knew well. He contemplated something. Her, most likely. The rash proposal he had made.

“If you worked there, you were probably seen,” he said. “Most servants would not be noticed, but I doubt that was how it was with you.”

He had seen the problem, and why it mattered as much as it did.

“Were there misunderstandings, on the part of the patrons?”

“That is a nice way to say it, Kevin. There were a few. Two men asked Mrs. Darling about me. It was a good amount of money, but I said no. Another man saw me as I tended a chamber and he did not bother going to Mrs. Darling. I called out, and two of the women came and set him to rights. If there were others, I did not learn about it.” She stopped in her tracks and faced him. “I did not whore, even once, if that is what you are asking.”

“I wasn’t.”

“It sounded as if you were. I don’t mind. You would need to know.”

“I did need to know, but not for the reason you think.”

They had arrived back at the entrance to the path. Darkness on one side of them, and lamps and lanterns on the other. He looked down at her. “You are uncommonly brave and honest to have told me this.”

“You already knew.”

“You didn’t know that I knew. What was the question you had for me?”

She hesitated. He had accepted her at face value, so to speak. He trusted that her time at that house had been as she said. He believed her. She did not doubt that during his intense contemplation while they strolled, he had considered every complication her past might cause to him and his life.

To now ask him if he’d killed his uncle would be the worst insult. A betrayal. What would be gained by it? If he was the sort to do such a thing, he was the sort to lie about it.

It all came down to what she believed. What she trusted. Whether she accepted what she thought he was, as she had come to know him.

She hoped her better sense was not deserting her, the way it had with Charles. “I only wanted to ask if you still thought this marriage of convenience a good idea.”

He lifted her hand and bent to kiss it. “I think it