A Rogue of My Own by Johanna Lindsey Read Free Book Online Page B

never said as much, but the information she gathers must be at the duchess’s behest, so ultimately it must reach the queen’s ear. She wouldn’t dare use us for anything untoward.”
    Rebecca was inclined to agree with that reasoning. But her mother definitely hadn’t warned her that she might be involved in palace intrigue. Actually, she thought it sounded rather exciting.
    Evelyn was having the same thought apparently. “I find it amusing for the most part,” Evelyn said with a grin. “Like tonight at the costume ball, I am to distract a certain lord and then ask him an impertinent question, so that he will have his guard down and answer by rote rather than fob me off. How I am to distract him Sarah left to my discretion.”
    Constance snorted. “You know very well she implied you should let him kiss you.”
    Evelyn giggled. “Which I was hoping would happen anyway. He is quite a good catch, after all, and divinely handsome.”
    The word divinely made Rebecca think of The Angel. She certainly hoped that wasn’t whom Evelyn was talking about. But she refrained from asking Evelyn the name of the nobleman she was supposed to distract simply because she wouldn’t know The Angel’s name even if she heard it.
    The lady they had been discussing suddenly appeared. Bursting energetically out of the duchess’s sitting room, Sarah Wheeler didn’t pause, not even for a moment, when she took note of Rebecca’s presence.
    “Come to my office,” she said as she continued through the drawing room, out the door, and into the hallway.
    “You’d better hurry,” Evelyn suggested. “Or you’ll wonder where she disappeared to. Her office is just one door down the hallway.”
    Rebecca nodded and quickly followed. Sarah had indeed disappeared, though she’d left the door open. Stepping inside a narrow hallway, Rebecca realized this was the duchess’s private entrance to her bedchamber.
    “In here,” Sarah called before Rebecca made the mistake of continuing down the narrow hallway and entering the main bedchamber.
    Rebecca turned into the first room to her left, which was the size of a closet. Sarah was seated at a small, cluttered desk pushed up against the wall. The two wooden chairs beyond the desk lacked cushions. Not much else could be stuffed in that little cubbyhole. There were no windows either, just a lampburning on the desk that left a thin haze of smoke in the room. But the subdued lighting was kind to the lady.
    Rebecca thought Lady Sarah could be described as ugly, yet she certainly had an interesting face. She would have been simply plain-looking if not for her oddly close-set gray eyes coupled with her overly long, narrow face. A crooked nose, suggesting that it had been broken at some point, didn’t help her appearance. She was perhaps in her early thirties, though her age was rather hard to guess. Tall, even a bit more so than Rebecca, she was so thin she was nearly curveless. And her raven hair was coiffured much too tightly. Bangs would have softened her long face. Did the woman not realize that? She could make herself more attractive fairly easily. Or did she simply not care?
    “I assume you are Rebecca Marshall?” the lady said, and barely waited for Rebecca’s nod before continuing, “Good of you to arrive on time at the palace. I’m Sarah Wheeler. It’s my duty to make sure you do not stray to idleness, but attend all functions expected of you and be available should the duchess require anything of you. Your stay here is to benefit the court as well as yourself. So you and I will get along just fine as long as you bring no shame to your post and do as you’re told.”
    The lady smiled warmly. It was probably meant to put Rebecca at ease, yet something was oddly off-kilter about Lady Sarah’s smile, as if it wasn’t quite sincere.
    “You might have already been informed that there is to be a costume ball tonight? The queen might even attend, though if she doesn’t, that is understandable.