A Study In Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas Read Free Book Online

than ideal. I didn’t know it before I spoke to him, but Lady Amelia Drummond was found dead this morning. Papa was in a minor state.”
    Livia’s hand came up to her throat. “Oh.”
    Charlotte played with a bow on her skirt. “This isn’t to say that he would have kept his word otherwise. If he meant to keep his word, he would have, whether or not Lady Amelia still breathed. But had there been any vacillation on his part, any remote chance that he might have changed his mind at the last minute . . . as I said , my timing wasn’t ideal.”
    â€œWill you ask him again?”
    â€œDo you think that would be any use?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œNeither do I.”
    â€œThen what are you going to do?” Livia was fuming again. “Please tell me you won’t swallow this appalling deceit. Papa will feel no remorse. He will only be endlessly smug that he got away with this kind of disgraceful chicanery.”
    Charlotte wrapped her hands around the bedpost. If it were Livia, she’d be imagining the bedpost to be Sir Henry’s throat. But Charlotte retained her usual tranquility as she replied, “No, I won’t let it pass without a suitable response.”
    â€œGood!” cried Livia. Then, a little less certainly, “But what kind of response would do the trick? How can you both punish him and still extract the necessary funds for your education?”
    â€œI have an idea. I will think about it.”
    â€œCan I be of help?”
    â€œIt’ll be best if I handle it myself.”
    Livia was taken aback. “You aren’t going to—you aren’t going to put arsenic in his tea or anything like that, are you?”
    â€œNo, of course not. Besides, his death would offer no financialadvantage to us at all. That’s when his creditors will pounce. Mamma will have to sell the house to satisfy them and I will not receive a penny for my education.”
    â€œThen what?”
    â€œI’ll tell you when it’s done.”
    A chill ran down Livia’s spine: Her sister could be ruthless in her own way. “Will you at least tell me when you’ll implement this diabolical plan of yours?”
    â€œSoon. Within weeks, I should think.”
    Livia took Charlotte by the shoulders. “Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”
    Charlotte’s lips stretched into a smile that did not reach her eyes. “Would that someone had given Papa that warning.”

    In the following days, Livia pestered Charlotte for more details about The Plan. But Charlotte only smiled, shook her head, and carried on as usual. It was the Season, with its attendant rounds of afternoon garden parties and evening dances. The whirl of merrymaking, however, had long ago lost what little appeal it had for Livia: The ultimate purpose of this yearly assembly wasn’t fun and games; it was for unmarried ladies to find husbands and married ones to jostle for social prominence.
    Livia wouldn’t say she’d never met any gentlemen who appealed to her. But those of lofty enough qualities to interest her never seemed to be interested
in
her. And those who did bother to pay attention to her failed to spark the least reciprocal warmth on her part.
    A sorry outcome, to say the least. After Charlotte’s thoroughly unromantic analysis of the institution of marriage, Livia had been on guard against runaway emotions that might lead to regrettable choices. But this resolute
lack
of runaway emotions was dispiriting in its own way. One ought to fall in love at least once, oughtn’t one? Ifonly to understand what Elizabeth Barrett Browning had meant when she’d written,
The face of all the world is changed, I think / Since first I heard the footsteps of thy soul.
    Yet this common, practically universal experience evaded Livia everywhere she went. And of course for her mother, Livia’s failure to garner a single proposal in seven and a half