A Well Pleasured Lady by Christina Dodd Read Free Book Online

man.” His eerie resemblance to their father disturbed her, but he sounded mature, reasonable. “I won’t fail you, and maybe, just maybe, you could be happy once more.”
    Giving up a little of her burden sounded so tempting. But how could she? No. She had to retain control of this situation. Once she’d been to England and returned, unmarked by scandal, then Hadden could make his way as an adult. Protecting him for a little bit longer was the only sensible thing; she’d grown up in a swift and brutal manner, and she could save him from that.
    Patting his shoulder, she said, “Please don’t make this more difficult for me than it already is.”
    He straightened, obviously ready to argue once more.
    â€œI can only do it if I believe you’re safe here in Scotland. If I had to worry about you—” Her voice broke, and she let it. She hated to use guilt to control him, but right now she needed every weapon in her arsenal. “Just stay here this one last time. Please, Hadden. Please.”
    He walked to the table and stood looking down at those rocks he’d collected. The old people he’d interviewed had told him they were ancient stones,carved with markings that could tell the future. He’d tried to show her once, but she’d cut him off.
    Now he idly arranged them in a line as he listened, and when she’d finished, he looked up, expressionless. “Of course, sister, you’re right. It would be better if you think that I’m safe in Scotland. Go in peace, and I’ll see you once more when the time is right.”
    As she shut the door, she wondered what he had seen in the stones that caused his sudden capitulation.

Chapter 5
    â€œ A good housekeeper goes where she’s needed.”
    Sebastian heard the muttered phrase in the doorway behind him and turned. Mary was looking down at Lady Valéry’s opulently decorated carriage with an expression so grim, she might have been looking down at her own hearse.
    Good God, she talked to herself. Miss Perfection Fairchild talked to herself. What an entertaining eccentricity. An unscrupulous man would enjoy having a weapon to wield when dealing with Miss Guinevere Mary Fairchild.
    Sebastian was an unscrupulous man. “Pardon me, Miss Fairchild, I’m afraid I didn’t quite understand you.”
    He would have sworn she hadn’t noticed him standing off to the side, but she didn’t recoil. Her hands were clasped before her, fingers threadedtogether as if in prayer, and Sebastian thought he’d seen nuns who moved more restlessly. He’d seen nuns, too, who gave off more womanly warmth.
    Mary looked him over without enthusiasm, and her breath puffed white into the cold air. “I wasn’t speaking to you, Lord Whitfield.”
    He glanced around at the empty steps that stretched from the open door of the mansion and down to the line of carriages that waited to carry them to London, and then on to Fairchild Manor. “To yourself, then? All the Fairchilds have a reputation for eccentricity, but none of them, to my knowledge, are mad.”
    She turned her head away. “But then, you don’t know as much about Fairchilds as you think you do.”
    â€œAh, but I will.” He relished reminding her, “After all, we are betrothed.”
    The heavy knot of blond hair at the base of her neck must have tilted her head back, for he knew Mary the housekeeper would never have looked down her nose at him as Miss Fairchild did now. “We are betrothed, yes, but only when we reach Fairchild Manor, and then only for the purposes of recovering my employer’s diary.”
    He stepped close to her, crowding her back toward the door, and caught the hand she raised to ward him off. “Ah, but you’re discounting the pleasure we could seek in each other’s arms.”
    If she hadn’t been wearing woolen gloves, her fingernails would have dug into his skin.