After Innocence by Brenda Joyce Read Free Book Online Page B

become the fad for great heiresses these past two decades, and Carmine had been courted for some time now by one of these aristocrats, in her case, an elderly duke.
    Carmine was smiling, but her black eyes were malicious.
    “I am afraid I did not hear the question,” Sofie said uneasily. She rarely crossed paths with Carmine, but now she felt the woman’s seething hostility.
    “What do you think of Mr. Delanza? The two of you had such a long conversation before dinner—surely you have an opinion?”
    Sudden silence filled the salon as more than a dozen ladies, all magnificently dressed and heavily jeweled, turned to stare at Sofie. She could feel the stinging heat on her face. “We—we barely talked,” she croaked, suddenly losing her voice. “He—he seems … quite nice.”
    Carmine laughed. Everyone else tittered. Carmine turned to Hilary. “I think Mr. Delanza has made another conquest,” she all but snickered.
    Sofie gripped the arms of her chair. She was ready to respond in kind, but held herself back. For it struck her that Carmine was jealous.
    Obviously Carmine wished it had been herself who had the pleasure of Edward Delanza’s attentions. Sofie gazed at her, imagining her stripped of her gowns and jewels and money, leaving nothing but a skinny, mean-spirited spinster. But Sofie suddenly understood. How pleasant could it be, waiting for the duke to offer marriage while knowing that the only reason he was doing so was because of her father’s money?
    Sofie knew that had she decided to marry, that would be akin to her fate, too. Her stepfather would have had to pay handsomely in order to find her a husband.
    “I think we are all smitten with Mr. Delanza,” Sofie heard Hilary say in her defense.
    Sofie was about to speak up, for Hilary hardly had to defend her. Then Carmine snickered and said, “But we are not all cripples, dear Hilary. Mr. Delanza might find any one of us attractive, don’t you think? But not poor Sofie.”
    “That is beyond the pale, Carmine,” Hilary snapped as she immediately came over to Sofie, patting her shoulder reassuringly.
    “Sofie knows her own limitations, Carmine, dear,” Suzanne stated coolly, striding over. “Don’t you, dear?”
    “Indeed I do,” Sofie said, managing a show of outward calm. “I know my own limitations very well. I have no interest in Mr. Delanza or any other man. Or did you forget that I never made my debut?”
    “Oh yes, you are studying art,” Carmine said. “How convenient for you.”
    Sofie stiffened her shoulders, her eyes blazing, trying to control the sudden temper she found herself in. But she failed. “I think my art is as convenient for me as your duke is for you.”
    Carmine gasped at the insult, but before anyone could respond, the men returned, distracting everyone. Sofie satas stiffly as a board, hardly able to believe she had been so rude, even if it had been deserved. And then she saw him and she forgot all about Carmine Vanderbilt.
    She watched him as he entered the room, his strides long and lithe, a glass of brandy in one hand. He was smiling, and his teeth were stunningly white in his tanned face, his two dimples endearingly deep. His wandering, nonchalant gaze connected with hers for an instant. Sofie’s heart was already in the midst of a somersault. She became frozen and heated, all at once.
    Then Lisa rushed to Edward’s side, laughing. Conversation resumed in the room, picking up in tempo and amplitude. Sofie could not take her eyes off her sister and Edward.
    Lisa had her arm looped in his, swayed gracefully as they walked together, and she laughed again and again, at everything he said. She was animated, breathless, beautiful.
    Sofie loved her stepsister. She had liked her from the day they had first met as little girls, soon after Jake’s disappearance, when Suzanne began her acquaintance with Benjamin Ralston. Shortly after Jake’s death, which they’d heard had occurred during his escape from prison in