Brazen Temptress by Elizabeth Boyle Read Free Book Online Page B

knowledgeable patroness intimated.
    Beside him, Lady Jersey didn't appear so convinced. "Are you sure you aren't confusing the young lady with her companion?" she said, tapping her fan to her chin. "I do believe that must be Lady Mary Johnston, though I've never met her. Lady Cowper mentioned the Lord Admiral had twisted her arm to grant Lady Mary and her goddaughter vouchers."
    "The Lord Admiral, you say," Julien commented, arching one brow, all the while feeling his mouth suddenly going dry. "Whatever would he want with such an ill-favored girl?" He waggled his eyebrows at his young audience. "Perhaps he is looking for a stepmother to keep his dear Eustacia in line," he said, referring to the Lord Admiral's daughter, who'd recently made her entrance into society. Beautiful, well-mannered, and spoiled beyond repute, she was quickly becoming the Season's newest toast, especially considering she was in line to inherit her father's barony and rich Kent estates.
    The girls all laughed at his comment. Julien could tell none of them liked the Admiral's daughter. With her perfect manners and haughty ways, he suspected, Eustacia Cottwell had few bosom-bows.
    "Julien, you are too wicked," Lady Jersey said, drawing the conversation back. "The Lord Admiral remarrying some chit of unknown breeding? Why, it is preposterous. No, it is as I've heard. A favor to an old shipmate. Her father, a naval hero or some such nonsense, brought home a pile in prize money, then up and died and left the girl a fortune. No matter. She has no family connections — even with Lady Mary's patronage, she will be considered by most as little better than a chit."
    The lady and the girls around him nodded knowingly. Money was one thing, but breeding and lineage, they were everything.
    Even as Lady Jersey continued to supply him with the information he needed, Maureen confirmed his worst fears by her actions.
    First she spoke to the older woman at her right, Lady Mary, who in turn nodded her head across the room. Maureen's gaze followed the woman's gesture until her searching stopped with an almost imperceptible flinch.
    Julien swung nonchalantly around and found her gaze resting on no less than the Lord Admiral himself.
    The Lord Admiral championing Maureen? Maureen, a long-lost heiress? Indeed.
    Maureen taking her place in society was about as likely as him heeding his sisters' advice and settling down and getting married.
    Looking across the room, it suddenly hit him: If Maureen was still alive, that meant they were still married.
    Married.
Wouldn't his sisters find that amusing — that is, once they got done scolding him for hiding the fact that he had been secretly wed all these years.
    Julien took a deep breath, this time to clear his head. Turning on one heel, he put his back to his long-lost
wife
and uttered a quick apology to his young admirers.
    "So am I correct?" Lady Jersey asked, her fingers winding around Julien's arm. "That this is the one you have designs for."
    "No, not at all. I've other plans for tonight." He bowed to the circle of girls and then to Lady Jersey before taking his leave. Slowly, he circled the room, careful to keep himself out of Maureen's line of vision.
    No easy task, he knew, considering she could spot a sail on the horizon long before a lookout did.
    Still, as he made his way through the Wednesday night gathering, he tried to tell himself that this was all an uncanny coincidence, a wry twist of fate.
    Yet there the Lord Admiral was, now having crossed the room to greet Maureen, bowing over her gloved hand, bidding her welcome to London's inner sanctum. His beefy arm swept wide over the crowd as if to offer her the pick of the
ton,
the gold braid and buttons on his sleeve glinting in the candlelight.
    Oh, she was there to pick all right. Pick the one man only Maureen Hawthorne de Ryes could identify for the Admiralty.
    But Julien D'Artiers hadn't taken his place among London's finest simply because of his sisters'