Carola Dunn by The Actressand the Rake Read Free Book Online

hand, given his helpfulness so far, she had little fear that he’d try to prevent her inheriting her half, and, more than content with half, she did not regard him as a hateful rival. In fact, she could not help liking him. With the rest of the household furiously resentful, he’d be an ally.
    Always supposing Mama and Papa agreed to let her remain at Addlescombe--but she had little doubt of that. Though content herself, Mama had always regretted her daughter’s exile from the life of the gentry.
    “Yes, I’ll stay.” Sighing, Mr Courtenay ran his hand through already disheveled hair. “I’m holding a devilish hand though. Sir Barnabas was right in that it’s true I’ve a singular weakness for actresses. Let me congratulate you, by the way. I’d like to see you on stage. I’ll be damned if you don’t play the demure damsel to perfection.”
    “I’m not an actress!” Nerissa declared irately. “I haven’t the least jot or tittle of Thespian talent.”
    “You’re not?” he exclaimed, startled. “Then what maggot got into the old man’s head?”
    “You see, my father has always been an actor. He was with a London company which came to play in Porchester one summer, and Mama met him and they fell in love. Sir Barnabas refused to countenance a marriage so Mama ran away with Papa.”
    “She went on the stage?”
    “Yes, but she and Papa remain devoted to each other and live perfectly respectably. It is possible, you know!”
    “Don’t comb my hair,” he said with a sardonic look. “Unlike your grandfather, I’m willing to believe it.”
    “My grandfather was not altogether wrong,” she reluctantly acknowledged. “Mama did not want to bring me up in the environment of the London theatre. Although they were both doing very well in Town, we moved away when I was a little girl.”
    “Provincial actresses have much the same reputation as their Town kin,” said Mr Courtenay dryly. “I take it your parents continue to tread the boards?”
    “At the York Playhouse now.”
    “But you didn’t follow them into the profession.”
    “No. I feel like Hero.”
    “A hero? Oh, Much Ado About Nothing . The innocent accused of lechery. I trust you don’t mean to swoon away like one dead?”
    “I’m far too angry.”
    “A cross between Beatrice and Hero, then. You see, my knowledge of the theatre extends beyond its female denizens. But if your only association is through your parents, how very unfair of Sir Barnabas to tar you with the same brush.”
    She flushed. “Well...”
    “Don’t tell me you sing and dance? No wonder your grandfather...”
    “No! As a matter of fact, I’m the Playhouse’s wardrobe mistress,” she said defiantly.
    “A seamstress!” Mr Courtenay burst out laughing.
    “And I loathe, abhor, and detest needlework. Whatever your plans,” said Nerissa with dignified determination, “I intend to earn my share of Grandfather’s fortune and never set another stitch in my life. So you will just have to forget your horrid designs upon my person!”
    A sudden grinding noise like fingernails on a writing slate raised the hairs on her arms. Mr Courtenay winced too, so it wasn’t his doing, and no one else was near enough. Neither of them could possibly have guessed that it was Sir Barnabas gnashing his teeth.
    The impertinent hussy meant to prove him wrong, did she? Wardrobe mistress, actress, dancer, or opera singer, it was all one to him. She belonged to the dissolute world of the theatre. He had made known his conviction that she was incapable of observing the terms of his Will, and no shameless lightskirt was going to give him the lie.
    If her resistance to Miles’s seductive wiles turned out to be stronger than expected, then the late baronet would be forced to lend his rakish godson a ghostly hand.
     

Chapter 4
     
    “Please, ladies and gentlemen,” said Mr Harwood in a harassed voice, “if you will excuse me I must explain to Miss Wingate and Mr Courtenay the practical