Devil Takes A Bride by Gaelen Foley Read Free Book Online Page A

know.”
    â€œOh?” The viscountess shot her an arch look from across her teacup. “He asked me in confidence if I thought you might be amenable to a drive in his new barouche.”
    â€œHe
what
? Good Lord!” Lizzie set the teapot down in astonished indignation. “Can’t the man see that I am on the shelf?”
    â€œStuff and nonsense, Miss Carlisle. You’re barely twenty.”
    â€œI’ll be twenty-two this autumn,” she said hotly.
    â€œTut, tut, the only person who decides when a woman is on the shelf is the woman
elle-même
.”
    â€œWell, if I choose to put myself on the shelf, that is my own affair, surely,” she huffed, much to the dowager’s amusement.
    â€œBut why, in heaven’s name, when there are respectable young gentlemen of pleasing countenance and promising expectations eager to pay suit, despite your efforts to put them off? Ungrateful gel, I daresay you want for a proper feminine vanity.”
    â€œWhat I lack in vanity, ma’am, I hope to make up for in sense. My passion is for books, not a pair of handsome eyes or a well-turned calf.”
    â€œExtraordinary. Do you claim to be immune to the attentions of a charming young man? Even I am not. Never was.”
    â€œA man is a creature who will say anything to get what he wants,” she replied in a blithely philosophic tone, mollified by her own certainty on this point. She shook out her napkin and laid it on her lap.
    â€œEven the saintly young Bell, trotting from house to house, mending his neighbor’s ills of body and mind?”
    â€œNew carriage, did he say? Impressive how profitable such altruism can be.”
    â€œTouché, my dear, touché.” Lady Strathmore chuckled, sipping her tea. “Still, you might at least try getting to know him better.”
    â€œI might also try whale hunting, bullfighting, or getting lost in the Sahara atop a camel. Oh, yes, that would be a grand adventure….”
    Her employer was laughing. “Then you’d be like Dev.”
    â€œMmm.” Lizzie hid her thorough skepticism about Lord Strathmore’s supposed exploits, which she considered highly exaggerated at best.
    Any man who had seen and done so many incredible things would surely not be wasting his time living like a dissipated rake in London, as Lord Strathmore had been doing since his return to England some months ago. She knew his type—hedonistic, immature. But she supposed a man like that had to seek his thrills somehow.
    â€œWell?” Lady Strathmore prodded.
    Lizzie gave her a wry smile. “If I were to let the oh-so-wonderful Dr. Bell court me, sooner or later, I would notice something base and inevitably
low
in his male nature, and then I would kick myself for wasting my time with him when I could have been here with you, keeping you out of mischief—or trying to.”
    â€œBut you must be practical, my dear. The abundant faults of the male species aside, you must have a husband, children to look after you in your old age. You don’t want to end up like me.”
    â€œFor shame, ma’am, I should be very happy to be like you in any respect, and rest assured, I am not at all concerned for my old age. As it happens, I have already made provisions to support myself when I am a spinster lady of advanced years.”
    â€œHow shockingly independent.”
    â€œThank you,” she replied with a firm nod, though she gathered it wasn’t a compliment. “I shall open a bookshop in Russell Square—I’m sure I’ve told you all this before.”
    â€œBookshop!” the dowager snorted. “A young woman of your caliber has a duty to concern herself with the multiplication of the species, Miss Carlisle. Really,” she continued as Lizzie blinked at the rare compliment from the old dragon, “I have never in all my days heard a woman speak so cheerfully about spinsterhood. It’s altogether