Flawless by Carrie Lofty Read Free Book Online

prove that she was as au courant and senseless as the rest of the moneyed travelers, she was succeeding. But then, she always had when it came to keeping up perfect appearances. In tight, exclusive groups they critiqued their surroundings with obvious distaste, wearing their success and wealth like medieval crests. The lesser folk crowded into the scant shade of the rear coaches, a new sort of peasant to be consumed by a new breed of empire.
    The first-class passengers watched Miles with obvious curiosity. Although he should’ve taken part in that show, cultivating the relationships that would aid in making Viv’s brokerage a success, he didn’t feel like relinquishing his anonymity just yet. Once he returned to Kimberley, he would become Lord Bancroft again. For now he was just a man in the desert holding a whip.
    Another day and then back to playing Society games. But Viv would be his solace.
    Sidling up beside her, he gently encircled her nape with his fingers. “Such a marvelous day for a walk in the park, darling. Aren’t you glad we came?”
    She stiffened. The man and woman with whom she’d been conversing both gawked, then made excuses to leave. For his part, Miles couldn’t take his eyes off his wife. The angle of her dainty chin made it appear as if she looked down at him. But in doing so, she revealed the sleek, pale line of her throat. What would she do if he nuzzled her there, right now, for anyone to see?
    Slap him. And he’d grin.
    But such uncalculated folly would run contrary to hispurposes. He wanted her willing and eager, not on the defensive. So he forced that rogue thought away.
    “Walk with me, Viv.”
    She slowly pried his hand off of her skin. “Where?”
    “Anywhere.”
    “No.”
    “Afraid?”
    She sniffed. “Hardly.”
    “All very proper, I assure you,” he said, leaning as close as he dared to the tempting arch of her throat. “I have no intention of accosting you behind the stables.” He straightened and tucked her arm through his. “Besides, my back aches. If you’ve suffered as much as I have in that coach, you’ll appreciate the chance to move.”
    She regarded the other passengers, then Miles, as if weighing the relative digestibility of two equally rotten piles of food. “Very well. But put that beastly thing away.”
    As Miles coiled the offending whip, she claimed the opportunity to precede him. She turned away from the corrugated iron way station and strolled into the sun. A matched trio of peacock feathers waved like a colorful flag atop her hat. Miles shook his head and followed.
    They climbed a small bluff. Bent and warped acacias littered the plain, so infrequent and so isolated—an afterthought from God. Bushweed and devil’s grass pocked the dirt with splotches of dusty brown and gray-green. The afternoon sun stripped them of detail. Lizards darted across the scorched ground and warblers sang from hidden places. Miles squinted but found no animals, other than a fewhigh-soaring birds of prey. Likely at that hour, beasts such as steenbok and topi—both antelopes of some kind—were sensible and sought shade.
    Far, far to the north, a string of clouds the color of fading bruises stretched over a decadently blue sky. Another thunderstorm, it seemed. The unbearably hot months of summer also made up the rainy season, with afternoon cloudbursts a common occurrence. At least he’d learned that much already.
    “We are not in England,” he said.
    “Nor New York.” With a slow turn of her head, Viv traced the horizon from east to west. A sheen of sweat dampened the divot above her upper lip, while her mouth curved into a look of wonder. Sunshine turned her skin to lustrous gold. “What a startling expanse.”
    The camaraderie of that moment, sharing such an unimaginable sight with his cloistered wife, took Miles by surprise. He wanted to ask if she felt it, too—the potential—but that was far too personal. Better if he just left their stalemate as it was, at