Happily Bedded Bliss: The Rakes of Cavendish Square by Tracy Anne Warren Read Free Book Online

Waxhavens. She expected all of them would be departing today, given the uproar. And what better opportunity to start spreading gossip?
    But what did she care if they flapped and crowed? She’d done nothing so very dreadful. She was an artist; she’d drawn a picture. Admittedly it was of a nakedman, but once everything was explained and put in the proper context, people would see that it was a great deal of fuss over nothing. It wasn’t as if she and Lord Northcote were lovers, engaged in a torrid, clandestine affair. They’d never even met—well, not in the accepted sense of the word at least.
    But therein lay the difficulty. Would everyone hear about the drawing and assume the worst? Would they think Northcote had seduced her and ignore the truth? She frowned, having the sinking feeling that she knew which version of the story the
Ton
would believe.
    But her siblings had been embroiled in scandals before, and they had all successfully weathered the storms. She would surely come through this latest hiccup too with no lasting harm.
    And if I do not?
    There was no point at present in ruminating over what-ifs.
    She knew she ought to return to the house to change her attire, have breakfast and endure whatever scolds and cross-examinations were likely on today’s schedule.
    Instead, she dawdled, wandering back to the stall where her mare was kept. Unlatching the door, she went inside, stopping to pat the animal and croon softly to her. The mare’s ears pricked up, and her velvety brown eyes glazed with pleasure as Esme scratched her on the forehead and neck and down along her withers.
    Esme was about to go to the tack room to obtain a currycomb, brush and hoof-pick to do some grooming when one of the stable lads appeared.
    “’Scuse me, my lady,” the boy said, “but we thought ye’d want ter know that tha’ new stray, the black one wot’s been hangin’ ’bout, looks like she’s ready ter have her kittens.”
    “Abigail?”
    “Aye, if tha’s wot yer callin’ her. She’s settled in ter a corner of tha’ feed room in the haymow.”
    “Of course I want to know. I’ll go check on her now.While I do, see if you can find a good sturdy box, medium sided and broad; an herb box would do nicely. And some soft blankets and laundered rags. She and her kittens might feel more secure in there for the first few weeks, at least until the babies open their eyes.”
    “Aye, Lady Esme.”
    “Oh, bring me a pan of clean warm water too. You never know when there might be trouble during a delivery. I want to be ready to help if need be.”
    As the boy hurried away with his instructions, Esme did the same.

Chapter 5
    G abriel nearly turned back as he rode toward the Byron family’s palatial estate, Braebourne. It wasn’t too late to change his mind. He could still return to Cray’s house, pack his bags and leave the area.
    He’d never even met this Esme Byron. It was utter insanity to think he was on the verge of doing the gentlemanly thing and proposing marriage to her.
    Ridiculous girl.
The blame for this entire fiasco lay squarely in her lap. What had she thought she was about, spying on him as he relaxed in the altogether, then being idiotic enough to immortalize her sneaking ways by means of pencil and paper?
    Were she anyone but the damned Duke of Clybourne’s sister, he would have shrugged the whole thing off and left the brazen chit to twist on the end of the noose she’d made herself. But as Clybourne and his band of formidable brothers had explained most insistently last night, they weren’t giving him the option of refusing.
    And sadly, they didn’t need a set of pistols to enforce their edict. Not only did they know who he was and where he lived, they also knew scores of influential people who could—and would—make his life an utter misery.
    The heads of all the reputable banks in London—and several disreputable ones as well—would, he was told, be asked not to do business with him should hefail to do