Heiress Without a Cause by Sara Ramsey Read Free Book Online

you? He did dance with you at Aunt Augusta’s ball. Surely that is unusual.”
    “Because no one ever dances with me?” Madeleine asked, bristling despite herself.
    Amelia sighed. “No, you goose, because he is a rake whose one saving grace is that he has never ruined an innocent.”
    Madeleine felt a twinge of guilt. It wasn’t Amelia’s fault she had so many suitors, and she knew her cousin would have given them all to Madeleine if she could. “I’m sorry, Mellie. I am just worried about the next month. But Ferguson aside, I’ve no idea how I shall keep acting without Alex and Aunt Augusta finding out. I cannot keep feigning illness. What am I going to do?”
    They debated options as Josephine dressed her, wrapping her in a pretty pomona-green afternoon dress that highlighted her eyes. They finally settled on what they felt was the best course of action. Amelia and Madeleine would insist that they wanted to go on a reducing diet and so could not attend any dinners. Then, Aunt Augusta could attend whatever dinners she wished, retrieving the girls before the usual round of balls and parties. As long as Madeleine returned to the house before Aunt Augusta did, they could keep their secret.
    “This is the most harebrained scheme you’ve ever dreamed up,” Madeleine muttered as Josephine fussed with her half-boots.
    Amelia looked smug. “It’s genius.”
    “It’s suicide,” Madeleine said. “Do you have any idea how hungry I shall be?”
    “We shall ask Josephine to sneak us sandwiches,” Amelia said. “And it’s only a month — and only four nights a week at that. We’ll be done in no time a’tall, and with better figures as well.”
    Madeleine looked at her maid. “Josephine, what do you think?”
    “If eating sandwiches in your room will save you, I will bring them every day. But you must take care about the duke. Flatter him, flirt with him, until he will do anything you ask him to. If you do not succeed with him, he is a bigger danger than your aunt.”
    Madeleine’s breath caught in her throat. The idea of flirting with a rake like Ferguson...
    She did not even know how to flirt. At least her utter lack of feminine wiles would make him lose interest in Madame Guerrier, even if a small part of her wished she had more talent in that area.
    Josephine tweaked a last piece of hair into place. “You should eat before the callers arrive and you start this reducing diet. But please take care. The marquis and marquise would not want you to live with the Stauntons forever, but they would not want to see you ruined either.”
    Madeleine tried to push Josephine’s last statement to the back of her mind as she and Amelia went down to lunch. Josephine had gradually stopped discussing Madeleine’s marriage prospects over the past few seasons. She knew Madeleine did not like the topic, and she probably gave up hope that her behavior would ever change. But if she was more concerned about Madeleine’s potential suitor than Madame Legrand’s threats, her hopes for Madeleine’s marriage were rekindled.
    It was a shame, really, that those hopes were destined to be dashed.
    But it was more of a shame that she would likely see Ferguson again before making any decisions about what she wanted — or determining if his kisses were worth the danger.

CHAPTER SIX
    Ferguson pulled himself up into one of his father’s many well-sprung carriages, glad that it would only take ten minutes to reach the Stauntons’ townhouse. He was impatient for reasons that went beyond his sisters’ debuts, even though those couldn’t come fast enough. After his encounter with Madame Guerrier the previous evening — and what he discovered about her after she left — he was oddly eager to be out in society again, if only to ferret out the woman’s identity.
    It would have been faster to walk. Salford House was on Berkeley Street, almost on Berkeley Square, only five minutes on foot from his Piccadilly mansion. But since he was using