Heiress Without a Cause by Sara Ramsey Read Free Book Online Page B

the carriage onto the nearest deserted island. One of the twins rubbed her temples; the other eyed him as though she would happily endure another few months of mourning to be rid of him.
    Finally, the more murderous one spoke. “I don’t see why you left London. If you are as much of a tyrant as Father was, you must have gotten along quite well.”
    The other one patted her knee. “Kate, there’s no need for insults.”
    Ferguson’s relief at discovering their names almost made him forget that Kate had compared him to their father. “Kate, Maria — my apologies for speaking so suddenly. I thought you would want to be married.”
    “Because all young women want to marry?” Kate scoffed.
    “You do want to marry,” Maria pointed out. “Or at least, I want to.”
    “But not when I haven’t even debuted! I haven’t been to a pleasure garden, haven’t seen the Court, have never even once been...”
    She cut herself off abruptly, but Ferguson could guess her thoughts. “Father did more harm than good to your characters by keeping you shut away, didn’t he?”
    The carriage pulled up to the Stauntons’ townhouse. Maria looked outside, swallowed forcefully, then looked back at Ferguson. “Can’t we delay one more day?” she pleaded. “I didn’t even know we were calling anywhere. We assumed we were going to the park.”
    He was a heel, the worst sort of brother — and in this moment, using them for his own purposes, more like his father than he cared to admit. What he could not tell the twins was that he needed them as an excuse to call on the Stauntons. It was not an errand he would postpone, despite their reluctance.
    Because even though he was not proud of his spying, he had followed Madame Guerrier’s hackney coach the night before. And he watched her sneak out of the carriage and dash to the service entrance of Salford House.
    The actress was in there someplace, disguised — and no mere servant could take several nights a week to act onstage. He was determined to find her, even if he couldn’t win her.
    But he had never failed in a seduction before.
    Maria shivered as she looked at him, mistaking the steely determination on his face. “Very well, we’ll go,” she stammered.
    “You’ll quite like Lady Madeleine and her family,” he said, attempting to sound encouraging. “You will see, girls — you’ll be planning weddings before the season ends, never doubt it.”
    Kate winced, but he stepped out of the carriage to avoid her accusatory glare. The twins would be fine once they became accustomed to the idea.
    And if they didn’t make matches quickly, he would need a distraction. The challenge of finding Marguerite Guerrier — and claiming her in his bed — would be just the amusement he needed to survive the season.
    *         *         *
    Several hours after lunch, Madeleine sat in her aunt’s blue and gilt drawing room, staring at the ormolu clock on the mantel. She was trapped for at least another thirty minutes. She had drunk enough tea to float an armada, smiled at so many visitors that every facial movement felt like a grimace, and feigned serenity even though a growing headache rapped out a battle march behind her eyes.
    They had received over fifty callers already, all of whom had only one name on their lips.
    Ferguson’s sudden reappearance in London was the on dit of the day. It was universally agreed that he was just as handsome — and just as dangerous to a woman’s reputation — as ever. And the rumor mill had already discovered that he had gone to a theatre in Seven Dials the previous evening and abandoned his companions in favor of an actress.
    “How very like him,” they all whispered, gleeful to witness the start of another scandal. “Not in London above a week and already seeking a new mistress.”
    From the sharp look Amelia gave her, Madeleine knew her face had drained of color the first time she heard the story. By the fifth, she mastered her