Lady Vice by Wendy LaCapra Read Free Book Online

to the crown.”
    “What kind of service?” he asked.
    Sophia rose and perused her shelves.
    “He wrote nationalist poetry. Ah, here.” Lady Sophia pulled a book from her collection and ran her finger along the spine. “Beautiful, gold-gilt bindings and the very best parchment.”
    “Filled with obsequious praise for the monarch,” the duchess added. “Just the thing to catch a king’s notice.”
    He twisted his lips in wry irony. And here he had sacrificed so much, hoping in vain to be raised to the peerage—for Lavinia’s sake. How young and stupid he’d been.
    “Vaile’s father gained a title but hadn’t a cent to his name,” Lavinia said. “He spent every dime publishing his work on his own.”
    “Vaile needed money, then,” Max said.
    “Yes. He inherited the title and the debt.” Lavinia’s eyes were blank and distant. “The first Baron Vaile never managed to save enough to purchase his own residence and Vaile was raised in the marquess’s home.”
    He frowned. “When Vaile married you, he gained a fortune.”
    A chilling half smile lifted Lavinia’s lip. “No. He gained a fortune to manage.”
    You could have trusted me. He fancied he could read the repeated accusation behind her eyes.
    “Vaile did not get the one thing he most wished to have,” she continued, smooth and polished as a Chippendale desk. “My father devised a trust that specified the principal of my inheritance would remain intact in the form of property and investments. Vaile, though trustee, could only access the interest and pay my expenses…until there was a child.”
    Neither of Lavinia’s parents had told him of the arrangement. Then again, they had rarely spoken of their daughter—at least not to Max. Though, considering her father’s view of the idle rich, Max was not surprised Wiggins had done his best to protect his daughter’s fortune.
    “And then?” Max asked.
    “On that point, my father felt duty-bound to concede.” Lavinia placed her hand over her stomach. “If I had issue, half my fortune would have passed into Vaile’s complete control.”
    Issue . What an odd word for a woman to use for a child. How terribly had Vaile treated her? She had tried to tell him. He scowled. Next time, he would listen. Next time…
    I will never again place myself in the hands of a man , she had said.
    Not even if he would risk everything for you? He crouched by her knees.
    He imagined another night. A night when a lonely, innocent Lavinia had followed Vaile into the darkness of a garden, unsuspecting she was about to lose innocence, freedom, and the only home she’d known.
    His heart caught in his throat. Yes, he’d languished in prison. But she, too, had been in a prison—of Vaile’s making.
    “I am sorry, Lavinia.” He should have been there. She should not have been alone.
    “You needn’t be sorry for Lady Vaile, Mr. Harrison,” Thea said.
    He placed his hand over hers. “You are distressed.”
    “The topic is upsetting, naturally,” she said, her voice flat.
    “You said earlier he still controlled your inheritance. How is that, if the trust is yours?”
    “Vaile is—was—my trustee. Although a distant cousin of my mother’s was also appointed, he was rarely involved. And the laws of coverture, of course, applied. You know a woman’s legal rights and obligations are subsumed by her husband. The trust was mine, but he had the right to disburse the income.”
    Max recalled the gown she wore last evening: ribbed crimson silk, brocaded with silver thread. He cocked his head.
    “You have flaunted your expenses since you left,” he said, “knowing Vaile could not deny your bills and would rage over every penny he had to pay.”
    “What if I did?” she asked, diffusing ice-queen frost. “Spare me the insult to your male sensibility. Coverture has some advantages among much degradation. Yes, I wanted him to taste just a small measure of the helpless humiliation he had forced on me. No, I did not take