Lessons of Desire by Madeline Hunter Read Free Book Online Page B

as your companion. I will only be in your way, and your studies will only delay my plans. I propose that we separate once we leave Naples."
    "That is not possible."
    "Gentile Sansoni will never know."
    "His reach extends beyond this city. Also, I gave my sworn word and that is one of the stupid social rules that I take very seriously."
    "Sir—"
    "No, Miss Blair. The morning after next we will depart together. We will sail down to Positano first, then to Amalfi and journey back up by land."
    "I want to go to Pompeii immediately."
    "The delay will be brief. I promised to visit a friend in Positano and he expects me sooner rather than later. If you are here as a tourist you should welcome a few days visiting the coastline south of here. It is spectacular."
    She did not appear to welcome it at all. He anticipated seeing that strained annoyance in her eyes for the next several weeks.
    They turned to retrace their paths. He almost stumbled over a young child who had been trailing them. Big black eyes looked up in the wordless hope one saw among the most impoverished of the city's children. This one did not beg outright but her frail, little body and ragged dress made the plea for her, poignantly.
    He fished in his waistcoat pocket. By the time the coin emerged two more children had appeared by her side. More were coming, drawn by instinct to the Englishman who did not know better than to indulge the child beggars of Naples.
    He found more coin. Miss Blair did not seem frightened by the crush of anxious poverty the way most women did. She tried talking to the first little girl while her hand dove somewhere amidst the drapery at her hip.
    They waded together through a little lake of black eyes and sun-baked bodies, handing out coin until all they had was gone.
    They returned to the carriage without further arguments. She only spoke one more time before he left her at her apartment.
    "We leave in the morning, the day after tomorrow, you say? Then I suppose I have no choice but to prepare accordingly."
    Her apparent submission did not fool him. He left to make his own preparations.
     
     
    Phaedra retrieved the cameo from the shawl. She wrapped it in a handkerchief and pinned the little bundle inside the pocket deep in the skirts of her dress. Then she draped the shawl itself over her head and tied it beneath her chin.

She checked her valise, itemizing again the garments and items that she had snuffed inside it. She prided herself on an absence of feminine vanity but it still irritated her that she would be reduced to so little clothing for the next week.
    It was all Lord Elliot's fault. Everyone knew that an oath sworn under duress did not count, and one sworn to save a woman from an uncertain fate qualified as duress to her mind. His insistence on keeping his word vexed her. Just her luck that the only person available to help her out of her dilemma had been a man with outmoded notions of strict honor.
    She would not allow him to force them both to be victims of his narrow-mindedness. He did not want her company any more than she wanted his. There would be nothing but trouble between them.
    One of those men who buzz around the queen. The man was incapable of understanding the honest and sincere friendships she had enjoyed with a few rare, like-minded men. It would shock him to learn that some men could rise above the primitive urges of possession and dominance that had caused so much grief in history and in women's lives. There were actually men for whom sensuality did not evoke the need to also take and conquer and require submission.
    Well, it was not her responsibility to explain it. Doing so would be a fruitless endeavor and would require that she spend more time with him,
    She left a note and some money on her portmanteau, to ensure Signora Cirillo understood she would soon return for it. Then she slipped out of her apartment and into the dark corridor. She felt her way to the stairs.
    Light of step, swathed in black, she