Lord of Deceit (Heiress Games Book 2) by Sara Ramsey Read Free Book Online Page B

parishes had to support. But he wasn’t a saint. And she suspected that at least half his motivation for this legislation was to keep anyone from looking too closely at his own morality.
    Which is why she should have guessed that the caricatures bothered him more than her. If someone was targeting him, there was always a chance that his secret life could come to light.
    And even at her angriest — even as the rage started to build within her — she didn’t want that to happen to him.
    Somerville held up his hands. “If I thought I could keep you, I would,” he said. “I cannot imagine life without you. And I have been very grateful for the time you’ve given me….”
    “Were the diamonds a show of your gratitude?” she asked.
    He flushed.
    Somerville never flushed.
    “I am sorry,” he said. “I truly am. But you surely understand. You know the ton as well as I do. If I marry, it will keep other rumors at bay. And it will reinforce the belief that I am an appropriate leader.”
    “Fox had a mistress forever. He even married her. No one ran him out of the government,” she pointed out. Waspishly, perhaps. A self-respecting courtesan wouldn’t have begged Somerville to keep her…but Octavia wasn’t playing a role tonight.
    “Yes, but Fox led the House of Commons without campaigning on a platform of morality,” Somerville said. “And you know that whatever his secrets and scandals were, they weren’t the same as mine.”
    She knew that. Still, she wasn’t quite ready to forgive him. “When do you expect me to leave? Shall I call Agnes and have her pack my dresses tonight?”
    “Tonight isn’t necessary,” he said quickly.
    He didn’t say anything else for a long moment. She narrowed her eyes. “You were the one who did this. Do you expect me to volunteer to leave?”
    He winced. “That would make everything easier.”
    “ Easier ?” Her temper was beyond anything she’d felt in years. Possibly not since the moment when she’d realized that Lucy had told Julian about Lord Chapman’s kiss — and that rage had been muted by shock, happening as it had over her brother’s still-dying body. “You want to make things easier ? You should have thought of that before you turned me out on my ear. Would you like to wait until morning, then publicly toss me into the street so your precious Castlereagh knows I’m gone?”
    He held up his hands again. “I’ve found another option for you,” he said. “One that could be as convenient as ours has been. I have a friend. A…good friend. He’s in rather urgent need of a mistress.”
    Octavia frowned, straining to hear through the pulse beat of anger. “Are you becoming a procurer? Doesn’t that go against all of your anti-vice preaching?”
    Somerville adjusted his cravat. “You know it’s not like that. It would be the same agreement we had. You would be his mistress in name only, hosting parties and attending events to which women of your status are welcome. No, er…no favors required.”
    “You mean that I wouldn’t share his bed,” she said.
    Somerville nodded.
    “And how long would this arrangement last? Until he needs a wife? Until I become inconvenient to him?”
    Somerville sidestepped the accusation in her voice. “He doesn’t wish to marry. But a long-standing mistress would prevent rumors. He could pass you off as a love match, one he might have married if the circumstances were correct. He suggested that the arrangement might, perhaps, become permanent.”
    Octavia’s frown deepened.
    “If, of course, you tolerate each other well enough,” Somerville added quickly. “But you and I got along famously. I expect you would like him just as well.”
    “You’ve been planning this, haven’t you?” she asked.
    He paused for a long time, speechless as she had never known him to be.
    Then he nodded, once.
    She had no romantic feelings for him at all. But that moment of betrayal was enough to break her heart.
    She took a deep breath.