Mistress at Midnight by Sophia James Read Free Book Online Page A

with Elizabeth’s unrelenting innocence in the light of his thoughts in the carriage, or the hopeful encouragement of her mother. He also knew that as the host he should not have left the party, but the opportunity for time alone with Aurelia St Harlow had been too enticing.
    Cassandra Lindsay greeted him as he walked back into his downstairs salon a little time later.
    ‘Lady Elizabeth has been asking after you, Hawk. I said that I had seen you in conversation with Lord Calthorp and that you were heading towards the library.’
    Sometimes, Hawkhurst felt Cassie knew a lot more than she let on.
    ‘Business,’ he returned and took a drink from one of the passing waiters as Nat and Lucas joined them.
    ‘The St Harlow widow is gone, then?’ Luc asked. ‘She looked nothing like the sort of wife I imagined Charles to take.’
    ‘What had you imagined?’ Nathaniel asked the question and Stephen was glad for it.
    ‘Someone of less substance, perhaps.’
    ‘Leonora Beauchamp spoke very highly of the sister, too,’ Cassie put in. ‘There are two other younger sisters, by her account, who will be out in the next few years.’
    ‘And the father?’ Stephen did not want to ask the question, but found himself doing so.
    ‘Sir Richard Beauchamp. He keeps to himself and seldom ventures into town. Heis known as somewhat of an eccentric academic, a man of few words and little animation. Mrs St Harlow drives him around the park on a Monday afternoon straight after the luncheon hour, but they rarely stop to socialise with anyone.’
    ‘I get the feeling she is not quite the woman that society paints her to be.’ Lucas’s smile was puzzled.
    ‘If she wore a dress that showed off something of her very fine figure and a style that enhanced the vivid red of her hair she could be an original. Where on earth do you think she got the black gown? It looked like something a dowager would have worn back in the Regency days.’ Cassandra addressed the query to Hawkhurst, who shrugged it off as he watched his uncle thread his way through the room to join them.
    ‘I cannot find her anywhere, Stephen. Mrs St Harlow is quite gone.’
    ‘That is because I ordered a carriage to take her home, Alfred.’
    ‘Your man said that you were in it, too.’ Opaque eyes glinted in the sort of wily knowledge few understood his uncle to have retained. He was pleased Elizabeth was speaking with her mother a little way off,though he knew from the flare in Cassie’s eyes that she would make much of the revelation when she was able. Both Nat and Luc displayed no trace of hearing anything.
    A careful neglect, he surmised, and turned his attention back to Elizabeth Berkeley as she joined them.
    ‘Your ball is becoming the very crush of the Season, my lord. I have never in all my life seen so many of the ton in one place and dancing.’
    Stephen smiled, Elizabeth’s bright and happy reflection making him relax. ‘Lady Lindsay and Mrs Clairmont had a great deal of say in the organisation. Any success owes more to their management than my own.’
    ‘Mama says that it is a rare man who can inveigle so many to attend in the first place, and the supper was magnificent. Why, there are people here I have not seen venture out to any other soirée all Season.’
    ‘The power of a fortune is not to be easily underestimated, Lady Elizabeth.’ Nat’s tone was laconic.
    ‘I said exactly the same to my friends, Lord Lindsay, and they were all in agreement.’
    ‘Then I rest my case.’
    Elizabeth’s fluster made Hawkhurst want to laugh, her innocence no match for the cynicism of his friend, but he did not because in the admission of such naivety another quandary rose unbidden. Could he really live for ever in the shadow of such unimpeachable trust without wanting more? The quick burst of risk? The enlivening rush of a gamble?
    Leonora Beauchamp swept by them in the arms of Rodney Northrup at that very moment, all blond curls and youthful exuberance, the waltz