Never a Bride by Amelia Grey Read Free Book Online

“Sometimes, but not often.”
    “Do they look at you when you are there?”
    “No. I don’t look at them, and they don’t look at me.”
    “How do you know they don’t look at you if you don’t look at them to see them not looking at you?”
    “One, because those are places for gentlemen to act like gentlemen. Two, there are other places for a man to go if he wants to look at servants. Three, the way my upper lip is twisted out of shape no man wants to look at me.”
    Mirabella smiled affectionately at her portly maid. “I think any man should want to look at you. I think you have a pretty face with lovely eyes.”
    “Well, you are the only one who thinks that, Miss Bella. And why are you asking me all these questions about clubs and taverns?”
    “Merciful heavens, Lily, you have no reason to worry so much about me doing something wrong. I am only trying to learn a few things that you already know. Now, what exactly happens at a bathhouse?”
    “I don’t know. I can’t tell you because I haven’t been to one and most women haven’t. Now, Miss Bella, we have to stop this kind of talk. It’s not proper.”
    Mirabella stepped out of her shift and drawers and into the warm water, a plan forming in her mind. Maybe going to a bathhouse was beyond the pale even for a female servant, but what about being a male servant in a tavern or a gentleman’s club where men felt relaxed and at ease. It seemed to her that it would be a perfect way to see a man’s neck and to search for a scar. It would be risky, but certainly not any more risky than allowing gentlemen to take her into the garden for a kiss. She had to consider the idea of posing as a servant and give it careful thought.
    This kissing business was getting her nowhere fast.

Three

    Candlelight threw millions of sparkles and glimmers across the crowded room. Camden scanned the faces of women dressed in colorful gowns and skirts that swept across the dance floor. He’d had a moment’s hesitation when he first walked through the entrance, but he’d managed to shake free of the past before it had grabbed hold of him. He was going to be all right.
    He wasn’t really here to let the ton know that he was over what had happened six years ago, or to catch his fiancée unaware as Hudson thought. He was searching for the young lady who’d been brave enough to leave a party without a chaperone, talk to a stranger in the dark of night, and kiss the side of his mouth.
    Every time she crossed his mind, his heart beat a little faster than normal. She had been so appealing that he hadn’t been able to get her out of his thoughts for more than a few minutes at a time.
    Camden smiled to himself. He wouldn’t have thought it possible, but it was true. He had been seduced.
    She was the real reason he was here tonight. No other.
    He had always considered himself a man of honor, and duty called. His father was right. It was past time he should have respected the engagement and made his fiancée his bride, but right now he couldn’t muster any enthusiasm to wed that young lady. He had wanted to wait until he made enough money in America so that he could be free of his father and the title, if he so chose.
    It had been his choice to allow his father to bind him to a woman he’d never met. Having his father pick a bride for him seemed the best way to avoid falling in love, a trap he never wanted to be caught in again. He didn’t have a problem with the earl picking his bride, but Camden had wanted to set the time for the marriage. And he’d wanted to wait another year.
    Few men fell in love with their wives if they didn’t love them before marriage. He was confident he’d never fall in love again. He’d come to know many beautiful women in America, and he hadn’t even come close to thinking he was in love with any of them.
    But the intriguing lady he’d met last night had certainly caught his attention. He didn’t mind being amazed or infatuated with the fairer sex.