Rescued By a Lady's Love (Lords of Honor, #3) by Christi Caldwell Read Free Book Online Page A

own family; a child to love, an honorable husband.
    He eyed her a long while and, for one horrifying moment, she thought he somehow knew that deepest, darkest longing that would leave her exposed in ways she’d not have him see. But then the look was gone. “Guardianship was recently given over to The Beast of Blackthorne.”
    She looked at him askance.
    He motioned to his face. “The whole disfigurement business.”
    How ruthless they all were, these men who ruled the world.
    “As you can imagine, the man cannot maintain a proper staff and, subsequently, he cannot maintain a proper governess for the girl.”
    Winters blood and all, sadness filled Lily for that child. She knew the agony of losing one’s mother and father and being thrust alone into the world. Granted, the girl’s fate as a young lady, ward to a duke, was far more certain than Lily’s own miserable fate as a vicar’s daughter.
    Holdsworth fished around the front of his jacket and withdrew a stack of papers. He handed them over to her. “Go on. Take them.”
    Lily eyed them a moment and then took them from his long, gloved fingers.
    “They are references,” he said as she began to read.
    She raised her perplexed gaze to his.
    “You will have your property in Northumberland, as promised. Once I have the diamond, my circumstances improve greatly , and that cottage you crave, is a mere pittance I can easily be rid of.”
    Her heart tripped several erratic beats with giddy elation. But on the heel of that momentary trace of hope, came the cold crash of reality. No gentleman did anything unless it served him. And her security did not offer anything of worth to this man. “What do you want?” she asked, hating the tremble to that question.
    “Why, you are going to retrieve my diamond.” His lips turned up in a triumphant grin. “And you are going to do it by wheedling your way into the duke’s employ.”
    He was mad. Mad or desperate, and because of it, he would try and send her back into that vile home she’d been thrown from years earlier. She fisted the pages in her hands. “You are asking me to steal the diamond?” Incredulity crept into her tone.
    “Retrieve it,” he corrected. “And, yes.”
    She angled her chin up. “For your low opinion of me, I am no thief.” A whore, yes. A thief, never. Lily made to turn the false references over to him. Wordlessly, Holdsworth fished out another note. “What is this?” she asked not taking her gaze from his.
    “Take it,” he urged, pressing it toward her.
    Lily took the sheet with unsteady fingers. She ran her gaze over it and her stomach dipped. “I don’t understand.” Her words trembled.
    “It is a contract, my dear. I’m not fool enough to incriminate either of us.” Seeming unaffected by her turmoil, he stalked over to the sideboard and proceeded to pour himself another brandy. “It merely states that when you’ve successfully completed your tenure as governess to the Duke of Blackthorne, the property will pass to you.” He paused, stretching out the moment so only her guilty thoughts and churning desires marched on with a vicious potency. “Why, it is your freedom.”
    Lily clenched and unclenched the paper in her hands. This damning sheet that would make her a thief and send her along a new path of shame and ugliness—all for the vices of powerful men. Freedom . That word he dangled before her, floated on the air, tangible and real. Freedom from spreading her legs. Freedom from hunger. Freedom from men such as George and this ruthless gentleman before her.
    “Well, Miss Benedict?”
    She folded her arms close to herself, crunching the damning page. How she hated this selfish desire to do just as Holdsworth asked. Why should you not? Why, after everything you’ve endured, should you not have this small revenge against that hateful family? “There are too many uncertainties. How would I even go about finding this diamond? How can you orchestrate my placement within his