Tempting Her Reluctant Viscount by Catherine Hemmerling Read Free Book Online

else.”
    Hope took a little while longer to reply. Her mind was racing with all she had seen and heard today. Finally she said, “I suppose I can also be here. I would like to hear more about how the exchange plans to catch these fraudsters.”
    Lady Lancaster clapped her hands once. “Perfect. Then Michael, I suggest you take your leave while I arrange for some appropriate clothing for Hope. We will see you tomorrow.”
    Michael stood and said his farewells before making his exit. Hope changed out of her disguise into something more appropriate and then bade the duchess a good day. She was somewhat less than warm in her farewell, because she couldn’t help feeling she had been lied to somehow. It was a ridiculous notion, but Hope couldn’t shake it. Perhaps a good night’s sleep would put everything into perspective once again.
    At least she fervently hoped so.

Chapter Six
    Often anger is more destructive to the person experiencing it, rather than to the person that inspired it.
    ~The Duke of Lancaster
    The next day, Hope was walking to Lady Lancaster’s with her maid in tow. The trip was taking somewhat longer than usual because Hope was positively dragging her feet.
    Before Hope had left the mansion last night, the duchess had asked her to arrive an hour earlier than Lord Lichfield the next morning. She said that they needed the extra time to talk and Hope heartily agreed. However, now she could not find the enthusiasm to do so.
    Frankly, Hope was in an abysmally bad mood.
    In one day, it seemed that everything she believed in had been ripped away from her. Which she thought completely unfair, because until her run-in with Michael— Lord Lichfield , she sternly reminded herself—she had been feeling happier and more confident than ever.
    And while deep inside she knew the talk she was about to have with Lady Lancaster would remove much of her lingering doubts about her benefactress and, very likely, Michael, Hope wasn’t sure she wanted to feel better. For some reason, she was almost enjoying her foul mood. In her own estimation she had every right to be angry, but after everything was explained by the duchess—as surely everything would be—then what would she be left feeling? Certainly not the joy of love in which she had previously imagined herself to be. How stupid was she to think herself in love with someone she so very obviously did not even know?
    So call it fear, obtuseness, or sheer ridiculousness, but Hope did not want to talk to Lady Lancaster about it. She would much rather pout, whine, and rail against the indignities committed against her. It was just so much… safer than the alternative.
    With a sigh, Hope looked up to find she was already entering Grosvenor Square. She only lived two blocks from the square, so no amount of feet-dragging was going to delay the inevitable arrival by much more than a minute or two, but anyone of Hope’s acquaintance had to admire her effort—or lack of one, in this case. The especially humorous part was that Hope had allotted herself an extra fifteen minutes for what she planned to be a very slow walk to the Lancaster House so that she would not be late.
    Good Lord. Even in her positively wallow-y temper, she could not bring herself to be anything less than respectful to her superiors, especially her elder superiors.
    Hope shook her head in dismay as she walked up the front steps to Lady Lancaster’s house and knocked on the door. By her estimation, she was actually early, for goodness sake. If that wasn’t the most absurd thing—
    The opening of the front door by Jacobs interrupted Hope’s berating thoughts. “The duchess is expecting you, Miss Stuckeley. Please follow me,” Jacobs intoned evenly.
    Hope nodded morosely and followed the somber man. Of course Lady Lancaster was expecting her. Why shouldn’t she be expecting her? Didn’t Hope do everything that was expected of her? Even her dressing up as a gentleman from time to time didn’t completely