The Adventuress by TASHA ALEXANDER Read Free Book Online Page B

profligacy, but when have you ever known him to actually follow through on something really outrageous? Does not my position on this point concur with what you were only just telling me about gentlemen and bachelors and marriage?”
    â€œI think it would be best if we abandoned the topic altogether. I shall speak with Bainbridge and ascertain exactly what he was up to during the night. In the meantime, I must go see the Sûreté. They should have the autopsy results by now.” He took me by the arm and steered me back toward the hotel before I could protest. His efforts would prove to be in vain eventually, as I had every intention of revisiting the subject later.
    Â 
    Amity
    Six months earlier
    How Jack managed to wrangle so much leave before being posted to Cairo was a mystery even to him. He half suspected Mr. Wells was behind it, although he could not determine how such a thing would be possible, even for the enterprising American. Not that he objected. Quite the contrary. He could not remember when he had enjoyed more pleasant company than that of Christabel and Amity. Some days he fancied himself in love with either or both of the girls, but he never could decide which he preferred, and he cringed at even making the comparison. Perhaps he could marry one of them and persuade his brother to take the other. After all, when one counted d’Artagnan, there had actually been four musketeers.
    When he saw the amber light of the sunset reflected on Christabel’s fair skin as they stood in the midst of Jaipur, the Pink City, her brow crinkled as she contemplated the best angle for a photograph, he was certain he should propose. Then, however, he noticed a deep longing in Amity’s eyes as she stared across the reflecting pool at the Taj Majal, and he wondered how any gentleman could resist wanting to know everything about her. He adored them both, but the truth was, he had no reason to think either was in love with him, and perhaps that was just as well.
    It was also just as well that he would soon be leaving India, for he could see that Mrs. Wells had grown tired of their endless excursions. She had come abroad with a purpose: to see her daughter well married. Jack knew she tolerated him only because he might eventually introduce Amity to his brother, the very eligible duke, and the more he considered the matter, the more he thought it a capital idea. Jeremy would gain an excellent, spirited wife. The dukedom (one hoped) would soon thereafter have a new heir. And he, Jack, would never again have to worry that he might be summoned permanently back to England. How could he finish exploring the Himalayas if he were forced by family obligation to live back home? He had begun a trek the previous year to see the great Peak XV—now called Everest after Sir George, who had identified it—but furious storms had prevented him reaching his goal. He was determined to set eyes on what the Great Trigonometrical Survey claimed to be the highest mountain on earth.
    From that day on, he regaled the girls with stories of his brother, presenting him in the best possible light. As he told them, he realized that Amity was unequivocally the right girl for Jeremy. He need not edit his brother’s history strategically, as he thought he might. Amity delighted in every scrape, every subterfuge, every debauch. She asked so many questions about him that Jack began to believe she was already falling for the duke.
    During Jack’s last week in India, they traveled to the Ajanta caves. Mrs. Wells had stayed behind. She had, she explained, seen the copies of their paintings displayed in the Crystal Palace in London before Amity had been born, and had no desire to make such a difficult trip to see the same thing again. Amity rolled her eyes, and complained that she ought to know the difference between a copy and an original, but her mother would not be persuaded, leaving Mr. Wells to organize and supervise the party. The