The Conquest of Lady Cassandra by Madeline Hunter Read Free Book Online Page B

had a little argument with a friend on a question of etiquette. Or maybe it was a question of morals. My friend faced a peculiar dilemma—” A tap on her arm distracted her. Sophie leaned toward her and whispered in her ear.
    “Mr. Higgins, my servant sees the library through those doors. She is something of a bluestocking. Indeed, that is how she came to be a paid companion—all that reading made her unfit for marriage. Would you mind if she perused the volumes on the shelves? She promises not to touch any.”
    “Of course she may. Nor do I think my lord would mind if she removed one or two to look more closely. The best bindery is used, as she will soon see.”
    Without a word, the gray ghost rose and drifted across the chamber to the library door. Mr. Higgins watched. A puzzled frown formed on his face.
    Cassandra claimed his attention again. “As I was saying, my friend had a dilemma. She wrote a letter to her mother, and posted it, but soon regretted its contents. She told me that she planned to intercept the letter prior to her mother reading it. Well, I said that was stealing. She insisted it was not. She claimed that until her mother opened it, the letter was still in transit. Which of us was correct, do you think?”
    “I suppose, once posted, it belongs to the postal service, until it is delivered and paid for by the recipient, at which time it belongs to the recipient.”
    “So you agree that if intercepted, it is not stealing?”
    “Not from her mother, if it is done before delivery. Of course, that would not be possible. The postal service does not hand over the mail.”
    “No. I suppose not.” Behind Mr. Higgins, a gray form floated this way and that in the library. “Here was the situation that my friend faced. If she intercepted that letter, she would be doing a kindness. If her mother read it, the contents would only bring grief. You can see the moral quandary, I am sure.”
    Mr. Higgins nodded and looked sympathetic. “I do not envy her the choice. How did she resolve it?”
    “She had her mother’s maid remove it from the delivered mail and return it before her mother saw it.”
    Higgins frowned on hearing that a servant had stolen the letter.
    “Now she wants to give the maid a gift. A token of her appreciation in sparing her mother all that sorrow. What so you think, Mr. Higgins? Can she do this without it tainting the maid’s good intentions?”
    “I suppose, since the maid risked her mistress’s displeasure, a small gift might be in order.”
    “How small? If it were you, for example, what would you think was in order, but not so much as to smell of payment for services rendered?”
    “
Me?
I would never do such a thing, so no amount would be in order.”
    “Not even to spare your master great anguish?”
    “I can’t imagine a letter would ever cause Lord Ambury
anguish
.”
    “Perhaps a letter would lead him to challenge a man, and end up dead. Would it not be worth a slight deception to avoid that?”
    “Dead! Goodness, what was in that letter your friend wrote to her mother? Something very shocking, I am beginning to suspect, if you equate it with an insult so severe as to require a duel.”
    Cassandra looked from one side to the other, as if checking to be sure no one would hear. The only other person in the chambers had disappeared in the library. Mr. Higgins leaned forward, more interested in the answer than he would probably want to admit.
    “She had confessed to a liaison with a man,” Cassandra whispered.
    “No!”
    “A most illustrious man. I dare not say his name, but Iassure you that this man is very well-known to
everyone
in the realm.”
    “You mean…Surely not…Goodness, she put this in writing? How indiscreet, even if it was to a mother.”
    “Exactly. So you can see the dilemma. For her, it was a matter of life and death in a way, and the prospect of a huge scandal loomed that would affect her whole family and even the reputation of—but I must not say!