The Duke of Snow and Apples by Elizabeth Vail Read Free Book Online

wealthy son, and asked him whether he thought the year’s snowfall would come soon or late.

Chapter Five
    Charlotte woke the next morning at an unfashionably early hour, just past seven o’clock. Most ladies stayed abed until ten or eleven, for the sake of their beauty sleep. Having slept more or less consistently every night since the day she was born without her appearance improving one wink, Charlotte was less inclined to hold to that theory and had better things to do with her time.
    Today, there would be more battles to wage against the bachelors. More weapons to hone and polish in the form of knowing glances and clever remarks. Which combination of colors, magic, and lighting would best distract from the fact that she was only pleasant-looking, relatively graceful, moderately poised, and, when all was said and done, resolutely average in all the areas in which a proper wife was supposed to excel. All the areas in which Sylvia set the bar.
    In Charlotte’s mind, a quick, decisive ambush was the best way to land a victory at the altar. For that, she would need inside information. She wasn’t above a little espionage. That was why, after eating breakfast in her room, she summoned Lamonte with a yank of the gold-tassled bell-pull next to her bed.
    Unfortunately, Lamonte’s skills at lacing Charlotte’s stays just a little too tight for comfort and looping her hair into a flattering crown of braids did not translate into a skill for gossip. She remained irritatingly closemouthed, returning Charlotte’s questions and inquiries regarding the other guests with such pointedly cheerful evasions that Charlotte, had she not known better, might have suspected the lady’s maid of mocking her.
    Who else could she turn to? She had to ask a servant she could trust. She couldn’t afford to have a housemaid-turned-informant run off and gossip about Miss Charlotte Erlwood to the competition. That wouldn’t do at all.
    After sending the lady’s maid away, she grasped the bell-pull, and hesitated. She banished her nervousness with a shake of her head.
    “Freddy,” she said, then gave the rope a pull. A few moments passed in silence, enough to allow Charlotte to bring her tangled thoughts about the footman in order. She shouldn’t have encouraged him with the stone. While she’d taken it as a lovely gesture the first time, obviously she’d given him the wrong impression, and he’d gotten it into his head that she was more lenient than his usual employers.
    His behavior the evening before had nearly upset all her plans. She would just have to tell him when he arrived.
    A loud clanging rang from just outside her door. A moment later, Freddy entered the room, the bell on his shoulder-knot still shaking. He kept his eyes firmly pinned to the patch of carpet in front of his feet. “How may I assist you, miss?”
    She couldn’t win the war if she didn’t take a few risks. Fighting past a spurt of embarrassment, she said, “What I’m about to ask you cannot leave this room. You’re my footman for as long as I stay here, and that means I can rely on you for your discretion.”
    “Of course, miss.”
    “I need information.”
    His head jerked up. “I beg your pardon?”
    “On the other guests. The male, unmarried ones in particular.”
    He opened his mouth, but no words emerged, just silent exhalations of air. “Which— bachelors —did you have in mind?” he asked, at length.
    “All of them.”
    Freddy’s head ducked down again, not quickly enough to hide the slight tightening of his jaw, as if in exasperation.
    “I like to plan beforehand, so I need to know as much as possible,” Charlotte blurted. Why am I explaining myself? “Well, can you do it or not?”
    A slight pause. “There’s Viscount Elban, miss. I think he’s a musician. Pianoforte, I believe.”
    “Oh, I like him,” she said. Lord Elban was very handsome, almost disconcertingly so. It had been hard to look at him directly while at dinner, a bit