The Importance Of Being Wicked by Miranda Neville Read Free Book Online

would call him good-looking. And he’s very large. I think that’s comforting in a man.”
    Anne looked at Caro in astonishment. Her cousin seemed to be quite serious. She herself hadn’t noticed anything out of the way about her noble suitor except for his size.
    “Well?”
    “He has broad shoulders that look like they could bear a lot of weight. Or dig a hole,” she said hopefully.
    Caro regarded her fondly. “We must hope that Castleton, or some other man, will share your passion for excavating the crumbled ruins of the past. At the very least, I want you to marry someone you won’t end up disliking. Think of being tied for life to someone you loathed, as poor Cynthia is.”
    “I don’t think I’ll be hard to please.” She’d never regarded marriage as anything but a duty she owed her position in life. Something she needed to do and hoped wouldn’t interfere with the pursuit of her real interests. “I liked Felix Brotherton even though we were really more like brother and sister. I’m very sorry he died, and now I have to go to all the trouble of finding a different husband to look after the Brotherton estates. I hoped Castleton would suit.”
    “And so he may.”
    “So you don’t advise me to reject him?”
    “It’s too early for me to judge if he is anything more than a Lord Stuffy. But I would say he isn’t without promise. He just needs to be tested a little.”
    “Morrissey won’t be pleased if I reject such an ideal match.”
    “We have months before he returns from Ireland. Plenty of time to get rid of Castleton if you don’t like him. In the meantime, you must give him a chance.” That was reasonable. Unusually reasonable for Caro, whom she would have expected to urge rebellion.
    “Apparently he is going to escort us to Almack’s on Wednesday. Er . . . What is Almack’s?”
    “An assembly room in King Street that holds weekly balls. Only the very best people are admitted.”
    “Excellent. You and I are, after all, two of the very best people. Are the balls entertaining?”
    “I wouldn’t know, having never attended. It’s necessary to obtain vouchers from the lady patronesses.” Caro didn’t have to explain. Anne understood that the Townsends, despite impeccable birth and connections, had always preferred to avoid the ton. “Not that I’ve ever been denied admission. I’ve never applied.”
    Anne heard a note of bravado in Caro’s voice. Even for her dauntless cousin, it was one thing to eschew such places, quite another to be denied admittance. “I think it sounds very dull,” she said. “Let’s make sure we always have something better to do on Wednesdays.”

Chapter 4
    A t eleven o’clock the doors to Almack’s closed, and late arrivals were no longer admitted. Of Miss Brotherton and Mrs. Townsend, there was no sign. Thomas, who’d spent an hour and a half dancing and making small talk with the sort of girls he’d have courted if Felix Brotherton hadn’t done him the favor of dying, was not altogether surprised. When he’d received Mrs. Townsend’s excuse of an early-evening engagement, he’d smelled a rat. It will be more convenient if we meet you at Almack’s , she wrote. More convenient for whom?
    Clearly, she was determined to keep her cousin away from him, but she wasn’t going to succeed. If the heiress didn’t want to have him, that was her privilege. But he’d be damned if her little snip of a cousin was going to make the decision.
    He excused himself from his hostesses and a bevy of disappointed chaperones, and made his way on foot to Conduit Street. He didn’t really anticipate that the ladies would be home; he certainly didn’t expect to be handed a note, addressed to His Grace the Most Noble Duke of Castleton in a florid and definitely ironic hand. Mrs. Townsend informed him that their plans had changed and gave him new instructions. Apparently the game wasn’t quite what he’d thought.
    He continued his walk north to Oxford Street and