The Seduction of Lady X by Julia London Read Free Book Online Page B

voice. She was standing at the threshold, her face pale, her eyes swollen, and her hands clasped tightly before her. She looked at Mr. Fish, then at Harrison. “What has happened?” she asked. “Has something happened?”
    “Nothing has happened,” he assured her, walking briskly to the door. “Please go back to your room.”
    But her gaze was fixed on Mr. Fish. “You have inherited,” she said, and turned brown eyes to Harrison. “What have you inherited? What does it mean? Does it mean that—”
    “It means nothing,” he said quickly, and took her by the elbow, turning her around and ushering her out the door. “Please do return to your room, Miss Hastings. I will be with you shortly.”
    She glanced reluctantly over her shoulder at Mr. Fish before turning away.
    Harrison shut the door of the study and chafed at Mr. Fish’s sympathetic smile.
    “I see at least one reason you may be reluctant to welcome this news,” he said slyly.
    Harrison frowned. There was nothing he could say about Miss Hastings until he deciphered what had possessed him to take such a drastic step in offering to marry her. And what the bloody hell was he to do about it now? “Bollocks,” he muttered, and stalked to the windows, wondering how in the blazes he would extract himself from a quagmire that seemed to get deeper and thicker as the day wore on.

CHAPTER FOUR

     
    E dward made good on his promise to attempt to force Olivia to his will, but as was his trouble of late, he could not force himself. “You do this to me,” he’d said bitterly. “You remove all desire from a man.”
    On Sunday morning, Edward was subdued. He lingered over breakfast, reading aloud to Olivia from the Bible, having decided, what with the rain, that while the servants would make the quarter mile trek to church, the weather was too foul for him and his wife to venture out.
    Olivia sat quietly, pretending to listen to his lesson as he droned on. She was anxious for Alexa. She had not come back to the house last night, and Olivia wondered where Mr. Tolly had taken her. At least she could rest knowing that Alexa was in good hands.
    Olivia thought of Mr. Tolly, too, standing so proud and capable in Edward’s study, prepared to shoulder Alexa’s problem as his own to save her from the fate Edward would have handed her. Olivia tried to imagine how it would feel to have someone make a heroic gesture for her, to have someone gallop into Everdon Court and take her from the hellish marriage she’d suffered for six long years . . .
    She shook her head and absently folded her napkin. No one was going to save her. Save her from what? She was a marchioness, living in the lap of luxury, with all the trappings of wealth and privilege that entailed. She was not the first woman to have suffered a grim marriage.
    Unfortunately, Olivia had sealed her own fate when she’d agreed with her mother that Edward would make a fine husband.
    It was the night her family had dined at Everdon Court for the first time. What a young, inexperienced, silly fool she’d been! Olivia had been so taken by the great house, the furnishings, the artwork, and certainly Edward himself. He’d been charming, touching his finger to her cheek, remarking on her beauty. She’d thought him unremarkable in looks, but pleasant. He’d seemed so confident and assured, and Olivia had been enthralled by the idea of marriage and children.
    So had her mother. “Isn’t he lovely!” she’d exclaimed in the coach on the way home.
    “He seems very nice,” Olivia had agreed.
    “Nice! He has twenty thousand a year, Livi. You must think of that. It is so important that you marry well. I’ll not always be here to care for Alexa, so you must. We can scarcely rely on this one to make a suitable match, can we?” she’d asked, and had laughed as she patted Alexa’s knee.
    Alexa, who was twelve at the time, had taken great offense to that. “I shall never marry!” she’d declared. “I’ll not have a