To Pleasure a Prince by Sabrina Jeffries Read Free Book Online Page A

it was an inconvenience, and it became more so every day. Not to mention the burden it put on her cousin. Cicely was twice Regina’s age, and her eyes were failing. She’d never been in the best of health, but now she was downright sickly. Soon, being Regina’s companion would be too much for her.
    “What was the viscount like?” Cicely asked from across the carriage. “Was he as frightening in person as everyone says?”
    “Not at all.” No reason to alarm Cicely any further.
    “I heard that he was handsome before his riding accident.”
    Regina’s curiosity was roused. “Is that how he got the scar on his face?”
    “That’s what his mother told yours.”
    “What kind of riding accident was it?”
    Cicely’s nimble fingers continued netting at an even pace. “Lady Draker was vague on the details, but it happened around the time his father died, right after he reached his majority. The viscount was probably too grief-stricken to heed where he rode, so he took a fall. No one really knows for sure.”
    The thought of Lord Draker grief-stricken and wounded muddied the image Regina had formed of him. She had assumed he’d received his scar from some fellow who didn’t appreciate his acting like his usual obnoxious self.
    The carriage rumbled along for a few moments. “A pity about the scar,” Cicely finally said. “I suppose it makes him hideous now.”
    “No, indeed,” Regina said quickly.
    Curiosity shone in Cicely’s face. “Then he’s still handsome?”
    “Not exactly.” He was arresting. Powerful. A most intriguing man.
    But not handsome, not with that fur all over his face. Then again, if he were clean-shaven and dressed like a gentleman instead of a dusty hermit—
    “It hardly matters what he looks like, does it?” she said peevishly. “I only have to endure the courtship while Simon courts Louisa.”
    “Courtship?” Cicely squeaked. “He’s courting you?”
    Drat it all, she hadn’t meant to say that. “Well, sort of—”
    A shout sounded from the road ahead, and the carriage jerked suddenly to a halt, throwing her forward into Cicely.
    “What the dickens—” Regina muttered as she scrambled off her cousin.
    “Your Grace!” came the alarmed voice of the coachman from up on the perch. “Did you require—”
    “I require my sister!” boomed a voice that made Regina groan. Then the carriage door swung open to reveal the one person she didn’t presently want to see.
    Her brother.
    Simon glared at her through the open door, his golden hair disheveled and his blue eyes glittering. “This time you’ve gone too far.” He flung himself into the carriage beside Cicely, then ordered the coachman to drive on.
    As the carriage lurched forward, Regina glanced out to see Simon’s tiger wheel his phaeton around. Sweet heaven, Simon had come after her in his fastest phaeton, which he reserved only for dire emergencies or rides with His Highness.
    That could only mean trouble, so Regina didn’t give him the chance to launch into a tirade. “How kind of you to come all this way to accompany us, Simon. But you needn’t have bothered.”
    He scowled. “Don’t you try to turn me up sweet—you know very well you had no business going out to Castlemaine.”
    “What’s wrong with paying a visit to my friend’s brother?”
    “You risked your reputation by going to a bachelor’s home—”
    “Cicely was with me. Besides, no one saw me out there. And since when do you care about my reputation? You wanted me to risk it by helping you sneak a young woman away from her guardians to meet you privately.”
    Simon eyed her with suspicion. “You didn’t tell Draker that, did you?”
    “What I did was convince him to let you court Louisa for a month.”
    He blinked. “You must be joking.”
    “No, indeed,” Cicely put in. “Regina’s got a note from him to take to Lady Iversley, asking her to invite you to the soiree at her house tomorrow night.”
    Looking flummoxed, Simon fell back