Wedded in Scandal by Jade Lee Read Free Book Online Page A

stumbled backward.
    “Call your sister!” she cried. Then she did not wait for his high and mighty lordship to do it. She whirled around and bellowed. “Dribbs! Call Lady Gwen down here immediately!”
    She could tell that surprised Lord Redhill. It also seemed to stun Dribbs, who opened the door with his mouth hanging ajar.
    “My lord?” he asked.
    “Call Lady Gwen,” she ordered even though the question had not been directed at her.
    Dribbs glanced anxiously between his employer and Helaine. “Lady Gwen has left with the other ladies. They have decided to buy a flock of sheep for the porcelain shepherdess.”
    Helaine took a moment to comprehend that statement. Then she decided there was no profit to figuring it out. The point was that Gwen was not here to help her. Meanwhile, Lord Redhill took it as another sign of her perfidy.
    “How convenient for you,” he drawled. “I’m sure you saw her leave before you arrived at my doorstep.”
    “It is not blasted convenient!” she snapped. “And you are a bloody prig for saying it is!”
    If his lordship was surprised by her tone before, now he was downright flabbergasted. Or perhaps furious. It was hard to tell with his eyes glittering so brightly and his jaw tightened to granite.
    “Have a care, Mrs. Mortimer. I have been indulgent up to now, but my patience is exhausted.”
    “Then you should not go accusing people of thievery!” To her shame, her voice broke on the word. So she forced herself to take a deep breath, to push aside all the shame her father’s crimes had created, and to face Lord Redhill like the competent, accomplished and
strong
woman she was. “If you would do me the favor of
listening
, my lord, I shall explain everything.”
    He arched a brow then leaned back in his chair. “By all means, explain yourself,” he drawled. He meant to appear casual, but she could tell that he was anything but. He meant to see her hang, so she went into her explanation as if her life depended on it. Especially since it very well might.
    “I adore your sister,” she began. “She is a beautiful woman with a sweet temperament. A genuinely good person, and that, my lord, recommends her to me as nothing else.”
    “I am well aware of my sister’s accomplishments,” he said, his voice just short of threatening. “And that she also, unfortunately, shares in my father’s gullibility.”
    And there was the threat. Helaine merely glared it aside.
    “If you recall, I have been making dresses for your sister for her last two Seasons.” She could see by his face that he did
not
recall, and so she amended her statement. “Whether you recall or not, I have been dressing her and I’m quite proud to do it. So when she requested that I create her wedding trousseau, I was more than happy to do it.”
    “Of course you were,” he drawled.
    “I was,” she continued, again glaring her fury at him. “But I most specifically informed her of my problem.”
    He arched his brow and for the first time did not venture an opinion.
    “I am a small shop, my lord. Lady Gwen wants a large trousseau and she asked that I also dress her future in-laws as well. But it is more than my small shop can afford
on credit
.”
    She paused a moment and stared at him. Obviously he did not understand the most simple financial terms. That surprised her, given that he was by all accounts skilled in financial circles.
    “My lord,” she began again, “I cannot afford to buy the fabrics she requires. I do not have the ready blunt. And so Lady Gwen promised that she would pay for it. In advance.”
    And there it was out. The unheard-of practice of
not
buying on credit. For many in her position, it was a fact of life. For his lordship? He’d probably never even imagined the idea.
    She waited in taut silence, wondering if he would answer. In the end, he leaned forward, steepling his hands in front of him on the desk.
    “Is that why Starkweather refused to pay you? Because it was for goods you