When You're Desired by Tamara Lejeune Read Free Book Online

back tears as Flood applied witch hazel to her swollen cheek. Flood crooned to her softly.
    Fitzclarence was lounging on the pink sofa in the next room. The muslin curtain had not been drawn between the two areas, and he had an excellent view of Celia at her dressing table. “Well?” he drawled. “Are we going to have a bruise or not?”
    Pushing Flood away, Celia inspected her face in the mirror. One cheek did indeed look pinker than the other. “I should have hit her back,” she muttered angrily. “One should always hit back. Else the blows keep coming.”
    â€œIndeed,” said Fitzclarence.
    â€œI ran away,” Celia continued bitterly. “In the army, I’d be shot for cowardice.”
    â€œYou were perfect,” he told her firmly. “You showed her how a lady behaves. You curtsied like a princess, and you left the room like a queen. I was proud of you.”
    â€œI should have kicked her,” Celia insisted. “That bitch!”
    â€œThat bitch,” said Fitzclarence, “has a dowry of three hundred thousand pounds.”
    â€œWorth every penny,” Celia sneered. “She will make him a proper duchess.”
    He laughed. “Oh, he ’s not going to marry her. I am. I’ve just decided. And when she is my wife, Celia, you shall be avenged. I shall send her to bed without any supper. Worse, I shall send her to bed without me .”
    Celia rose from her dressing table, and Flood, anticipating her mistress’s needs, instantly was there with the actress’s cloak. As Flood fastened the clasp at her throat, Celia pulled on her gloves. “Of course he is to marry her,” the actress said crossly. “Why else would he have anything to do with that cross-eyed pig of a girl?”
    â€œShall we wager on it?” he said, grinning.
    â€œIf you marry Miss Tinsley, I’ll give you a thousand pounds for a wedding present.”
    â€œAnd if the Duke of Berkshire marries her, I . . . I shall go into a monastery!”
    Celia could not help laughing.
    â€œI am quite serious, you know,” he said. “Her Grace remarked on what a pretty-behaved girl you are. The duke could not take his eyes off of you. You have made a conquest there, I think.”
    She tossed her head. “Another one? How nice for me.”
    â€œHe has forty thousand a year,” Fitzclarence said persuasively. “He is a widower. He has no heir.”
    â€œThen he is as good as married,” Celia said impatiently. “And, therefore, no good to me. I don’t want to be anybody’s kept mistress.”
    â€œBut you’re clever. You could make him marry you.”
    â€œNaturally, I could,” she said airily. “But then what?”
    â€œWell, you’d be a duchess. That’s something.”
    â€œI’d be his property,” she retorted. “I’d be locked in a cage for the rest of my life, and he would hold the key. I may be clever, but am not such a fool as that.”
    He laughed. “Don’t you want a husband?”
    â€œLord, no!” Celia replied, shuddering. “I’d rather have gallstones.”
    â€œMy father had gallstones,” said Fitzclarence. “He suffered greatly. Gallstones are no laughing matter.”
    â€œNeither are husbands,” Celia said tartly.
    â€œYet many ladies do laugh at them,” he said.
    â€œNaturally one laughs at other people’s husbands,” said Celia. “It’s only polite! One’s own husband is not so amusing.”
    â€œWhat?” said Fitzclarence, starting up in surprise. “ You have a husband?”
    â€œWe do not speak of him,” said Flood, firmly, “and he is moldering in his grave.”
    â€œYou’re quite right, Flood,” Celia said contritely. “He left us a little money, anyway, so we should not speak ill of him. Shall we go?” she said, picking up her reticule and her newly