Page 30 of A Rake's Redemption
She didn’t want to take Alex’s money. At least, not money she hadn’t earned through working with the horses. She would not even entertain the thought of accepting a house and fundsanywherein England. She knew where that would lead. Alex may say now it was simply a repayment for her help, but knowing how such arrangements transpired among Dublin’s nobility, it would only be a matter of months, maybe only weeks, before Alex would decide he needed return on his investment. And Inis would never tolerate becoming someone’s mistress…or, more likely, one of many.
Ireland was completely out of the question as well. She certainly wouldn’t need Alex’s money there since her uncle would never allow her to live independently. She’d be married off to Silas Desmond or some other buffoon as soon as it could be arranged. And Lord, she’d almost given herself away when Alex had asked about her O’Brien relatives. Having descended from Brian Boru, perhaps the greatest of Ireland’s High Kings, her O’Brien relatives were as rich as her Uncle William. If he didn’t secure a match for her, they certainly would. Lady Inis Fitzgerald would be expected to marry and produce an heir and spare, because that is what aristocrats did, whether in England or Ireland.
But not in America. In the States, titles didn’t matter. She would not be forced to marry someone she did not want. More and more, the idea of getting there appealed to her. She could start over, make of herelf what she wanted to be. She’d heard in America anything was possible. Inis set her mouth. Once this charade was over, she’d be on her way, hopefully before her true identity was revealed and Alex realized she’d deceived him, too.
Chapter Ten
Miranda looked around Melanie Linford’s drawing room Tuesday evening at the well-dressed men and women in attendance, including the Duke of Dansworth and Duchess. Caroline Nash would no doubt be in a dither, like she always was when her ex was present, but too bad. She resented the fact that Caroline was friends with Alex. And that she seemed to befriend that Irish woman who had somehow wormed her way into his home. She was fairly sure Inis O’Brien would never fit in with this crowd, especially not with the duke and his cronies, no matter what Alex thought.
“I do wish Lord Ashley had come,” she said after the gentlemen had vanished down the hall to escape the horrible warbling by some debutante playing the pianoforte. “Charles is still a bit miffed at him, and I was hoping differences could be smoothed over this evening.”
Jeannette Compton snorted. “That is quite humorous considering you are the cause of those differences, Miranda.”
“Oh, piddle. My husband does not even know for sure I had a man in my room,” Miranda replied. “By the time I opened the door, Lord Ashley had already slipped out the window.”
“I am surprised Alexander would be so bold,” Amelia said, “but then, he has always been brazen.”
You should talk, Caroline thought but bit back the words. Amelia certainly hadn’t hesitated about digging her claws into George and keeping her talons clenched tightly around him until the marriage vows had been said. “Perhaps we should not gossip about someone who is not here to defend himself.”
Jeannette was not about to be deterred by such an idea and looked at Miranda. “What did your husband say when the silk negligee arrived?”
Miranda waved a hand indifferently. “I simply said I had ordered it.”
“That is what I told my husband, too.” Melanie nodded.
Caroline stifled a smile. Trust Melanie not to let the opportunity pass to get her own reminder in.
“I told my husband the same thing,” Vanessa Caldwell, the Earl of Lockwood’s wife, said and then giggled. “So thoughtful of Lord Ashley to send such a nice, and naughty, parting present.”
“Parting present?” Miranda gave a trilling laugh. “I fully intend to wear mine when Lord Ashley pays his next call to me.”
“But you know he does not come back,” Vanessa said. “He pretty much tells us that.”
“He might tell you that,” Miranda replied smugly. “I know he will come back to me.”
Amelia raised one delicate eyebrow. “Am I to understand that Alexander has put each of you in a precarious situation?”
Jeannette snorted again. “Precarious, my foot. Accommodating is a better word.”
Vanessa giggled again. “I should say.”
“He doesaccommodatequite well, does he not?” Melanie asked.
Miranda gave them all daggered looks, but Amelia seemed amused. “And…afterward, Alexander sends each of you a negligee?”
“Yes,” Jeannette answered before anyone else could. “Ivory silk. It is their admission into the R Club.”
Amelia’s eyebrow lifted again. “The R Club?”
“The Ravaged Revelers. There are other members, too,” Jeannette said drily. “Of course, I would refuse to join such a club.”
Caroline managed to contain another grin. Jeannette was like a horse chomping at the bit to get home, or in this case, into Alex’s bed, which probably would never happen.
“I see,” Amelia said. “I wonder if George has any inkling this is going on.”
Chattering abruptly ceased amongst their group. Four ashen faces turned toward Amelia while Jeannette’s was crimson red. She had committed an unacceptable gaffe by bringing up the conversation in front of Amelia in the first place. Caroline suspected the ladies in question had all just realized their husbands werefriendsof George. The implications of the husbands all finding out they’d been cuckolded would have dire effects on their wives’ pin money, not to mention accounts at all the prestigious shops.
Amelia smiled. “But perhaps I could be persuaded not to say anything.”
