Page 55 of Avenging the Earl's Lady
Was she?
“It is not,” Madame said.
“The painting?”Graciela had risen.“Youhad it, Lady Jane?”
“What did those men on the road take?”Lady Sirena asked.
Her lungs squeezed with anger and panic.All of her efforts would come to naught.Shaldon would take the painting from her, and to get any money to help her son, she’d have to marry the man, and on top of that, she’d have lost the friendship and respect of his children.
She clenched her fists, and felt heat rising within her.She would have been found out anyway eventually.She would have lost their respect anyway.“The men on the road took a landscape,” she said.“Itransported Lady Shaldon’s painting.I’m having it cleaned and reframed.”She lifted her chin.“Lord Shaldon knows I mean to sell it.”
A muffled cry on the stairs had Kincaid shoving the shop girl into the room and drawing a pistol.Madame pushed past Barton and Jane to join him, wielding a wicked pair of shears.
