Page 64 of Three Weeks with a Princess
“Aside from your face, that is,” Barbara added. “But nobody can see that.”
Lia grimaced. “I’m not very good at this, am I?”
“It just takes a little getting used to,” Amy said. “You’ll be fine.”
“Especially once you’ve had your first lover. Then you’ll start to have some fun with it,” Barbara added.
Lia managed to dredge up a weak smile. There wasn’t one thing about any of this that struck her as fun.
Amy studied her with a thoughtful expression. “How about asking that lovely bloke who came to see you at the theater? Lord Lendale, was it?”
“He’d be the last person I could ask to be my protector,” she said in a gloomy tone.
“Turn you down, would he?” Amy asked sympathetically.
“He doesn’t approve of this sort of thing. He’s very respectable and he’d kill me if he knew what I was doing tonight.”
Lia hadn’t seen Jack for some days, not since that dreadful night at Leverton House. Dominic had all but forbidden contact between them on the grounds that it would only exacerbate gossip. Jack had objected but had eventually—if reluctantly—agreed that it was necessary to safeguard what little reputation she had left. Though it was an eminently sensible decision, Lia couldn’t help missing him with an ache now permanently lodged in her heart.
Still, if it helped usher Jack from her life, so much the better for him.
“You don’t seem very enthusiastic about finding a lover,” Barbara said. “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
Lia winced. “I was hoping it wasn’t so obvious. But, yes, I do want to go through with this. And I’m ever so grateful that you two agreed to help me.”
Approaching Amy for help had been the only idea Lia was able to come up with. Dubious at first, the young woman had eventually come around.
“I just hope Mrs. Lester doesn’t throw my arse out onto the street for bringing you here,” Amy said. “I don’t understand why your own ma won’t help you. After all, it’s how she got her start.”
“Her reasons don’t matter,” Lia said firmly. “And I promise she’ll never find out you helped me.”
“And the rest of your family? What about them?” Barbara asked.
“My grandmother will be fine. As for the others, it’s not up to them.”
Lia simply refused to become a poor relation dependent on someone else for every morsel of bread she put in her mouth. Besides, it was far too late to change course. In the eyes of polite society, she was already a whore, just like her mother and grandmother. Perception was very little different from reality for a woman like her, no matter how many times Dominic or Chloe tried to persuade her differently.
That perception—cemented by that scene with Jack’s mother—had sealed Lia’s fate. All that was left was to exert as much control over the future as she could.
“You’re a lovely, sweet girl, so you’ll find yourself a rich one,” Amy said. “If you stop trying to pull up your damn bodice.”
Sir Nathan finally strolled up, but without a footman bearing drinks.
“I apologize for abandoning you for so long, my dears,” he drawled. “I was detained.”
“Not by the line at the refreshment table, apparently,” Amy said in a teasing voice. “La, sir, we’re positively parched by the heat.”
Sir Nathan’s unmasked gaze flickered with irritation. “Perhaps you can fetch the drinks next time, my sweet. I’m sure you could find any number of admirers happy to assist you.”
Amy clearly heard the implied threat. She waved an airy hand and laughed, saying she’d merely been bored without him because he was the only interesting man in the room.
Sir Nathan Prudhoe was both wealthy and handsome, and securing him as her protector had been a coup for Amy. Lia, however, found him cold, with a brusque and dismissive manner. She’d instantly disliked him, despite Amy’s assurances that he was the perfect person to give her entry into the world of the demi-monde. Sir Nathan knew all the wealthiest men in the Ton, including those who might be interested in finding a new mistress.
The notion of being indebted to a man like him, however, made her skin crawl. Nor did she appreciate the way his gaze had flickered over her body with an avid, impersonal lust. Thank God she’d thought to don her mask and had insisted that Amy introduce her to him and to every other man they met tonight as Miss Smith.
For now, and until she was ready to make that final step, she would keep her identity a closely guarded secret. The last thing she needed was word filtering back to Dominic or, even worse, Jack. They would do everything they could to squash her plans.
“I don’t know about you, but I need something to drink,” Barbara grumbled. “If Sir Nathan won’t fetch us refreshments, I suppose we’ll have to go do it ourselves.”
