No Marriage of Convenience Read Online Free Page B

not more tears , he thought. Cousin Felicity’s daily deluges were bad enough.
    He couldn’t have been more wrong.
    “My lord, I think you are very mistaken.” Her tone held an icy edge, her words firm. “I don’t know anything about liaisons with your brother. The moment I learned of your difficulties, I came straightaway. This debt is one I fully intend to repay.” Standing up, she walked over to the desk and deposited the pouch, as luck would have it, on top of the more pressing bills.
    During her speech, Mason noticed something odd about her voice, something which had escaped him earlier. She spoke each word with deliberate diction. Hardly the purring tones of a mistress in search of a new source of income.
    They sat in silence once again, until Cousin Felicity spoke up. “My dear girl, when was the last time you were with Lord Ashlin?”
    Mason could have sworn Frederick’s mistress blushedlike a virgin beneath her layers of powder at his cousin’s indecent inquiry.
    “My lady, I’ve never met Lord Ashlin. That is, until now.” The woman smiled politely at Mason.
    If she had never met Frederick, then she had never been his mistress…and if she’d never been his mistress that meant…Mason cleared his throat as he tried to brush aside his errant thoughts.
    It meant nothing!
    “If we have never met, and you never knew my brother, Freddie, I’m unsure how you can owe me money.”
    The lady opened her packet of papers, and pulled out a document. “Perhaps this will refresh your recollection.”
    Mason quickly scanned the paper, which she’d laid before him, recognizing the contract instantly.
    A partnership agreement with R. Fontaine. Frederick had lent this woman an immeasurable sum to finance a new play at the Queen’s Gate Theatre.
    “You are the Fontaine mentioned here?” he asked.
    “Yes,” she replied. “Madame Fontaine, at your service.”
    Cousin Felicity, who’d finally found her spectacles, promptly dropped them at this introduction, groping about the floor in a very unladylike fashion until she’d located them at the Saracen’s feet. Hastily, she shoved the lenses up on the bridge of her button nose and stared at the woman and her servant as if they were a pair of new curiosities bound for the Royal Zoo.
    Mason tried to ignore his cousin’s gaping and turned his attention back to his guest. “And you say I lent you this money?”
    “Yes. Don’t you remember? I know it may not seem a great amount to a man of your means and generosity, but the circumstances and conditions of the agreement must at least stand out.”
    Mason returned to his review of the document.
    “Are you truly Madame Fontaine?” Cousin Felicity asked excitedly.
    “Yes, my lady.”
    “And is that Hashim?”
    The woman smiled again. “Yes, this is my servant, Hashim.”
    “You played Helen in Love’s Fancy !” Cousin Felicity had gotten to her feet and stood before the woman, peering unabashedly into her face. “No wonder I didn’t recognize you! You don’t look anything in person like you do on stage—why it is amazing—you are even more beautiful than when you played Confite in The Lost Minuet . Mason, we’re famous! Madame Fontaine is here! In our study. Is it true you slept with the Prince and his entire regiment of Guards in one evening?”
    “Cousin Felicity!” Mason found himself shouting, as he jumped to his feet. “Where are your manners?”
    Madame Fontaine glanced over her shoulder at her servant as if to give him a signal not to silence Cousin Felicity with one stroke of his deadly blade for her incredible tactlessness.
    “I’m afraid that rumor is slightly exaggerated,” the lady demurred.
    His cousin appeared visibly disappointed.
    “Felicity, apologize this instant to our guest,” he told her.
    “But you don’t understand,” Cousin Felicity said. She turned to Madame Fontaine, and began apologetically, “He’s been in Oxford .” She made it sound like he’d been living in