Sin With a Scoundrel: The Husband Hunters Club Read Online Free Page B

his burly shoulders. “Well, keep your secrets if you must. As long as you do your job. You must remember that the work we do here is far more important than any personal considerations, Richard. It is vital. Sometimes we are all that stands between order and anarchy. We are the guardians at the gates.”
    “I will do my job, sir,” Richard said quietly. “I always do.”
    Sir Henry nodded and finally released him. Outside, Richard took several deep breaths. He hadn’t planned to return to Kent. Not yet. Sir Henry was right; Richard had a promise to keep before he resumed his life as a country gentleman. He had to find Anthony’s murderer. He had to put the restless spirit of his brother to rest.

Chapter 4
    T ina spent some time shopping before going to Number Five Jasmine Square to keep her appointment. Horace was holding a soiree on the following Saturday evening, and then he was taking a coachload of his particular friends to the theater. Tina was one of his particular friends, and she meant to make the most of the opportunity to put her husband-hunting plans in motion.
    In short she needed something to wear that would catch his eye.
    Horace was so complacent where she was concerned; he needed to be jolted out of that complacency. Tina wasn’t quite ready to invite him to her boudoir, but neither did she want him thinking of her as the little girl who had chastised him for stealing eggs from birds’ nests for his collection. Tina knew they were perfectly matched, and they would make a perfect couple. If he would just open his eyes and look at her afresh!
    Then all her problems would be solved.
    “Miss?”
    With a sigh she shook her head at the roll of crushed velvet the hopeful shop assistant was displaying for her. It was no good. She couldn’t decide. A new dress was an expense she shouldn’t even be contemplating, but her father had insisted, and she hadn’t the heart to tell him she knew the truth. That her mother had told her in tearful whispers that the Smythe family was as close to penniless as made no difference.
    This dress was probably the last new garment she would ever have, the last chance for Horace to see her in something new and pretty, at least until she married. But if she didn’t marry Horace, then she’d soon be going about in rags—matters at home were becoming desperate. So much was dependent upon a construction of cloth and thread that suddenly the dress assumed monumental proportions, and Tina felt she must get it right. She must. Her usual practical coolheadedness deserted her.
    Feverishly her gaze darted from greens to blues to reds. Choose the right one and all would be well; choose the wrong one, and the Smythes would sink without trace into the murky mire of bankruptcy. She’d known a family that had happened to, a child who had been a friend of hers many years ago when Tina was young. One day that child was there, the next she and her family were gone in a gust of scandal, and Tina’s parents spoke of them in hushed tones.
    Was that what would happen to Tina? Would she become the girl people spoke of in murmurs?
    But then she remembered she wasn’t alone in this.
    She had Mr. Eversham.
    A sense of relief filled her. Yes, she would leave the choice of the cloth for her new dress to Mr. Eversham. He would know what a man like Horace would prefer. He would know what she must wear to win his heart.
    Tina was just gathering the samples the shop assistant had prepared for her when a church clock struck the hour. She was late! With a gasp she flew out of the shop and set off along Bond Street, clutching her bonnet to her head with one hand and holding her parcel close with the other, avoiding the people strolling along the exclusive thoroughfare. By the time she reached Jasmine Square, she was out of breath and had to recover herself a moment before using the knocker.
    “Miss Smythe?”
    Mr. Eversham’s man answered so promptly she gave a start of surprise. She watched him for