ThePleasureDevice Read Online Free

comfortably bolstered and sidled up to him.
    “Thank you, Vinny,” Nicholas said softly as he put his arm
around her. He knew Lavinia felt the weight of that promise daily. Lavinia and
his mother had been the best of friends.
    “Louisa knew you would never return to the family home. But
she also knew you wouldn’t spend the rest of your life traipsing across the
barren outlands of Asia. Before she died, we used to plot how she would be able
to slip away to visit you in London without the earl knowing.”
    The casual reference to his mother’s death chafed him. “Murdered,
you mean. My mother did not merely die. She was murdered, Vinny.”
    Lavinia fussed needlessly with her robe. “Let’s not talk
about that now, Nicky,” she said darkly.
    He kissed her forehead. “Yes, love.” Nicholas would do
anything to satisfy his late mother’s wishes. His only regret in life was that
he had not been by her side at her deathbed. Instead, he had been in the
mountains of Anatolia learning native and Muslim healing arts. It had been
Lavinia who had written to tell him of her untimely death and who had assured
him her last thoughts had been of him. In her memory, he took her maiden
surname of Ramsay.
    “Also,” Lavinia continued cheerfully, poking him in the
chest, “don’t forget I promised that you would meet a pretty girl and settle
down. That’s one reason I’m making you go to the Wrexhams’.”
    Nicholas put his face in his hands and groaned at the
prospect. He rarely heard of marriage being a good idea for any of the parties
involved. Lavinia’s wasn’t. His mother had only tolerated his drunk of a father
because he was an earl and had given her two sons. “I’m dreading that, you
know.”
    “I don’t see why. You’re handsome, charming and witty. You
even have a respectable income. You’ll have admirers at your feet.”
    “All the talk about the latest fashions and who’s marrying
whom, it’s just a varnish over self-doubt and fear, if not an outright
expression of a poor intellect.”
    Lavinia laughed. “So you want a girl who speaks plainly.”
    “And who reads more than just ladies’ magazines.”
    “And one who can recite The Iliad in Greek, I
suppose?”
    Nicholas flashed her a disapproving grimace. “Look, I just
want to be able to have an interesting conversation. That should not be too
much to ask.”
    “There will be plenty of young ladies having their second or
even third Season.”
    “For good reason, I expect,” Nicholas grunted.
    “Not always. Some are very pretty, rather clever too, just
very shy. I’ve found that once they’ve resigned themselves to a life of
spinsterhood, they gain confidence in their relations with the opposite sex.
They no longer need to be careful about what they say or how they act. What you
see is the true woman.” She wrapped a lock of his hair around her finger. “Should
make wife-hunting that much easier for you.”
    “Does that mean they’ll be friendly in dark corners? I
remember the last time I went through all of this, it seemed girls wouldn’t
even let you hold their hands.”
    “Rake!” she said with a swat. “Keep your hands off, and I
mean it, Nicky. That’s what I’m here for. You don’t want to make any mistakes
or else your career as a doctor may be ruined before it’s even started.”
    “Yes, Lady Foxley-Graham, ma’am,” teased Nicholas. He pulled
her more closely to him and kissed her forehead again. “Will this mean I’ll
have to give you up?”
    Lavinia snuggled more deeply against him at the thought of
the inevitability. “Eventually, dear. And definitely after you are married.
Well, for the first year or two.”
    “Hmm.”
    “But you may find someone you really like. You may fall in
love, Nicky.”
    Nicholas found the idea unlikely. After traveling across
Europe and the Near East for seven years, he had not once discovered love.
Erotic experiences beyond his imagination, yes, but love, no. He was beginning
to think