What A Rogue Wants Read Online Free Page A

give
Grace satisfaction and make matters worse. She watched as Lady
Elizabeth flew across the room.
    “ Lady Grace, please.
She’ll throw us from Court.”
    “ I imagine she will.”
Grace untangled her arm from Lady Elizabeth’s desperate
clutch.
    “ Please, you mustn’t say a
word.” Lady Elizabeth glanced over her shoulder at Madelaine. “We
meant no harm.”
    Madelaine fought the urge to
intervene, clenching her teeth on her need to speak.
    “ It sounded harmful to
me,” Grace said.
    Unable to stand the helplessness and
Lady Elizabeth’s groveling a moment longer, Madelaine blurted,
“I’ll buy your silence with my quarterly allowance.”
    “ How much?” Grace
demanded.
    “ Ten pounds.”
    “ Not enough.”
    “ I’ll recommend you to my
brother,” Lady Elizabeth pleaded.
    Lady Grace’s eyes narrowed. “Which
brother?”
    “ Whichever you prefer.”
Lady Elizabeth turned deathly pale.
    “ Well, Lord Foxhaven is
the heir, but Lord Grey does thrill me to the bone every time with
just one look.”
    Madelaine wanted to silence Grace’s
viperous tongue, but the way she had in mind wouldn’t garner her in
any better favor with the queen. Proper ladies did not resort to
violence. Oh, how she wished she didn’t have to be a proper
lady.
    Lady Elizabeth sighed. “Fine. I’ll
post a letter to Grey tonight.
    “ That’ll do nicely. Yet I
require one more thing.”
    “ What is it?” Lady
Elizabeth’s shoulders slumped and her voice shook.
    Grace gave Madelaine a narrow-eyed
look. “No more speaking to her, unless it’s to insult her, of
course.”
    Madelaine’s pulse shot from a simmer
to a boil, but she struggled to keep her face relaxed. She ignored
Grace’s stare and instead looked at Lady Elizabeth and tried to
convey with a quick smile that it was all right. It wasn’t at all,
but she’d never let Lady Elizabeth know that. A tear trickled down
Lady Elizabeth’s cheek which she quickly dashed away. “I
understand,” she whispered, dropped her arms and walked out the
door.
    Grace stared at Madelaine from across
the room. “I’ll expect your allowance in my hands by
nightfall.”
    “ I’d expect no less from
the likes of you,” Madelaine replied. A small sense of satisfaction
filled her as Grace opened and closed her mouth. No doubt the ninny
struggled to find some nasty words to say. Too bad she wasn’t
quick-witted. Grace settled on a glare, turned and departed the
room.
    Madelaine stood for a moment with
nothing but the crackle of the fire as her company. It seemed worse
somehow to have found a possible friend and then lost her so
suddenly than to have never had a friend at all. At least before,
she had become numb to the cruelty of the other
ladies-in-waiting.
    She hated this place. But she couldn’t
begrudge her father. He’d done what he thought best for his odd
daughter. He wanted her married and had judged she needed all the
help she could get to finally learn to be a proper lady since she’d
failed miserably to become one when her mother was alive. If only
she had tried harder, not caused her mother so much heartache. Her
heart twisted with memories.
    A commotion at the door drew her
attention back to the area. The chambermaid with the red hair swept
in. “I need to draw the curtains.”
    Madelaine glanced at the windows and
frowned. The curtains were all drawn wide.
    The chambermaid laughed. “Sorry, my
lady. I meant I need to straighten the pillows.”
    To Madelaine’s eye not a single pillow
in the room was out of place, but she waved the woman into the
room. “Constance, correct?”
    “ Yes, my lady.”
    “ Were you lingering
outside the room this entire time?” She hated to be accusatory, but
she needed to be pragmatic. Silence may need to be bought. Her skin
crawled at her thoughts. She was becoming a true member of this
wretched Court.
    “ Certainly not, my lady.”
The woman’s voice held indignation, but her eyes darted with her
lies. It was on the tip of