A Lady's Guide to Kiss A Rake: Misadventures of the heart Read Online Free Page B

Ghastly business that. No, perhaps the better term to describe his condition was a conundrum. Because Lady Josephine was exactly that: a conundrum—and he, well, was intrigued.
    At first Damien hadn’t given a damn about Lady Josephine and what she did on her own time. But after learning of her supposed projects—helping abused women escape the hands of their abusers—and then discovering that the “kidnapping” of Lady Madeleine had not been the first disappearance of an elite society member, curiosity had overcome detachment. If Lady Josephine’s little band of vigilantes were only “kidnapping” people who were being hurt, Damien possessed half a mind to join them, but on further inspection of the disappearances, inconsistencies had become apparent. For one thing, not all the disappearances were aristocrats, and neither were all of them women. After digging a little deeper it also became apparent that some of the disappearances had nothing to do with abuse, which had turned his curiosity into downright suspicion.
    “Still spying on Lady Josephine?” Grey drawled, coming up beside him.
    “Still dragging your wife off to dark corners?” Damien shot back.
    “Naturally.”
    “Your infatuation with your wife is disgusting.”
    “If I have disgusted you then I am doing something right.”
    Damien shot Grey a glare. Grey excelled at insulting him, but Damien put up with it. Only because their friendship had been one hellish road.
    “What possessed Warton to allow his sister out of the house dressed like that?” Damien suddenly asked, scowling at the lady in question.
    “I imagine he did not know.”
    “Then saints preserve us. What possessed her to wear that?”
    Grey shrugged. “I believe Lady Josephine and Lady Belle are both shopping at the same dressmaker as my wife.”
    “Bloody hell, she should be banned.”
    Grey glanced in the direction of his wife, his gaze filling with heat. “I, on the other hand, am pleased for the woman’s creations, whoever she is.”
    “Madam De La Frey.”
    “I beg your pardon?” Grey asked distracted.
    “The woman making the infamous dresses is Madam De La Frey.”
    Grey shook his head. “Can’t say that I’ve met her.”
    “Neither can I. The lady is as elusive as the night itself. It’s rumored she wears a mask when she meets her clients to keep her identity a secret.”
    Grey appeared as intrigued as Damien sounded. “That would mean she could be anyone, even someone we know.”
    Or have bedded, Damien mused. His gaze traveled over the women in the drawing room. “She could be here, right now and we would be none the wiser.”
    “So long as she doesn’t stop creating her designs, I can’t say I give a damn.”
    Damien rubbed his chin in consideration. He loved a good puzzle. But first, he had to piece together the puzzle that was Lady Josephine.
    “I can’t believe you invited that bastard,” Damien said, nodding in the direction of James Shaw.
    Grey shrugged. “I didn’t.”
    That earned his host a frown. “You let your wife invite him after she ran off with him?”
    “Apparently there is no getting rid of him and for some reason my wife is fond of him,” Grey answered, a sudden edge entering his voice. “As long as he keeps his hands to himself, I will tolerate the man. Besides, I would much rather she invite him where I can keep an eye on him than run off behind my back.”
    Damien understood, though he doubted he would have been able to tolerate the man’s presence if his wife had run off with him. Such restraint did not present itself in his nature.
    “Are you not of the view that your obsession with the ladies might have gone far enough?”
    The question caught Damien off guard and he raised his brow. “Saints man, I have no notion of what you speak. Spit it out or leave me in peace.”
    “Have you not taken this,” Grey motioned with a hand in the hair, “this shadowing of Lady Belle and Lady Josephine, of following them on errands,