Season for Scandal Read Online Free

Kirkpatrick. Don’t. I know you don’t want it. You don’t have to do this to me.”
    Startled, Edmund released her hand, and she stumbled backward a step.
    You don’t have to do this to me , she said. What did that mean? You don’t have to do this , he would understand. Even You don’t have to do this for me. But to me ? That sounded as though he had wounded her, just by asking.
    He rose to his feet. A familiar, gnawing pain had awoken below his breastbone. He dragged in a deep breath, then another, until the pain ebbed.
    “Jane. Please consider it. It would solve your difficulty, and—and I would be very good to you.”
    A small smile trembled. “You’re good to everyone, Kirkpatrick.”
    “Well. Ah.” He didn’t know what to say to that.
    “Why should you marry me? How would it benefit you?” She turned her fine-boned face away, dignified as a swan. The lamplight gilded her cheek, hid her features from him.
    That was Jane in a single gesture, wasn’t it? Not regal, but able to make herself seem so. Able to hold secrets. Able—he hoped—to live with them, too. With attics full. A mind full.
    Yes. Come to think of it, a woman who could play cards with such coolness was well suited to a lifelong gamble.
    Edmund decided to give her as much of the truth as possible. “I planned to marry eventually. And I admire you, Jane.”
    She turned slowly to face him. “You admire me. Is it because of my beauty or charm? My feminine accomplishments? What, pray tell me, do you admire about me?”
    She was mocking him now. As far as he knew, she could not paint or sing or play. She was not fashionably tall or elegant.
    Yet he had not lied. To say he loved her would be a lie. But there was a great deal to admire about her.
    He cleaved close to the truth again. “You are determined. And ingenious.”
    Jane’s pointed jaw fell open, then closed with a click of teeth. “Thank you, Kirkpatrick.”
    The gnawing pain was back again; it made him catch his breath, hurry her along. “May I speak to your cousin tomorrow?”
    He’d overstepped; he could see that at once. Her deep eyes went hard with suspicion. “Will you meet my terms?”
    “How dreadful are they?”
    “You will have to settle my dowry on Sheringbrook to pay my debt.”
    Edmund nodded. “I realize that. I assume you plan never to play cards with him again?”
    “What would be the point? I play to win. I will also require pin money in the amount of two hundred pounds per annum.”
    “Why the rapaciousness?”
    “You just said I was ingenious. I’m only trying to take care of myself.”
    She blinked, and Edmund wondered if her hazel eyes hid tears she was ashamed of. She had hoped to gamble her way into independence tonight, and she had failed. He could not fault her for gambling on his own agreement now. And considering he could tell her nothing of his past in exchange for her hand, a few hundred pounds was a small price to pay.
    “Very well,” he agreed. “You shall have your exorbitant pin money.”
    “I want a maid of my own, and . . . six new gowns?” She bit her lip as though she thought she’d been too extravagant, and Edmund’s heart squeezed. She was only eight years younger than he, yet devastatingly hopeful.
    “All new gowns,” he said. “And you shall choose them yourself.”
    For the first time since he had knelt before her, she managed a smile. “A horse of my own?”
    “A mare. And you shall choose her, too.”
    “Jewels?” Her smile grew, and relief bled through him, sweetly cool as ice on a fever. If she would be content with these trappings of the tonnish life, he had indeed chosen well.
    “Rubies, if you like. You seem to have a taste for them.” He indicated the priceless necklace, discarded on the seat of the settee. “Enough, now, Jane. If you’ve an answer, give it to me.”
    Jane pondered for a few seconds, and her face pinched. “I can’t think of anything else, Kirkpatrick. Not even a courtesan could ask for