The Piano Tutor Read Online Free Page B

escort you?”
    “That won’t be necessary.” If, as she feared, she was going to burst into tears the moment she saw her friend, she would prefer to do so unobserved.
    “As you wish.” The butler bowed her toward the French doors overlooking Lucy’s grounds.
    Diana stepped out and took a deep breath of the late-spring air. Lucy would know what to do. A woman of her experience surely knew all about broken hearts.
    Rounding the yew hedge, Diana heard voices. Lucy’s. And a man’s, painfully familiar. Sudden fear knifing through her, she crept forward.
    “Damn it Lucy, I have to tell her.” Nicholas’s voice was strained. “It’s gone too far. She deserves to know the truth.”
    “She’s not ready.” Lucy sounded resolute. “Think up some excuse—tell her you were unavoidably detained. But don’t tell her what you and I have been up to.”
    Ice swept over Diana, comprehension settling cold and dreadful against her bones. Lucy’s talk of handsome piano tutors. Nicholas, here in her garden, using Lucy’s given name so intimately. His presence at the musicale last night, his familiarity with Lucy’s house….
    Anger flared through her. The scoundrel! To use her so, when all along he had been Lucy’s lover. What a contemptible rake, to seduce Diana—here of all places.
    She swept out from behind the hedge. “Unavoidably detained?” She raked her gaze over Nicholas. His eyes widened and he took a step toward her.
    Lucy grabbed at his arm. “Diana. We were just speaking of you—”
    “Yes,” she said. The word was coated in frost. “And what exactly were the two of you doing while my employee was supposed to be giving a piano lesson?”
    Nicholas shook himself free of Lucy’s grasp. “Let me explain—”
    “You should have explained before the musicale.” Her voice caught, snagged on memory. “But it seemed you had other priorities. Perhaps you had forgotten you had a music lesson to teach while you were ‘unavoidably detained.’ You’ve behaved most unprofessionally, sir.”
    She fought to speak against the tightness in her throat. Nicholas reached for her and she pulled away. “I no longer need your services, Mr. Jameson. You are fired .”
    Hot tears blurring her vision, she turned and ran. Dimly she heard Nicholas calling after her, Lucy remonstrating, but she did not pause. She rushed back to her carriage and flung herself inside, slamming the door before the footman could even approach.
    It was far worse than she had suspected. And still a part of her had wanted to stay, to listen to his pleas. She was so unbearably weak. As the wheels rattled over the cobblestones, she dropped her head into her hands and abandoned herself to grief.
    “Mama?” Samantha pushed open the parlor door. “Are you ill? I had cook make you some chocolate.”
    She entered the room, carefully balancing a tray holding the silver chocolate pot and two cups. Diana mustered a smile for her stepdaughter and hoped her eyes were not too red from weeping.
    “Thank you, dear. I am not unwell, just a bit tired.” Did heartsickness count as an illness? She did not think so. “Come, sit by me.” She patted the settee.
    Samantha set the tray down and curled up close. Diana put her arm around the girl’s shoulders and gave them a squeeze—the reassurance as much for herself as for her stepdaughter.
    “I have some unhappy news for you.” She heaved a breath. “Mr. Jameson will not be returning as your piano tutor.”
    “Oh.” The girl’s shoulders slumped. “That is too bad. He was ever so charming—and smelled much better than Mr. Bent.”
    Diana smiled—it was the only way to keep the tears from welling up again. “That he did.” She leaned over and rested her head against Samantha’s. All brightness was not gone from her life, no matter how dreary the day might feel.
    “My lady.” The butler bowed at the parlor door. “Forgive me for interrupting. You have a caller. Are you at home?”
    She