The Wedding Game Read Online Free Page A

streetlights were lit and bright white pools glittered on the cobbles. It was a much less friendly light than the golden glow of gas, Chastity reflected, as she greeted the coachman and climbed into the carriage.
    “My sister tells me you're retiring in the new year, Cobham,” she said, settling the lap rug over her knees.
    “Aye, Miss Chas. 'Tis time enough to go out to pasture,” he said, whistling up the horses. “It's a nice snug little cottage Miss Prue . . . Lady Malvern . . . offered me an' the wife. Pleased as Punch is the wife. Nice little vegetable garden there. Happy as clams we'll be, I reckon.”
    “I'm sure you will,” Chastity agreed, and huddled closer under the lap rug until they drew up outside the Malvern residence on Pall Mall Place.

Chapter 2

    H ello, Aunt Chas.”
    “Hello, Sarah.” Chastity greeted her sister's eleven-year-old stepdaughter with a kiss. “How's school?”
    “Boring,” the girl said with an exaggerated, world-weary sigh. “Utterly tedious.”
    Chastity laughed. “I don't believe you, Sarah.”
    Sarah laughed back. “Well, I suppose there are
some
things I like, but you have to say it's all boring or people think there's something the matter with you.”
    Chastity correctly assumed that the people in question were Sarah's fellow schoolgirls. “I can understand that,” she said sympathetically. “But it must be hard to pretend you're not enjoying yourself when you are.”
    “Oh, I'm quite a good actress,” Sarah said blithely. “Is that the gown you're going to wear this evening? Let me take your valise.”
    “Yes, it is, and thank you.” Chastity relinquished her burdens to the eager child. “Is Prue upstairs?”
    “Oh, yes, and Daddy's still in his chambers. They had words at breakfast, so I think he's going to come home at the very last possible minute,” the girl confided with total lack of concern over a not infrequent event in the Malvern household.
    “What did they have words about?” Chastity followed Sarah across the narrow hallway to the stairs.
    “Something to do with a case that Daddy's taking and Prue thinks he shouldn't. I didn't understand all of it, something about a man refusing to support a child.” Sarah danced ahead of Chastity up the stairs.
    Chastity nodded to herself. If Prudence disapproved of something, she could be counted upon to say so. And Gideon could be counted upon to tell her to mind her own business. They were a somewhat flammable pair.
    “Shall I put your things in the guest room? Prue's in her sitting room.” Sarah paused outside a closed door on the landing above.
    “Yes, thank you, Sarah. I'll just go and say hello to Prue.” She smiled and hastened down the corridor to a pair of double doors at the far end. The door opened at her light knock and Prudence greeted her with a hug.
    “Oh, I'm so glad you're here,” she said, drawing her sister into a pretty, square sitting room that adjoined the large marital bedroom. “I am quite out of sorts with Gideon.”
    “Yes, Sarah said something.” Chastity unbuttoned her coat. Ever the peacemaker, she prepared to listen to her sister's side. “Something about a man refusing to support a child.”
    “Sometimes I think Sarah hears far more than she should,” Prudence said with a rueful frown, adjusting her spectacles on the bridge of her nose. “I wonder if we speak too freely in front of her.”
    “She's far too bright to get the wrong end of the stick,” Chastity reassured. “And she's not afraid to ask if something puzzles her.”
    Prudence smiled. “No, you're right as usual. Gideon's always been very open with her, it would be a bad thing to change that just because I appeared on the scene.”
    “Exactly,” her sister agreed, draping her coat over the back of a tapestry-covered chair. “So, tell me what happened.”
    Prudence filled two glasses from a sherry decanter that stood on a console table between two long windows, their rich amber velvet curtains drawn