Cheryl Holt Read Free Page B

material. He’d tarried in the shadows, watching her, and he’d had a jolly adventure counting how often her brows had risen—twenty-eight!—as she’d flipped from one lewd page to the next.
    Instantly, he’d realized who she was—Olivia Hopkins, special guest and spousal candidate of the exalted Earl of Salisbury—just as he’d known that he wasn’t supposed to be within a hundred yards of the house while she was in residence. In fact, Edward would have his head if he ever learned of Phillip’s accidental encounter with the comely noblewoman, and he couldn’t begin to guess what Edward might do should he discover that Phillip had solicited a second rendezvous.
    But where Lady Olivia was concerned, he couldn’t behave himself.
    It was Edward’s fault, really, that Phillip was dawdling in his library, sipping his expensive liquor, and hoping that the potential fiancée would arrive. Edward had demanded that Phillip stay out of sight while the quartet of Hopkins women were visiting, which, of course, made him want to be as visible as possible.
    A pox on them all! As if members of the nobility had never before heard of illegitimate children!
    Phillip was used to being Edward’s dirty little secret.As a youth, Edward had dabbled with Phillip’s mother, an attractive housemaid. With the sort of abandon that only a wealthy, spoiled aristocrat could manage, he’d sired two children on her—Phillip and his sister, Anne—but when he’d married a woman of his own social class, they’d been hustled off the estate, so as not to dishonor his new wife.
    Phillip’s mother had acquiesced to their displacement, though she’d refused an annual stipend from the Paxton coffers. They had settled on a small farm on the other side of Bath, where his mother had worked as a nursemaid and companion to an elderly widow. They hadn’t starved, but their life hadn’t been easy, either.
    Though he’d sporadically quizzed her, she never talked about his father, and Phillip suspected that the foolish woman had loved Edward, that she’d been crushed over their banishment.
    What had his father thought of his mother? When they’d been sent away, had Edward been relieved? Saddened? Upset? Had he tried to annul the eviction instituted by Phillip’s grandfather?
    Phillip didn’t know and wouldn’t inquire. He and Edward had a strained relationship, and it didn’t lend itself to confessions.
    Phillip’s sister, Anne, had never returned to Salisbury, had never seen Edward again, but Phillip had. At his request when he was fourteen, his mother had demeaned herself by writing to Edward to ask if Phillip could have a job. With an unanticipated eagerness, Edward had replied affirmatively, and Phillip had been hired on in the stables under the old stablemaster.
    As the only son of the lord, he’d occupied an odd position. Everyone knew who he was and paid him extensive deference, but no one mentioned his paternity. Frequently, he’d gazed at the mansion, pondering Edward’scruel, bitter wife who’d hated that he was on the premises and gainfully employed. He’d gloated that his mother had birthed Edward two children while his highborn, patrician wife had birthed him none.
    It seemed so frivolous now. Edward’s wife was dead, his father a lonely widower. After her demise, Edward had struggled to make amends for some of the damage she’d wrought. He was forever thinking of tasks they could do together, such as hunting or fishing, that might repair their bond, but it was too arduous for Phillip to pretend they were close.
    Yet Phillip was enthralled by Edward, and continued to embrace his attempts at a greater familiarity. He’d even accepted Edward’s offer to buy him a commission in the army, with Edward being positive that soldiering was exactly what Phillip should do. Like a lad in need of parental approval, he’d trotted off to war, when all he’d wanted was to remain at Salisbury and tend the horses.
    Because he’d followed