Emily Hendrickson Read Free Page A

a woman to marry, for he well knew what was due his name and fortune. He hated being pressured; in this he could sympathize with the sweet child at his side. Child? He glanced at her once more.
    She was not all that much younger than himself, although there was a vast disparity of experience existing between them. Yet few women he had met revealed their inner being so openly and with such devastating effect, for within her was a virtuous and trustworthy person. In short, she ought to have nothing to do with a scoundrel like himself.
    How could he advise this irreproachable young woman on her course of action? He had not come to any conclusion regarding his own difficulty…although he eventually would, he knew. Besides, he had no experience with one such as Lady Chloe. None at all, more’s the pity.
    “Perhaps were you to flirt with someone else your grandmama might find acceptable, she would stop pushing you at this man you detest. I cannot imagine why your grandmama thinks Twisdale is a catch. I suspect he would relish your fortune more than you, if truth were revealed. I take it that you do have a fortune?” he inquired in an afterthought. Plain girls who could command a title and moved in the highest spheres usually did.
    “Indeed, I do possess a modest fortune. If my dearest brother does not return from the Continent I shall have a rather vast fortune. Grandmama thinks he has been killed by brigands. I believe he is alive and merely biding his time before coming home to settle down. But I would like to receive a letter from him at least once,” she concluded.
    “To return to the matter at hand,” Julian inserted, not wishing to become involved in the subject of erring sons, “is that you must learn to flirt.”
    “Impossible,” Chloe said with a shrug, daring to laugh up at him.
    “I believe you show potential; that was a fetching chuckle just now,” Julian observed with a considering tilt of his head.
    “That is merely because I am chatting with you. When I know that I need not please a man—you know, to attract him as a marriage partner—I do not feel the anxiety I do when faced with a peer of the realm and know I must capture his interest or risk displeasure from Grandmama,” Chloe said in a burst of speech quite unlike herself.
    “Hm,” Julian said, while deliberating on the matter. At last he concluded, “I shall give you lessons.”
    “What? Lessons in flirting? I never heard the like of it,” Chloe said, smiling with delight at the mere thought of a scoundrel giving lessons in flirting to a green girl.
    “If you pause to think about it, who better? I have been flirted with by experts, I will have you know.” Julian took her hand and raised it to his mouth to place a whisper kiss on it. “Now flutter those long dark lashes at me and coo with delight—something along the lines of: ‘La, sir, you must not toy with my affections.’ You can think of something along those lines, can you not?” He had uttered her words in a falsetto and sounded quite droll.
    Chloe burst out in pleased laughter. “Absurd man! What a complete hand you are at this nonsense. I declare, you ought to be kept on a leash, so to protect the women of England.”
    Julian smiled, that devilishly winning smile that easily captured a woman’s heart before she knew it.
    “By Jove, I said you had promise. Your eyes are sparkling with your delight and I do believe you have an incipient dimple near your mouth. It is very fetching, my dear.” His eyes twinkled down at her with a devilish gleam in them that created most peculiar sensations in her heart.
    “I vow you have said that hundreds of times,” Chloe scolded, but she did not stop smiling at him.
    “It begs to be kissed,” he teased, rather liking his plain little student.
    Chloe blushed a particularly lovely shade of pink that made her look like delicate apple blossoms. “Sir, I protest. You ought not speak to me thus.” She raised her hand in a gesture of