Highlander Undone Read Free Page A

Jack’s imagination.

I feel obliged to say it once more: I have reservations about this. Distinct reservations.” The trio was still on the terrace apprising Lady Merritt of their plans for the Season while Jack made his own plans.
    “Pray, do not needlessly concern yourself, dear lady,” Gerald Norton said soothingly. “We shall all, my poor self included, make every effort to see that dear Addie’s reputation remains as clean and pure and spotless as mortal man can make it.”
    “Are you sure you haven’t confused my reputation with an advertisement for nappy detergent, Gerald?” Addie asked.
    Jack smiled. Lady Merritt made a startled, and not altogether pleased, sound. He heard the scrape of wrought-iron chair legs against stone and Addie murmured “thank you.”
    “Forgive me.” Addie’s voice was officially contrite. “But you all concern yourselves far too much with my reputation. I am not some green debutante. I am a widow.”
    This brokered a disdainful harrumph from Lady Merritt. “And that is precisely why your reputation needs guarding, Addie,” she said. “The decision to come out of mourning before the full year has gone by cannot be made lightly. You must remember, not only was he your husband, he was a war hero, and war heroes must have their due.”
    “Believe me, Lady Merritt, I have already amply paid any dues Society would extract.”
    “Oh, my dear! Of course you have! But people might talk.”
    “Let them talk.” Ted spoke, his tone languid and smooth, but an underlying steel set it apart from Norton’s more affected intonations.
    “Ah, the voice of an affectionate brother. Or was that an opportunistic brother?” Addie cut in, sounding equal parts amused and relieved.
    “I am wounded, Addie. Heartsick, in fact.”
    “As if you had a heart,” scoffed Addie. “If I had promised my efforts to Gerald, I’m sure Ted would be agreeing with you, Lady Merritt. Now, don’t worry about me, please. Ted, for all his failings, likes to think of himself as a doting brother.
    “And if he is to become society’s premier portraitist, he will need someone to lend him a respectable cachet. As the only one in my reprehensible family who aspires to respectability, the task falls to me.”
    Jack could imagine her smiling, indulging the impish streak he supposed others would find hard to warrant she owned, as she hid it so well. Like now, as she set about so innocently, and consciously, stirring things up. For the thousandth time, he wondered what Addie looked like. He’d only had a glimpse of her from above, a peek of dark hair and the sort of figure that pervaded a man’s lustier dreams.
    “. . . and I shall make a perfectly irreproachable doyen. When society madams trot their daughters over to Teddy’s studio for a sitting, I shall teeter on the edge of a straight-backed chair and glower. The mamas will love it! They’ll regard me as a dragon of morality, stand ing twixt their beloved pink-cheeked daughters and the dissolute—though immensely talented—Theodore Graham Phyfe.”
    “Well, thank you for the ‘immensely talented,’ anyway,” Addie’s brother drawled. “But really, Addie, my tastes run to something a bit more—”
    “Teddy!” Gerald Norton broke in, openly scandalized. “How ever shall we convince Lady Merritt of our good intentions when you can’t even be trusted to behave yourself in her home?”
    “Oh, Gerald, he only says those things because he thinks it lends him a rakish air. Quite calculated about it, too.”
    “You know me too well. However shall I contrive to be mysterious?”
    “Enough. Enough,” said Lady Merritt sharply, the conversation having gotten away from her. “I can quite see that you’ve decided to set Addie up as your hostess with or without my blessings.”
    “As my sponsor—and my dear friend—I shall of course give the utmost attention to your concerns,” Ted said, “but Addie’s mourning is soon over anywise. What possible