In My Wildest Dreams Read Free Page A

adores me.”
    â€œFind me a female who doesn’t,” Throckmorton said dryly.
    â€œWhen I mentioned my betrothal, her big hazel eyes filled with sparkling tears again.”
    Whoever the woman was, she was obviously playing Ellery as if he were a fine instrument. “So you comforted her?”
    Ellery put his hand to his chest. “Just a quick kiss on the cheek to bring that gorgeous smile shining through.”
    â€œAnonymous alabaster teeth.”
    â€œI depend on your good memory to serve us.”
    Throckmorton wanted to gnash his own straight white teeth. “Then she’s here.”
    â€œI brought her at once.” Placing the half-full glass on the silver tray, Ellery came to Throckmorton and tweaked his collar. “You ought to go up to your valet and allow him to tidy you.”
    Ellery was right, but— “No one will be looking at me anyway,” Throckmorton said. “ You’re the bridegroom.”
    â€œDon’t remind me.” Ellery shuddered and glanced back at the brandy.
    Throckmorton had no wish to remind Ellery of his dissatisfaction with the Illington match again. No, now was the time for tact and swift planning—tact being one property he labored to attain, and swift planning the attribute at which he excelled. That was how he had arrived at his present position as the head of the Throckmorton empire . . . and his current status within the English government. He would somehow head off disaster.
    In a tone that heralded a significant announcement, Ellery asked, “Garrick, you wouldn’t want me to be unhappy, would you?”
    â€œI labor for your happiness,” Throckmorton said.
    But Ellery knew nothing of what Throckmorton didfor his family, and Throckmorton wouldn’t tell him. Better his brother think him a dull blade. Throckmorton shuddered. For if Ellery, with his discerning honesty and his inability to dissemble, ever got wind of Throckmorton’s true aim, he would demand his chance to help—and disaster would surely follow.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” Ellery asked. “You’re looking rather peaked.”
    â€œI was just wondering what you did with your mysterious beauty when you got her here?”
    â€œLost her! I dropped her at the door, drove the brougham to the stables—”
    â€œYou let her out of your sight?”
    â€œThe horses, man! I was driving my new matched grays to show to Lord Featherstonebaugh—you know how he is about horses!—and I didn’t dare trust them to a ham-handed new groom. When I got back, she had disappeared.”
    â€œBad luck.” From start to finish, abominably bad luck.
    â€œNone of the servants knew who I was talking about, although they were all atwitter about something.”
    â€œWith the guests arriving, they are atwitter about a great many things.”
    Ellery ignored that bit of wisdom. “Who could she have been?”
    â€œPerhaps she wasn’t a lady.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œI mean, brother, you have a history of confusing actresses and members of the demimonde for ladies, and I end up paying them off to free you from their clutches.”
    Offended, Ellery snapped back, “She was dressed in the latest French fashions, she spoke with the finest ofaccents, and most important, she knew Blythe Hall. She knew us. She knew you. She knew me .”
    â€œYes, so you told me. But she was alone. Young ladies of quality do not travel alone.”
    â€œYou are an old-fashioned fusspot,” Ellery pronounced.
    â€œI suppose I am.” Throckmorton had made his point, and he was content to let Ellery wrestle with it.
    â€œObviously she was a guest someone neglected to collect, yet when I asked she laughed with a voice like a bell—”
    â€œChurch or clock?”
    â€œWhat?” Ellery’s brow knitted, then cleared, and he smacked Throckmorton hard enough to bruise his arm. “Stop