Surrender Read Free

interest in marriage, Miss Huntington.”
    “Your sources are wrong.” She smiled thinly. “I do not have even a little interest in the married state. I have absolutely
no
interest in it, whatsoever.”
    Stonevale slanted her a considering glance. “A pity. Perhaps if you had a husband and a family to occupy your time in the evenings, you would not be obliged to amuse yourself with risky adventures such as the one you have planned for tonight.”
    Victoria’s smile widened. “I am certain that the sort of adventure I have planned for this evening will be vastly more entertaining than the evening duties of a wife.”
    “What makes you so certain of that?”
    “Personal history, my lord. My mother was married for her fortune and it destroyed her. My dear aunt was also married for her money. Fortunately for her my uncle had the grace to die early on in a hunting accident. But since I cannot count on similar good fortune, I have chosen not to take the risk of marriage.”
    “You do not fear that you might be missing an important part of a woman’s life?” he ventured.
    “Not in the least. I have seen nothing of marriage to recommend it.” Victoria opened her gilded fan to conceal a shudder. Memories of her stepfather’s casual little cruelties and drunken acts of violence toward her mother were never far below the surface. Even the bright lights of the ballroom could not entirely banish them.
    She fanned herself languidly once or twice, hoping Stonevale would gain the impression that she was acutelybored with the direction of the conversation. “Now, if you will excuse me, my lord, I see a friend I must speak to.”
    He followed her glance. “Ah, yes, the intrepid Annabella Lyndwood. She is no doubt anxious to discuss the evening’s plans, too. It appears, since you are determined not to be cooperative, that I shall be left to discover the details on my own. But never fear, I am very good at games of strategy.” Stonevale inclined his head briefly over Victoria’s hand. “Until later, Miss Huntington.”
    “I shall pray you find something more entertaining to do with your time tonight than to accompany us.”
    “Not likely.” The earl’s faint smile flared into a brief, wicked grin that momentarily displayed his strong white teeth.
    Victoria turned away from him with an elegant swirl of her golden yellow silk skirts, refusing to give the man the satisfaction of a backward glance. This man was not only potentially dangerous, he was insufferable.
    Victoria stifled a small groan as she swept through the crowd. She ought to have known better than to have allowed the earl to entice her into the card room tonight. It was, after all, not quite the thing for a lady to play cards with a man at an affair such as this. But she’d always had a hard time resisting adventure and the damnable man had seemed to sense that almost at once.
Sensed it and used the weakness
. She must remember that.
    It was not as if she’d had any warning. Stonevale had, after all, been properly introduced to her by Jessica Atherton, no less.
    Everyone knew Lady Atherton was entirely above reproach, a paragon, in fact. Slender, dark-haired, and blue-eyed, the viscountess was not only young, delicate, and quite lovely, she was also becomingly modest, unfailingly gracious, eminently respectable, and a stickler for the proprieties. In other words, she would certainly never have introduced a known rake or fortune hunter to one of her guests.
    “Vicky, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Annabella Lyndwood hurried over to her friend’s side.She flicked open her fan and proceeded to use it to shield her lips as she spoke in a whisper. “Were you actually playing cards with Stonevale? How very naughty of you. Who won?”
    Victoria sighed. “I did, for all the good it did me.”
    “Did he tell you Bertie has invited him to accompany us tonight? I was furious about that, but Bertie insists we should have another man along for