The Husband List -2 Read Free

unattended for far too long. If you would be so kind as to remain later, after the others have left.”
    “As you wish.” His voice was noncommittal. “Later, then.”
    She nodded and turned to walk briskly down the hall. She could feel his gaze following her. Observing her. Thoughtful and curious. From his angle he couldn’t possibly notice a slight tremble in her hands or the flush that once again heated her face or the butterflies cavorting in her stomach.
    Anticipation mingled with dread and washed through her. She at once wanted to avoid their meeting, yet knew the remaining hour or so until then would last a lifetime.
    Appropriate enough, since it was indeed the remainder of a lifetime in the balance.
    “Do you really like it?” Richard said over his shoulder.
    He had heard Lady Gillian enter the room behind him after bidding good night to the last of her guests. Guests who had seemed to linger for an eternity. Throughout the interminably long evening he’d been hard-pressed to hide his growing impatience. What did the woman want from him?
    “Yes, I do.” She stepped to his side, tilted her head, and studied the painting. The tension he’d noticed in her during their brief encounter earlier had vanished, and she now seemed relaxed and at ease. “Quite a lot.”
    “You say your brother sent this to you?”
    “Yes. It was something of a surprise. Thomas and I have never been particularly close. Older brothers being groomed to inherit the title and responsibilities of a duke do not have a great deal of time for younger sisters. Yet we are fond of one another.” She considered him the same way she had just regarded the painting. “I believe you know him, don’t you?”
    “We were in school together,” he said as if it was of no significance. In fact, at this moment, he wasn’t entirely certain if he wished to thrash the future Duke of Roxborough or embrace him. He forced a casual note to his voice. “Do you know the artist?”
    “Not personally, although I have been hearing a great deal about him lately. Apparently, he is as accomplished with the ladies as he is with a brush. He’s French, you know.”
    “Is he?”
    “Have you heard of him? His name is Etienne-Louis Toussaint.”
    “Rather a mouthful,” he murmured.
    “Rather. I should like to invite him here, but he is apparently quite reclusive.” A slight smile quirked the corners of her lips. “In spite of his rakish reputation, I have yet to encounter anyone who has actually met the man in person.”
    “Not even Lady Forester?”
    “Not even Lady Forester.” Gillian laughed, a delightful sound that echoed through his blood. “Why, my lord, you’re actually smiling.”
    “Am I?” He widened his eyes in mock surprise. “How could that have happened? I must have lost my head for a moment. I shall have to take care it does not happen again.”
    “I’ve never noticed you smile before.”
    He raised a brow. “I was not aware you had noticed me at all.”
    A charming flush colored her cheeks, but she ignored his comment, staring at him with amused suspicion. “Lady Forester thinks you’re quite mysterious. She suspects you have some deep, dark secret.”
    “Then I shall do my best not to disappoint her. Besides, I much prefer the illusion of a mysterious keeper of deep, dark secrets than the all too boring truth of my circumstances in life.” He turned back to the painting. “Now, the artist who created this obviously has secrets. No doubt all of them deep and dark.”
    “No doubt.” She examined the work with the critical air of one who knows good art from bad, and he observed her out of the corner of his eye. “There is a great deal of passion here. Unbridled. A passion born from a love of life. It’s extremely compelling. Almost irresistible. I suspect he has quite a future ahead of him.”
    “Do you?”
    She nodded thoughtfully. She was barely half a head shorter than he, her figure a bit more voluptuous than he’d