The Importance of Being Wicked Read Free Page A

skin tones?” He rocked back on his heels and squinted at his own work. “Mind you, I think my Venus is a damned good painting.”
    â€œIt is,” Caro assured him. “The flesh is beautifully painted.”
    â€œShe is my masterpiece. I’m glad she’ll be displayed in your drawing room. Someone may see her and want to buy her.”
    The painting was supposed to make up for the fact that Oliver owed her quite a large sum of money, amassed through small loans, a few pounds here and there to buy paints, canvas, or food. At present, he actually lived in the room over the carriage house as well as working there, having been ejected from his lodgings for nonpayment of rent. He didn’t pay her rent, either. It was some time since he’d sold a picture. Caro was too softhearted to remind him that the Venus belonged, by rights, to her. Lord knows she’d never sell it, so if he found a buyer he might as well reap the reward.
    Now that she knew of his inspiration, Caro could see some resemblance to Anne, despite her cousin’s dark hair.
    â€œI’m sure Annabella won’t notice, but I wonder if Cynthia will see the likeness when she dines with me this evening.”
    â€œLet me dine with you too,” he begged.
    â€œYou told me you were meeting Bartie St. James and the Longleys.”
    â€œWe could all dine with you. Please? It’ll be fun! Besides, none of us can afford to eat anywhere decent. Neither Bartie nor Adam Longley has sold a picture in weeks.”
    And I can’t afford to feed every starving artist in London .
    But she didn’t say it. She never did. She loved her friends, and the Battens would come up with something. Robert’s former valet and his wife, who combined the work of housekeeper and cook, had stayed with her despite the sometimes chaotic and often impecunious nature of her household. However short of money she might be, it was nothing to the poverty of Oliver and his friends. Besides, she and Robert had always kept an open house, and to do otherwise insulted his memory.
    A house full keeps loneliness at bay .
    â€œI’ll speak to Mrs. Batten.” She glanced at the clock and hoped it was right. “Good Lord! I must shoo you out of here! Annabella’s duke will be here any moment.”
    â€œYou’re not going to let him marry her, are you?”
    â€œNot unless he’ll make her happy. Now go! I need to play the chaperone and terrify him.”
    Oliver grinned happily. “I don’t want to miss that. I’ll be back. I want to help.”

Chapter 2
    T he Dukes of Castleton always married money. Since the first duke, a child of two, had been granted the title by his father Charles II, the family had been responsible for its own prosperity. The Merry Monarch was generous with titles and honors for his numerous mistresses and ever-growing crop of bastards, but he was also short of money. So the first Thomas Fitzcharles, son of an actress named Mary Swinburne, had a duke’s title but an income scarcely worthy of the average baronet. He found himself a rich wife with a handsome estate and house in Hampshire, which he rechristened Castleton House.
    His successors added to their holdings through judicious marriages until, a hundred years later, the family had amassed estates worthy of an earl and, better still, the income of a prosperous London merchant, but without the unfortunate necessity of anyone having to work for it. Not for the Dukes of Castleton the distasteful tasks of service to the Crown in the army or government. Instead, their talents were directed to the onerous business of seeking, pursuing, and winning the very best heiresses.
    The fourth duke had always felt it keenly that his bride brought good blood but a mere twelve thousand pounds. In a moment of weakness, he’d been distracted by a pretty face. The marriage had not been a success. His son, he swore, would do better. It was with the