Twice the Temptation Read Free Page B

would have liked to busy himself in his office study until nightfall, he’d done some damage—and he needed to determine its extent. The chit was a Miss with a good-quality carriage, and she read progressive literature. And that was all he knew about her. That and the fuzzy memory of frighteningly intelligent hazel eyes, a soft, subtle mouth, and curling honey-blonde hair.
     
      “Winters!”
     
      “Yes, my lord?” echoed up from the foyer.
     
      “I want to have a word with Epping.” He could hear the unspoken query in the ensuing silence. “No, I don’t mean to sack him, but I make no promise about murdering him.”
     
      “I’ll send him to you at once, my lord.”
     
      He wanted an address—to return a book, and to inquire after any damages to a coach. And to discover whether that female’s dismissive practicality had been a ruse to set him off balance while she chose a wedding gown. Women had attempted to trap him into marriage over the Seasons, but he’d never made it so bloody easy for any of them before. Damnation. And still he continued to contemplate that kiss.
     
       
     
      “If you knew Aunt Rachel had a diamond necklace sitting in a box in her attic, why did you never say anything?” Evangeline looked beyond her own mirrored reflection to her mother’s.
     
      Heloise, Lady Munroe, stood at her daughter’s shoulder. “It wasn’t actually in the attic, was it?”
     
      “Oh, I don’t know. I only said that for effect. It’s a hundred and sixty-nine carats, Mama.”
     
      “As far as I knew, the Nightshade Diamond was nothing but a silly rumor. My Uncle Benjamin used to talk about a cursed diamond, but no one ever listened to a word he said. The old fool lost a leg in a billiards accident, of all things.”
     
      “Did he like to wear diamonds?” Evangeline joked, shifting to see the glint of the one around her throat.
     
      “Oh, please. He was a clumsy fool. He did clumsy, foolish things like trying to ride an old billiards table down a flight of stairs.” She leaned down, caressing the stone with her forefinger. “But look at you. A fourteen-diamond pendant. You shone before. Now no man will be able to resist you.”
     
      She’d heard that before, and she usually rolled her eyes as she and her mother laughed. This time, though, a tremor ran through Evangeline. Someone this morning had been unable to resist her. And what a kiss that had been. “I would hope the men are more worried about me resisting them,” she offered. “Thus far only Lord Dapney and Lord Redmond have survived on our list.”
     
      Straightening, the viscountess tapped her chin. “Dapney or Redmond, hm? Good choices, both. You’ll find wealth, titles, and prestige with either of them, but Dapney’s the younger by far. He’s what, one and twenty?”
     
      Evangeline nodded. “Only two years my elder.”
     
      “That appeals to me. Young men are often more malleable than older ones. Does he dote on you?”
     
      “He seems to. My thinking, though, is that Redmond will take less effort.”
     
      “Either way, we’ll have to make certain. Men have a notorious tendency to not show their true dispositions until they’ve already tricked a lady into a disadvantageous union.”
     
      Evangeline smiled. “Except that we know better than to be tricked.”
     
      “Precisely. And as you know, deciphering all of the disadvantages and how to counter them givesus the advantage.”
     
      A rap came at her bedchamber door. Doretta went to open it, and Evangeline’s father walked into the room. “I hear your aunt gave you a diamond necklace, Gilly,” John, Viscount Munroe, said with a smile. “I came to see it.”
     
      Evangeline started to her feet to show it to him, but the viscountess pushed down on her shoulder to keep her in the chair. “Not now, John,” her mother said with a dismissive wave of her hand, frowning as she faced him. “And you can’t wear that