Wicked Angel (Blackthorne Trilogy) Read Free Page B

excitement by scalping someone tonight."
           Alex's laugh held a hint of genuine amusement. "You only told Lady Jersey of my 'savage' ancestry hoping to get yourself blackballed."
           "I should be so fortunate! I fear it quite turned about on me and thus here we are." He sighed as Octavia Caruthers shot him a fulminating glance from across the room. Tiny and birdlike, with unnaturally black hair for a lady at the twilight of her forties, the baroness's apparent fragility was belied by her fierce dark eyes and a mouth pursed so tightly it looked incapable of permitting speech, far less a smile.
           "She's bringing Lady Harrington with her. Lud, I bloody hate this."
           Having been ensconced at the Caruthers's city house for a scant two days, during which he had scarcely seen either his uncle or aunt, Alex was still uncertain about the peculiar chill in their marriage. His parents, indeed his whole family in America, seemed quite happy with their spouses. In spite of that, he felt not the slightest inclination to give up his freedom for wedded bliss in the foreseeable future, still less could he fathom why a man would become leg-shackled to a woman he detested.  
           "Why did you agree to come here tonight? I assure you, I'd happily forgo stale cakes and buttered bread with warm lemonade," he said with a grimace, looking at the food table.
           "I am in attendance here so that your beloved aunt will give me peace, you young lout." At Alex's look of frank disbelief he muttered an addendum. "And so that she will pay my gaming debts and the tailor's bill. Don't look so bloody shocked. Surely you didn't think I married that frigid little bitch for true love."
           Masking his colonially gauche shock, Alex asked, "Once she married you, didn't you receive control of her fortune?"
           "Would that I had. But her father, damned hag-ridden bastard, saw to it that the bulk of her estate has been tied up in trust. Of course I ran through her marriage portion within the first decade of our connubial bliss. Ever since then I've been begging at her door. He must die, and my darling Octavia as well, if I'm ever to have a sou to call my own. I have resolved to outlive them both, even if it kills me," he drawled through gritted teeth as his wife approached them and made introductions.
           Lady Harrington was a blowzy blonde whose voluptuous charms were far enough faded to look downright shopworn under bright light. She deftly trapped Alex into partnering her through an English country dance. As they returned from the floor, she tapped him lightly with her fan, eyes glowing avidly. "La, sir, do any of our young ladies take your fancy? I could arrange an introduction."
           "You are most kind, but I don't believe I'm at all a suitable prospect," he said, deciding to see if he could titillate her with his Muskogee blood as his uncle had Lady Jersey.
           "You mean because you're American?"
           "No, milady. Because I'm Indian."
           She blinked and looked at him as if he'd materialized that instant out of a puff of smoke. "Indian," she said consideringly, noting his swarthy skin and deep brown eyes. "The sun often darkens colonials. I would never have guessed but for that exotic slant of cheekbone. My, how positively delicious."
           "Lady Jersey thought so. That's why she allowed me admittance," he replied dryly, noting how Lady Harrington quickly deflated when the prospect of spreading such juicy gossip was snatched from her.
           "Pray, tell me about life among the savages."
           Suddenly the avid gleam in her eyes, the shocked titillation in her voice, was no longer the divertissement he'd hoped it would be. "My father's people are rather tame. They scarcely ever practice human sacrifice anymore. Not like the good old days, I fear. You'd find them quite tedious, milady," he said as he steered her