50 Ways to Ruin a Rake by Jade Lee

Author:Jade Lee
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2015-03-01T16:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

Ruin him in small ways with a nickname, a token, or an intimate promise.

Trevor was not a man who wrote well. He had friends who were great orators, others who could craft a sentence like a sculptor shapes marble. When he had promised to write Mellie daily, he had imagined himself sending missives filled with reassurances and clever anecdotes. Simple stories to buoy her spirit and make her smile.

He envisioned her smiling a lot when she read his letters. It was one of his favorite fantasies. Well, one of his non-salacious fantasies.

But when it came to actually creating these gems of written correspondence, he failed utterly. They contained statements like: “I went to the tailor today. He says I am a fit man.” Short, simple sentences less eloquent than his tailor bill. Clearly, she’d engaged herself to a dullard.

At least he had accomplished something. In the two weeks that he had been prevented from seeing Mellie, he had sent the announcement of their engagement to the papers. It had been published the next day with more eloquence than he could manage. At which point he had been flooded with invitations and visits from friends all wanting to know about his mysterious love affair.

He’d promised Eleanor to keep his answers short, giving only the barest details, all in anticipation of tonight’s first ball where Mellie would be “revealed” to the world at large. Or at least to the ton. Lady Redhill had been prevailed upon to give the ball. And as she was also the woman who designed Mellie’s clothes, everyone anticipated a grand theme. Or at least a spectacle.

What Mellie thought of this was a complete mystery to him, for as bad as he was at writing, she was arguably worse. She told him in equally simple sentences about this fitting or that visit to the milliner. She spoke in numbers more than words, as if life were some sort of mathematical formula.

“We had three trips today. I bought four hats and a pair of new walking boots. The cost is the equivalent of two downstairs maids for a year. Or a month’s worth of my father’s chemicals. I cannot think this is necessary, but Eleanor told me twenty-two times this morning that it is.”

There was only one missive from her that raised her above her normal level of accounting. In desperation for something to write to her, he had asked about her choices in dress. Her answer had been vague. She had indeed said that she enjoyed the process, which surprised him as much as it appeared to surprise her.

And then he was subjected to two pages of detailed notes on the chemical treatment of fabrics. Apparently, she and the duchess had found a common interest in the creation of cloth. Mellie had recorded a small portion of their discourse, and he had to dredge up all he remembered of various chemicals and cotton to follow her missive. In the end, he had encouraged her to record her thoughts for the next time she spoke with her uncle about their mill.

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