Enchanting Pleasures by Eloisa James

Author:Eloisa James
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780307569493
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2001-11-02T23:00:00+00:00

GABBY SPENT THE REMAINDER of the morning in a stranglehold of anxiety. When should she tell Peter that their engagement was off? Or would Quill prefer to tell Peter himself? She would forget this nerve-racking problem only to find her heart beating rapidly as she imagined Kasi Rao being forcibly dragged from Mrs. Malabright’s arms.

The only positive aspect of her paroxysms of worry was that her dropped bodice faded in her mind from a dire humiliation to a mere embarrassment.

Lady Sylvia’s prediction about the number of callers they might expect proved to be absolutely correct. By the time Gabby returned downstairs, the Indian Drawing Room was crowded with people come to see the fashionable lady with the indecent gown—or the indecent lady with the fashionable gown, however one wished to phrase it.

Sophie, the Duchess of Gisle, arrived just after visiting hours commenced. “I thought if we were in the same chamber, we could accept commiseration together.” Her eyes were dancing with laughter. “I do believe that we ought to complain to Madame Carême, don’t you, Gabby?”

The assembled ladies quickly noted the duchess’s familiarity with Miss Jerningham and adjusted their opinions accordingly.

“I, for one, will never patronize that particular modiste.” A thin, waspish-looking lady shivered dramatically. “Obviously, it was her design that was at fault.”

“You wouldn’t have to worry,” Lady Sylvia snapped. “No gown is going to fall off yer chest, Amelia. And if it did, there’s nothing to expose.” Lady Sylvia was proving herself a formidable opponent, taking off the head of any person brave enough to insinuate that ladylike behavior did not include disrobing in public.

Gabby nodded, and smiled, and murmured polite nothings, and blushed whenever bodices were mentioned. She tried to ignore the fact that her throat tightened every time the door opened. Quill was nowhere to be seen. It was rare for him to appear until the evening, but surely today he would join them for luncheon?

“Well, you got away with it, gel,” Lady Sylvia said after the throngs of visitors had trickled to nothing and the room finally emptied. “Thanks to Her Grace. That girl is a right ‘un, I’ll tell you that.”

The door opened once again and Gabby’s heart jumped into her throat. Here she was, besieged by trouble, and she kept being distracted by memories of Quill’s hungry kisses and the way he groaned in his throat when she—She took a deep breath.

But it was Peter, not Quill, who entered. Gabby could barely meet his eyes. What would Peter think of her if he knew what she had been doing with his brother? She was jilting him. She was going to humiliate him in front of the entire ton, given that he introduced her to all his friends as his fiancée only the night before.

She wanted to die of mortification. Even more strongly, she wanted to burrow into the fierce warmth of Quill’s arms and remember why she was doing such an unladylike and scandalous action as marrying her fiancé’s brother.

The thought made her shiver again.

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