Midnight Masquerade by Busbee Shirlee

Author:Busbee, Shirlee [Busbee, Shirlee]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, General, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9781614175728
Publisher: ePublishing Works!
Published: 2014-03-28T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

DESPITE the misgivings she might have harbored about the wisdom of her plan, Melissa

felt much better for having decided upon some course of action. She had never been one to

repine and wring her hands, being far more likely to leap first and then look later, and so it

proved on this occasion. But before she could put her desperate scheme into operation, she had to

decide upon which gentleman of acquaintance she could safely embroil in her plan.

Her first choice was her cousin Royce, but since she had no intention of telling whichever

gentleman she finally selected why she had so suddenly become interested in him, it made things

a bit awkward. Royce, she admitted ruefully, would know what she was playing at the instant she

fluttered her lashes at him. And she dared not choose someone who might take her attempts at

flirtation seriously. She did not want to find herself in the ridiculous situation of having to fend

off amorous intentions aroused by her seeming encouragement of them, nor did she wish to

inadvertently cause some poor gentleman to think that she was truly in love with him. Having

discovered how painful it was to love someone who didn't return that love, she was not going to

condemn some unsuspecting devil to that same fate.

After selecting and discarding several gentlemen, including her previously rejected suitor,

John Newcomb, she finally and reluctantly settled on Julius Latimer as her unknowing foil.

Latimer was old enough and sophisticated enough to handle a flirtation lightly, and she strongly

suspected that although he might have wanted her for his mistress, she bed not touched his

heart-nor could she. If he even had a heart, she thought darkly.

Latimer might have written her an exceedingly contrite and apologetic letter in an attempt

to smooth over his dastardly actions, but Melissa wasn't about to forget those anxious days

before Dominic's offer to buy Folly had saved her from the fate Latimer had planned for her. She

didn't trust him one little bit . . . but she wasn't above entangling him in her rash scheme to make

her husband jealous. It would serve him right, she decided with a spurt of righteous indignation,

for having treated her so insultingly.

Melissa had no fear that she could keep Latimer at a distance when she chose to do so-she

was far more adept at repulsing advances than she was at making them! But she was a trifle

uneasy about using him in this way, astute enough to realize that she might set in motion events

over which she had no control. If she could have thought of anyone other than Latimer with

whom to embark upon an apparent flirtation, she certainly would have, but no one else presented

himself to her mind. It would, she conceded unenthusiastically, have to be Latimer who became

the object of her seemingly amorous interest.

After she had come to those conclusions, all that now remained was for Melissa to inform

her husband of her decisions concerning the tenor of their marriage, and she grimaced. For one

long, yearning moment she considered simply throwing her arms about her husband's neck and

begging for his love, but eventually she put this from her mind.

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