Potent Pleasures (Pleasures Trilogy) by Eloisa James

Author:Eloisa James [James, Eloisa]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2009-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Three days before her wedding Charlotte nervously put the finishing touches on her portrait of Chloe van Stork. Chloe sat patiently on the couch, as she had for weeks, but Charlotte could tell that she too was excited. Chloe had not looked at the portrait in progress. She wanted it to be a surprise, she explained somewhat childishly. Finally Charlotte made herself put down her brush. She was so jittery at the moment that she might wreck the painting just out of nerves. It was so odd to be finishing the portrait and getting married at the same time. It felt as if she were putting away her old life … no, that was silly. Alex had already set up a magnificent studio for her in his house. He had put it next to his study so he would know she was nearby. Charlotte smiled a secret, silly grin. She wiped her brush carefully and put it down. Later the servants would clean up all her paints and take them over to Grosvenor Square. To our house, she thought.

“Would you like to walk around and see your portrait, Chloe?”

Chloe started in surprise and jumped up. She’s such a nice person, Charlotte thought affectionately, looking at Chloe’s earnest little face and clear eyes. The two young women had become good friends over the eight weeks it had taken to complete the portrait. Charlotte squinted at her portrait. Was it there? Chloe’s deep-down honesty? She thought it was. The other side to Chloe, the mercurial gleams of desire that seemed so clear to Charlotte two months ago, were rather dimmer in the final portrait. Perhaps because Chloe herself had lost the yearning look she had after the night of King Lear. The night before Alex proposed to me, Charlotte thought with a little, irresistible smile. She couldn’t stop smiling when she thought about him.

“Two more besotted idiots I’ve never seen!” her great-aunt Margaret, a formidable lady at her best, had declared. Lady Margaret had a swollen toe and was feeling particularly testy during the formal dinner given by the Duke of Calverstill to celebrate his youngest daughter’s engagement to the Earl of Sheffield and Downes. “We’ll see how long that lasts,” she said, rather spitefully. But Margaret really was fond of her youngest niece, and this Alexander seemed to be a decent sort. She had liked his father—Old Brandy Balls, they called him when she was young. He would have been horrified to find his son plastered with a nickname like the Ineligible Earl, that was certain.

In Charlotte’s studio, Chloe clapped her hand to her mouth. “It isn’t me!”

Charlotte looked startled. “Yes it is, Chloe. It looks just like you.”

“No,” Chloe breathed. “It’s far too beautiful.”

A smile lit the corners of Charlotte’s mouth. “You’re a raving beauty, my dear.” She put an arm around Chloe’s small shoulders. “You’ll just have to get used to that fact.” Charlotte had chosen not to place Chloe in a fashionable setting, like a ruined temple or a flowery meadow.

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