Seducing the Beast by Jayne Fresina - Taming the Tudor Male in Three Easy Lessons 01 - Seducing the Beast

Author:Jayne Fresina - Taming the Tudor Male in Three Easy Lessons 01 - Seducing the Beast [Fresina, Jayne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9781616504342
Google: 2wOSMQEACAAJ
Amazon: B00HK1BLM8
Barnesnoble: B00HK1BLM8
Goodreads: 12149130
Publisher: Lyrical Press Inc
Published: 2010-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

In her chamber that evening, she was writing a letter when Jennet returned to help her dress for dinner.

“You write to your family, my lady?” the girl asked.

She didn’t look up. “No. I write to the damnable Earl of Swafford.”

“Oh.”

“I’ve a tendency to let my temper run away with me and forget what I meant to say, so I’ll write it all down, just in case.”

“I see, my lady.”

A few minutes later, hearing some intriguing sighs and rustling, she looked up from her letter. The maid was lifting clothes from a box, laying them out carefully across the large bed and stroking each garment wistfully. At first determined not to show any interest, curiosity soon got the better of Maddie. She set down her quill and walked to the bed.

There were three new gowns, exquisitely made, finer even than those her cousin Eustacia wore, but youthful and not too fussy. Silk petticoats with lace trim, and stockings embroidered with little flowers, nestled there, waiting for her touch. The final garment was even a bed robe of fine ivory lawn and lace with cascades of ruffles along the hem.

Beside her, the maid ran her hands reverently over this haul of luxury.

“Look away, dear Jennet,” Maddie warned. “You’re too young, too innocent.” These things, she thought angrily, were all his property in the same way he meant her to be. “His lordship thinks I might be tempted, I suppose. As if I might be bought, like any other possession.”

Jennet reminded her shyly that the Earl of Swafford was never refused.

“Had he been refused once or twice in his life,” she replied curtly, “he might not be such a wretched ogre. Never fear, it will all be in the letter.”

The maid nodded solemnly, hands behind her back, resisting the lure of those sinful, lacy garments.

“Remember, Jennet, as I told you earlier, if Swaffords had to work for a living, there might be a pleasanter face among the long line of shriveled, miserable old prunes in the gallery.”

It had surprised her, but even with a fortune at their disposal, none of the previous earls bothered to bribe an artist into making them look handsome. The current earl had no portrait yet in the family gallery. She supposed he at least had the good sense not to expose himself to future critics. He was, she’d heard, heinously scarred, dreadful to look upon.

“Think of everything he would buy for you, madam,” Jennet whispered, “if you were his mistress. There’s nothing you could not have.”

“Money? If I had a fortune, I wouldn’t know what to do with it, I daresay. No. I’m quite content to be poor and happy. It costs naught to make love.”

Jennet flushed scarlet.

She clarified. “Unless one must procure one’s partner, that is, then I believe it costs sixpence.”

Still the little maid was mute.

“Has this wealth bought the Swafford earls much happiness, Jennet?” Maddie continued, getting into her stride. “How can anyone with this much wealth ever be sure the people at his

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