Tempting a Sinner by Kate Pearce

Author:Kate Pearce [Pearce, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2014-06-11T16:00:00+00:00

After checking the small clock on the mantelpiece for the correct time, Malinda opened the desk drawer, took out a sheet of paper, and found a pen. She concentrated on writing a short letter to Doris and Gwen, asking them to welcome Jenny and the boys. She didn’t reveal much else. It was better for Doris not to know anything that might put her in a flutter, but it was hard not to confide in her cousin. She assumed Benedict would expect her to be discreet, and it was in her own best interests to keep everything to herself.

“Niall?”

“Yes, my lady?”

“Can you ask the landlord if he has any sealing wax? There doesn’t appear to be any here in the desk.”

“Yes, my lady.”

While Niall was occupied, Malinda folded the letter and stood up. “I’ll just use the necessary, Jenny. Tell Niall I’ll be back in a moment.”

Jenny was busy adjudicating in a brawl between her two sons and barely nodded, leaving Malinda free to slip out of the room and find her way to the best parlor, Benedict’s purloined dagger tucked into the folds of her skirts. She knocked on the door and went in.

The woman sitting by the fire was heavily veiled, but there was no mistaking the gleam of her blond hair. Malinda sank into a curtsy.

“My lady.”

She waited as the Marchioness of Alford lifted her veil to reveal her beautiful face and the trembling pout of her small, childish mouth.

“I have a message for you from my husband. He requests your presence at Alford House.”

“And how does he expect me to honor his wishes when I am guarded by his son and the Countess of Westbrook?”

“I will send you an invitation to one of my ‘at homes’ this week. I will keep the countess occupied. You can speak to the marquis then.”

“You can’t want me in your house, and certainly not cluttering up your public drawing room.”

“Unlike you, missy, I do what I am told by my husband, and this is what he wants. I have no idea why he insists on seeing you, and I have no interest in knowing.”

Malinda took a step forward.

“Does it bother you that your husband told me that he was my father?”

The marchioness’s eyelashes fluttered. “He would never do that.”

“He did it to make me leave your son when I was seventeen.”

She shrugged. “Needs must.”

Malinda shook her head. “Poor Benedict. I would be happy to attend the marquis at your earliest convenience. Good day, my lady.”

She removed herself from the room as quickly as possible and went back to find Jenny and Niall. It might be painful to have to agree to do anything her former in-laws wanted, but at least it gave her access to the very man she needed to see and in a way Benedict would never know about if she was careful.

Niall was standing in the doorway looking about him, his expression anxious.

“Oh, there you are, my lady.”

Malinda smiled. “Did you find the wax? Thank you so much.

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