The Courtesan's Daughter by Claudia Dain

Author:Claudia Dain [Dain, Claudia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance, General, Mothers and Daughters, Love Stories, Historical, England, Historical Fiction, Great Britain, Arranged Marriage, London (England), Regency Fiction, Mate Selection, Aristocracy (Social Class)
ISBN: 9780425224229
Google: nPl7wy42kYEC
Amazon: 0425224228
Publisher: Berkley
Published: 2006-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Eighteen

CARO thought that, in the way of dreams and wishes, she ought to have been delighted. Three men, handsome and titled, were interested in her. Very interested to judge by the rain of pearls that was being showered upon her, arguing now as to who would have her, how, and in what order. Caro suppressed a shudder.

It was funny in a perfectly unamusing fashion how dreams could actually be frightening when they happened while awake. This was nothing, nothing, as she had imagined it. She had three pearl necklaces and three men and the whole world was watching to see how she would handle herself, as well as how she would handle the three men. She was absolutely in over her head.

She had no idea how her mother had managed it in her day.

If Caro had needed any further convincing that the life of a courtesan was not for her, and she did not, this moment, this ruinous moment, would have convinced her permanently. Just how did one go about choosing one man from among three? Because, no matter that Lord Henry Blakesley had given her pearls first, or that the Marquis of Dutton had given her pearls in the most seductive manner imaginable, it was Lord Ashdon, predictably tight-lipped and surly, whom she wanted.

Even if he did want her for a courtesan and not a wife.

Even if he had, obviously, told absolutely everyone that she was desirous of a lovely strand of pearls so that she had been besieged by absolutely hoards of men in the most fashionable assemblie of the year, and any hope she had of ever holding her face up in Town again was completely out of reach because of Lord Ashdon’s rather big, though completely mesmerizing, mouth in telling what had obviously been a private communication to everyone he knew and a few he didn’t.

What’s more, she was almost certain that the pearls Ashdon had given her, in the most sullen way imaginable, weren’t even his pearls to give. He didn’t have any money. Who knew that better than she?

It was in the middle of these thoughts, as her tribe of three men argued and haggled right in front of her as if she were no more than a bit of lace to be fingered and bargained over, that Ashdon hit Dutton in the stomach so that Dutton lurched over, huffing, while Blakesley burst into impolite laughter.

While she was staring at the mess she had made in the drawing room of Hyde House, Ashdon grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into the large, rose-colored dressing room. They were not alone.

“Your grace,” Ashdon said, bowing curtly, tugging her into a curtsey.

“Good evening, Lord Ashdon, Lady Caroline,” the fourth Duke of Hyde said softly. “Bit of a row out there? Always happens at these affairs. I don’t know why the duchess insists upon having it year after year. I suppose she must like rows.”

Hyde was a soft-spoken man who had distinguished his name by performing well in the rebellion in the American colonies twenty-five years past.

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