The Wagered Wife by Wilma Counts

Author:Wilma Counts
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2013-07-17T16:00:00+00:00

Caitlyn had tried to keep up a facade of normality about her life. Apart from inviting Trevor to ride with her once, she had made no personal overtures to him. She thought they had accepted enough invitations together to deflect the worst of gossip. These had been discreet affairs like that musicale the other evening.

She and Trevor were invariably polite to each other, but she thought they both studiously avoided being alone together. She had been unable to bring herself to remain with her husband one night when Aunt Gertrude rather pointedly excused herself. Pleading fatigue, Caitlyn too had retired early. She and Trevor did not live exactly as strangers, though—more like school acquaintances who did not much care for each other.

However, they both cared a great deal for Ashley. Caitlyn experienced sincere gladness—and growing apprehension—as she observed the developing affection between Trevor and his daughter. Already Ashley adored her papa and was in a fair way of wrapping him around her little finger.

Trevor had said he would not take her child away. Caitlyn would have to rely on that assurance for now. But what would he say later—when his family decided they opposed the uneasy truce between Trevor and his wife? He had bowed to their wishes readily in the past. She knew he had called on his mother, but he had not discussed the visit, nor did she feel free to ask about it. The crisis would come when his father and brother returned to town—as they were sure to do for the round of celebrations, which had already started, to mark the defeat of Napoleon.

The newspapers had babbled for months of the grand state visit of England’s allies. The Prince Regent was sparing no expense in his plans to entertain Alexander, Czar of All the Russias, and Frederick, King of Prussia. The czar’s sister, the Grand Duchess Oldenburg, had arrived as early as March to help smooth the way for her brother, though it was whispered she was also on a diplomatic mission to forestall any talk of marriage between the daughter of the Prince of Wales and a Dutch prince. Russia feared an alliance between the two great maritime powers of the day.

The society pages of every journal were filled with this soiree or that rout to honor the visitors. The grandest of these affairs, aside from a dinner and ball the Prince would host at Carlton House, was to be a ball staged by one of the ton’s favorite hostesses, the Duchess of Wallenford.

Caitlyn had been surprised to find herself included in the Wallenfords’s guest list. But then she supposed that it would have been “bad ton” even for the duchess to invite Trevor and exclude his wife, and Trevor’s connection to the Earl of Wyndham insured his invitation. The gilt-edged vellum missive had put Caitlyn at sixes and sevens at first. Never in her wildest imaginings would Caitlyn Maria Woodbridge have dreamed of being in such exalted company. She had seen Trevor’s mother on

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