Twice Tempted by a Rogue

Author:Tessa Dare [Dare, Tessa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Romance
ISBN: 9780345518873
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2010-06-21T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

“Oh, ma’am. It does look well on you. You’d hardly know it was a strumpet’s gown.”“Are you sure?” Meredith fretted in the predawn darkness, twisting and turning before the mirror. This was the largest looking glass in the inn—the one adorning her finest guest room—and still she couldn’t get a sufficiently reassuring view.

Proper-sized mirrors, she mentally added to her shopping list.

It had been two weeks since Rhys had issued the invitation to Bath. Why had she waited until the last possible moment to pack?

“The color’s lovely,” she said, running her hands over the ruby-red silk. Did genteel women truly wear such colors? “Are you absolutely certain I won’t look like a whore? That wouldn’t do at all.” She threw Cora a guilty look. “That is … I beg your pardon, dear.”

Cora smiled. “No need, Mrs. Maddox. I understand perfectly.”

Did she? Well, in that case, Meredith wished the girl would enlighten her. For she scarcely understood herself at all. Here she was leaving tomorrow morning to travel alone with a gentleman for several days, with the express purpose of making love to him several times, and no intention to allow said activities to culminate in marriage. And she was concerned that a red dress might make her look the tart?

She tugged up on the neckline. “I need a fichu.”

“I don’t think so, ma’am. The cut is not so very low, and your …” The girl’s voice died, and she cleared her throat.

“And I don’t have so very much to put on display.” Meredith smiled, patting her modest bosom. “Of course, you’re right. And you’ve done a fine job with the fitting.”

“There wasn’t much to alter, save the hem. You and the owner had quite similar measurements.”

“This wasn’t your dress, then?”

“Oh, no. I never had anything half so fine.”

“Then where did it come from?”

“When Mr. Bellamy had me staying at the Blue Turtle in Hounslow, there was a lord and his mistress stopping over. Well, the two of them had a noisy row right in the middle of the courtyard, in the wee hours of the morning. He’d cast her out into the cold, then flung her dresses out the window.”

Cora shook her head. “That was the scene that made me realize I never wanted to be any man’s whore again. The lady who owned these dresses, she had what all us girls wanted—a wealthy protector to buy her nice things and treat her well. And still, when he had no more use for her, he cast her out like rubbish. I didn’t want that to ever be me.”

A little smile curved Cora’s lips. “Evidently, the fancy lady had too much pride to pick her garments out of the mud. She simply left them on the ground and ordered her carriage, and that was that. So I gathered them up, brushed out the dirt as best I could. I planned to make them over for myself someday, but they suit you better.” She carefully folded a leaf-green muslin frock edged with ecru lace and laid it in Meredith’s trunk.

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