The Black Widow by Charlotte Louise Dolan

Author:Charlotte Louise Dolan [Dolan, Charlotte Louise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9781610847797
Publisher: Belgrave House/Regency Reads
Published: 2013-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 9

Aunt Phillipa lowered her newspaper and glared over the top of it at Meribe. “Well, missy, I see your splendid lord has come up to scratch.”

Hester gasped, and Meribe looked at her aunt in bewilderment. “Whatever are you talking about?”

“The list of betrothals in the Morning Post includes your names: Miss Meribe Prestwich and Demetrius Baineton, Lord Thorverton. Well, I cannot say that you did not warn me, but it is still rather shabby of you not to have apprised me of the agreement between the two of you before I read about it in the Post. But it is all of one piece since I have long known that the younger generation has no respect for the proper way of doing things. It has become such a helter-skelter world, there is no telling where it will end. In my day, gentlemen had the decency to cover their heads with wigs, or at the very least they powdered their hair, but now they lark about with their hair clipped indecently short.”

As much as she hated deceiving her aunt, Meribe could not reveal that the betrothal was nothing more nor less than a hoax—undoubtedly a trick on Lord Thorverton’s part to catch the murderer. Would that Lord Thorverton truly wanted to marry her—how wonderful it would be in that case!

Except she was forgetting: by announcing their betrothal, whether legitimate or a clever bit of deceit, Lord Thorverton was making a target of himself—setting himself up for another assassination attempt.

If only he had asked her permission first! Not that she would have given it, of course. Not even the income from her father’s investments was great enough to warrant taking such a foolhardy risk, and so she would tell Lord Thorverton when she saw him.

Aunt Phillipa rattled her paper indignantly, then said crossly, “And as for you, Niece, you would have done better to take my advice and shun the company of men. Well, that is all I shall say on the subject, except for this: you have made your bed, and now you must lie in it.”

Meribe felt her face grow hot at the thought of lying in bed with Lord Thorverton. It had been uncommonly pleasant to have him hold her in his arms ... what would it be like to sleep beside him? To see his face on the pillow beside her? To wake up in the morning in his embrace?

“You are assuming, of course, that nothing untoward will happen to his lordship between now and the wedding,” Hester said, interrupting Meribe’s pleasant daydreams. “I am surprised he is willing to risk being struck down by the curse.”

“There is no curse,” Meribe blurted out. She almost said it had been a hired assassin who had killed her other suitors, but fortunately she bit back the words in time. Under no circumstances could she allow Hester to learn that they had discovered her wicked machinations.

Hester’s expression was now so icy, she seemed a complete stranger, and Meribe wondered if she had ever truly known her sister.

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