Free Seducing an Angel by Mary Balogh Page A

over theyears, but he will not have the satisfaction of knowing he has made me suffer, the wretch. However, he has, despite himself, I believe, made an extremely good match with Margaret. She is a treasure beyond compare. I dote upon her and upon my two grandsons and one granddaughter even if the first son was born out of wedlock, a fact that was not in any way his fault, was it?”
    “Lady Carling,” Cassandra said quietly, “I did not come here tonight to cause trouble.”
    “Well, of course you did not,” that lady said, smiling warmly at her. “But you have caused something of a sensation, have you not? And you had the nerve to wear that bright dress into the bargain. I suppose you had no choice but to bring that glorious red hair too, but of course the gown does draw even more attention to it than would otherwise be the case. I applaud your courage.”
    Cassandra looked for irony in the words or in Lady Carling’s manner but was not sure she could find any.
    “I scolded Duncan a few years ago,” Lady Carling continued, “when he attended a ball uninvited after returning to London with all the baggage of a horrifying scandal weighing him down. It was all very reminiscent of what you have done tonight. And do you know what was the very first thing he did after arriving at that ball, Lady Paget?”
    Cassandra looked back at her, her eyebrows raised, though she thought she knew the answer.
    “He collided with Margaret in the ballroom doorway,” Lady Carling said, “and he asked her to dance with him and then marry him—all in one sentence, if he is to be believed. I do believe him because Margaret tells the same story and she is not prone to exaggeration. Yet they had never set eyes upon each other before that moment. Sometimes being daring and defying the ton can be a worthwhile venture, Lady Paget. I can only hope that you will be as fortunate as Duncan has been. For of course I do not believe there is any truth to that axe business. You would not be free or evenalive, I suppose, if there were. Unless the problem is simply lack of proof, of course. But I do not believe it, and I am not going to ask. You must come to my at-home tomorrow afternoon. My other guests will be astonished and outraged—and will talk of nothing else for the next month. I will be famous. Everyone will come to all my other at-homes for the rest of the Season lest they miss something equally sensational. Do say you will come. Say you will have the courage to come.”
    There was perhaps goodness left in the world after all, Cassandra thought as she smiled her half-scornful smile and looked about the ballroom. There were people who would treat her with courtesy even if their main motive was to avoid further embarrassment at the ball. And there were people who would reach out the hand of friendship even if they were perhaps partly motivated by selfish concerns.
    It was far more than she had expected.
    If she were not so desperately poor …
    “I will think about it,” she said.
    “I am sure you will,” Lady Carling said, and told Cassandra where her house might be found on Curzon Street. “I have been delighted to take this break from dancing, Lady Paget. I never like to admit my age, but when I dance more than two consecutive sets or when I spend more than an hour playing with my grandchildren—the two who are not still nicely settled in a cradle—then I feel my age, alas.”
    The Earl of Merton was dancing with a very young and pretty lady, who was blushing and gazing up at him with worshipful, sparkling eyes. He was smiling at her and talking to her and giving her the whole of his attention.
    He was going to sleep with her tonight, Cassandra thought, and afterward she was going to do business with him. She believed she had done well. She knew she had attracted him physically. She had also very subtly engaged his pity. He thought her alone and lonely. Itdid not matter that it was at least partly true. She would have it no other way