Free The Perfect Mistress by Betina Krahn Page B

staring at her daughter… caught up unexpectedly in Gabrielle's story.
    "He pulled me from their clutches and gave them a terrible thrashing,"
    Gabrielle continued moments later, sipping the sherry and glancing at her mother from the corner of her eye to see how Rosalind was taking it. There was heightened color in her mother's cheeks, and she seemed to be genuinely engrossed. "Afterward, I was so frightened and distraught that I could scarcely speak my name. So he took me to a lovely restaurant, where he helped me to dry my clothes and settle my nerves. Once there, one thing led to another. We talked. And he held my hands and looked deep into my eyes…"
    Her voice and attention trailed off, seemingly into mists of memory, and she smiled with an unmistakable feminine glow. It was so utterly unlike Gabrielle that Rosalind looked up, dumbfounded, at Clementine and Gunther. The pair stood a discreet distance away, wagging their heads, equally confused by the drastic change in her daughter.
    "And he gave me his cloak and sent me home in his carriage…" Sighing, Gabrielle came to her senses and pushed to her feet. "If you don't mind… I am chilled and exhausted, and I simply cannot wait another minute to get out of this wretched dress." She floated toward the door, smiling. "Good night, Mama… Mrs. Bolt."
    "Gabrielle!" Rosalind recovered in time to halt her just inside the doors.
    She turned back to find her mother and the others hurrying after her. "Who is he? This man you've fallen in love with?"
    "Oh, didn't I say? That is the best part." Gabrielle laughed with genuine delight, savoring her mother's expression as she announced: "He is an earl .
    And he's so unbearably handsome and so fabulously wealthy—"
    "An earl?" Rosalind fairly choked on her surprise. "Which earl?"
    "Sandbourne," she said, savoring the way her mother's face went blank with shock. "The earl of Sandbourne. Oh—and I pray you won't mind—I've invited him to call tomorrow at five to take tea with us. He is so anxious to meet you and pay his respects. Oh, I can't wait for you to meet him. I just know you'll adore him too!"
    She gave a giddy twirl of excitement for good measure and then floated up the stairs on a cloud of romantic euphoria, leaving her mother standing at the base of the stairs, mute with shock and wearing a look of deepening horror.
    When Gabrielle disappeared from sight at the head of the stairs, Rosalind grabbed Clementine's arm to steady herself. The carriage, the cloak, the astonishing changes in her daughter's attitude and demeanor…
    "Sandbourne—did you hear? Only this afternoon she despised love and passion and romance, and tonight, she is in love with Sandbourne]" Her knees buckled. Clementine and Gunther rushed her back into the drawing room, where one helped her into the chair Gabrielle had just vacated and the other rushed to the liquor cabinet to pour her a stout brandy. She downed the drink in one unladylike gulp, but not even its fierce burn could distract her from the distress of learning the identity of her daughter's new love.
    "I cannot believe it. It's a calamity of the first order," she muttered numbly. "Of all the wealthy and titled men in England, she has to be rescued by one whose reputation would make a bawd-house bully blush for shame. Why, the man's a complete libertine—a pure debauchee—"
    "Won't keep a proper mistress, like a decent an' godly gentleman would,"
    Clementine said, posting herself at Rosalind's side and patting her hand sympathetically. "Goes for fancy houses an' his friends' lady wives, the bounder. Rampin' wild, I hear."
    "And as a result has set more tongues wagging than thewretched Prince of Wales. It's a wonder he hasn't beencalled out by some cuckold of a husband…" Red crept into her pale cheeks as she stared fixedly at one spot, conjuring images of what lay ahead and seeing nothing buttrouble. She buried her face in her hands.
    "I wanted her to fall in love with a generous, gallant,