Free Masquerade Secrets by Janelle Daniels

invitingly, her lashes lowered coyly as she had seen other women do.
    Surprisingly, it worked. Stopping in mid-conversation with another gentleman, he made his way over to her. “You summoned me, my lady?” he asked flirtatiously.
    “Yes, Lord Acton, I seem to be devoid of conversation.” She tossed him a flirtatious smile he seemed to lap up.
    “Well then, I shall have to do my best to amuse you,” he said as he took the seat next to her, beginning to relate a tale that would have even the most dour matron smiling.
    While his attentions didn’t have the flash of fire that Bradford’s did, they were still enjoyable. Why had she shied away from this for so long?
    Over the next half hour, several more men had been drawn into their conversation, clearly enchanted by her laughter and her new openness. The interest she saw in their eyes flattered her, the attention they lathered on her amused her.
    For an instant she felt grateful for Lady Victoria’s confrontation. It was what she had needed to completely push her over the edge, to free her from the bonds that had kept her from reaching out to others. While she rusty, and no where near completely comfortable, it was a start.
    Looking up at Lady Victoria, she was surprised to see her gone, and for Bradford to be standing against the window staring at her, the heat in his eyes evident.
    Had he been watching her this whole time? She laughed on cue to one of the men’s jokes, but she hadn’t heard it over the thrumming of her heart. Did he recognize her as the masquerade woman now that she was more outgoing?
    He turned his eyes away first, and when they returned to her they were devoid of the passion that had been in them earlier. She couldn’t look at him anymore.
    He clearly desired her, but he was still fighting it. It must be hurting him. To be feeling an attraction for her so soon after he gave his word of honor to another. He didn’t know she was the masked woman, and he would feel like he was being disloyal.
    She felt moved to approach him, to tell him who she was and to stop his guilt, but she couldn’t. She wouldn’t.
    She didn’t want him to want her because she was some mystery woman that he had pledged himself to. If he pledged himself to her, she wanted him to know who she was, to know her and to still want her.
    Then, and only then, would she tell him who she was.

CHAPTER 5
    After two days of enduring the sight of Lady Victoria cornering the duke, Aubrey had had enough. With the occasional longing looks that Bradford had sent her before cutting them off and regaining his composure, Aubrey was ready to run back to London.
    “Bitsy, please go to the stables and have a horse readied immediately. I wish to ride.”
    “Shall I request a groom to accompany you?”
    “Yes.”
    After yanking off her gloves, she fished out a dark blue riding habit.
    “Would you like some help dressing? I’m sure it will take Bitsy a while to get to the stables.” Charlotte tossed the book she was reading on her bed and reached for the dress to unfasten the few buttons at the back of the neck that held the material together.
    “Thanks.”
    “Feeling stifled?”
    Aubrey nodded stiffly. What else was there to say? Besides the masquerade, there wasn’t anything else to tell. True, the duke had been looking at her with passion in his eyes, but it wasn’t anything more than what her sister received on a daily basis.
    Charlotte helped pull Aubrey’s dress over her head before settling the shining blue material in its place. “I don’t blame you. I think everyone is a bit disgusted with Lady Victoria’s advances. Not only is she corning the duke every chance she gets, but she also seems determined to keep all the other men on her string.” She made a sound of pure disgust. “How she happens to have a brother as decent as Viscount Lawrence, I’ll forever have to wonder.”
    Her sister began to fasten the impossibly long row of buttons down her back. “Lord Lawrence? I