Free The Scandalous Life of a True Lady by Bárbara Metzger Page B

lip curled under the moustache. “Every woman of fashion needs jewelry. Obviously you do not in your current mode. But Major Harrison’s companion does require gems, to give weight to his standing.”
    “That is precisely what I wish to speak to the major about. I cannot go with him to the house party. We have not concluded the arrangement, you see. He told me to think on it, and I have. I must regretfully decline his employment.” She headed toward the door and her room, to pack her few belongings back into the trunk.
    “You could not have found another protector since last night.”
    Simone should have expected the insult, but it still hurt. She turned at the door to say, “I have decided to pursue a different line of work. I shall provide for myself, not in such rich style, of course, but with my head held high.”
    If her chin rose any higher, she’d fall over backward. Mr. Harris pushed a notepad aside and stroked his chin, thinking. What he thought was that he did not want her to leave. He wanted to see her dressed in satin and lace, with jewels dripping from her arms and ears and neck. No, he wanted to see her wearing nothing but a single red ruby between her breasts, breasts which she might not have had, so loose was the sack she wore. He’d wrestled with his conscience all night and decided he could not ruin a respectable woman, not even to save his life or escape to a better one. But now that she had decided the same thing, that her honor was too precious to barter, he changed his mind. Now he had to change hers. Or else he could lock her in the room and tie her to a chair, like one of the spies he’d interrogated. That might work better.
    “No,” he said. “You cannot leave yet. I believe you agreed to think about the position for a few days. The major cannot see you until then anyway.”
    A few days? The longer Simone spent in this bachelor household, the more compromised she would be and the harder she’d find it to explain to a prospective employer where she had resided. She walked back to the table, and pounded her fist on it. “That is unacceptable.”
    “I think you might spare the time, considering I sent Major Harrison’s bank draft to your brother’s school this morning.” He knew using her love for her brother was an unworthy weapon, but he had no rope or manacles handy.
    Simone sat down, heavily. “You sent the check? But, but how did you know where to send it?”
    By reading the brother’s letters, of course. “Sally brought down a letter you’d written, to be sent with the mail. I addressed my note to the headmaster there.”
    “I’ll have to write to him, to send it back. Dear heaven, what will the man think?”
    Harris adjusted his spectacles. “I understood that the major promised the funds, no matter the outcome of your stay here.”
    “But I do not intend to stay.”
    “A promise is a promise. If not yours, then Major Harrison’s. Further, the deed is done. The mail has been posted. Now, about dressmakers. Do you have a modiste that you prefer?”
    “You must know I have no knowledge of such things. Lady Seldon patronized Madame Genevieve, but I—”
    “No, her taste is abominable. In apparel and husbands. I took it upon myself to make inquiries as to who dresses the ton’s dashers.”
    “But I am not a dasher and I am not staying. I shan’t be going to the house party, therefore I do not need new gowns. I cannot make it any plainer.”
    “That is for you and the major to discuss, Miss Ryland. Meantime, the woman I selected is on her way with pattern books and sample fabrics. She has been paid in advance, to set aside her other customers’ orders.”
    “Have you not been listening? I am not staying!”
    He raised the coffee cup to his lips and smiled as if he knew something she did not, or if he’d tasted something sweet. “Who knows, you might change your mind. You already did once. And ’twould be best to have the new wardrobe begun, rather than rushed, do