Free Lord of Deceit (Heiress Games Book 2) by Sara Ramsey Page A

understand, with your reputation….”
    Something inside Octavia snapped at that. “I only have my reputation because you ran to Julian and told him about Chapman. How dare you judge me for that?”
    “You have your reputation because you always did what you wanted, no matter what it did to others. It was always about you and your bloody suitors and your bloody dresses and your bloody parties. You were the one who left — you can’t expect me to be happy that you’ve returned. Goodbye, Octavia.”
    Lucy swept past her, kicking the shears aside. Octavia was too stunned to say anything — too stunned to even turn around and watch her go.
    “It might be best if you leave now,” Lady Maidenstone said gently. “You’re welcome to the hunting lodge. But Briarley House in London would be better, I think.”
    Octavia felt tears build and panic well up in her throat. She couldn’t go to London even if she wanted to. Somerville’s driver was no doubt already gone, and it would take more money than she wished to spend to get back in a private coach. And if the gossips heard that Madame Octavia was roaming around southern England in a public conveyance, the caricatures would turn ugly.
    That left the hunting lodge. “I will go to Julian’s house. And I will make sure to stay away from Lucy.”
    Lady Maidenstone sighed. “I had wished that you would reconcile, you know. She misses you.”
    “Did she ever actually say that?”
    Lady Maidenstone’s silence was answer enough. Octavia laughed bitterly. “Lucy can go to the devil. It was lovely to meet you, my lady.”
    Lady Maidenstone nodded. Octavia left, walking out of the orangerie and slowly crossing the gardens to return to the house.
    The house she would never sleep in again. With the cousin she would never speak to again.
    The cousin who had not only betrayed her, but still refused to acknowledge that she had done anything wrong — that anything that had happened after was her fault.
    The cousin who would inherit Maidenstone by default, even though she was responsible for the heir’s death.
    Octavia couldn’t cry. She wouldn’t cry. Not in front of the house, where scores of servants who had known her since childhood might be watching from the windows. Nothing good came of indulging in self-pity. The only thing that could save her was action.
    Action. And money. And a place to live — preferably one where she wouldn’t have to provide sexual favors to a man who had rented it for her.
    She could have that if she took Somerville’s offer.
    Becoming his friend’s mistress was the logical course of action. But even though she should have been thinking solely of a plan, the memory of Lord Rafael returned to her.
    Lord Rafael wasn’t for her. She might never see him again. And if she did, she couldn’t marry him. She pushed him out of her mind…as she had had to do, more than once, since their encounter in Somerville’s house. Had it really been less than a week since he had kissed her hand?
    Less than a week since she had lost everything, again?
    She needed money and a place to live. Something that couldn’t be taken from her, no matter what happened or how someone else might betray her.
    All of that was in front of her, in the house she loved.
    All she had to do was ruin Lucy. If Lucy was somehow made ineligible to inherit, it would force Rothwell to reconsider Octavia’s position. Octavia was convinced she could win him over if she had the chance.
    “ Briarley contra mundum ,” she said out loud, almost like a vow.
    For the first time since she’d arrived, her voice was strong.
    She would find a way to destroy Lucy. She would win Maidenstone and buy her freedom from society.
    It was wrong, and it was evil to even think about it — but that was the Briarley way.

Chapter Five
    Seven weeks later… Salcombe, near Maidenstone Abbey, Devonshire
    R afe sat in the public room of Salcombe’s only inn, his back to the wall, nursing a glass of whisky. Not that