Free Lady Anne's Lover (The London List) by Maggie Robinson Page B

Mont.”
    “I should never be so impertinent, Mr. Morgan. After all, I’m only a housekeeper.”
    He seemed to really see her for the first time, taking in the damp velvet bonnet and woolen riding habit. “Those are my late aunt’s garments.”
    “Yes, they are. I was obliged to leave London on very short notice and left most of my things behind.”
    He sat down again and sighed. “Knowing Gareth, I’m sure there’s some scandal attached. Are you a prostitute?”
    Anne counted to ten to keep her temper. She was rather proud of her temper, a ferocious thing when necessary. It had garnered her plenty of attention in the past, but it was best kept squelched today. “I am not a whore, although you are correct in thinking my reputation is tarnished. I am Lady Imaculata Anne Egremont.”
    His face was blank. “I have not heard of you.”
    “You must be the only man in the British Isles who hasn’t. Don’t you ever read The London List ?”
    His lip curled. “That scandal sheet. Of course not.”
    “Well if you had, we could get through this conversation much more quickly. You’d be shot of me, which is clear you’d like nothing better. My name is a bit of a byword for bad behavior, I’m afraid. For the past two years, I’ve done nothing but try to enrage my father.”
    “Why is that?”
    She steeled herself and said what she’d practiced. “Because he touched me in places I did not want to be touched, Mr. Morgan.”
    He’d looked appalled before, but evidently there were degrees. He was as pale now as the whitewashed rooms in his neat cottage. “Does my cousin know?”
    “He does not. I—I can’t tell him. Not yet. I will before we marry—it seems necessary to be honest with him.” It would go a ways to explain why she couldn’t ever bed him.
    “What would you have me do that Gareth threatens blackmail?”
    “I took a false name when I took the job. My father is an earl, Mr. Morgan. He has a great deal of influence and will do everything in his power to get me back. If you call the banns and use my name, he’ll find me, I know it. I’m sure he’s offering a reward.” Could she trust Morgan not to collect it?
    He shook his head, looking truly regretful. “I cannot lie before God, even for such a reason. The marriage would be invalid.”
    “I’ve given that some thought. My new name is very close to the old. If you could simply say the rest of it very quietly, stress the ‘Anne’ and the ‘Mont’—mumble or whisper a little—you would still be truthful and I will have a chance for a future. When I marry, I’ll come into quite a bit of money. I’d be happy to share a portion of it with you. Does the chapel need a bell tower? Missals? I’m prepared to be very generous.”
    “Bribery. You think as poorly of me as my cousin does,” Morgan said bitterly.
    “It is you who seems critical of him, sir.”
    “We were once the best of friends. But he went off to war and I found my calling. I cannot countenance his behavior.”
    “The drinking?”
    “The drinking, the whoring, the fighting. He was wild, Mrs. Mont. For fifteen years he did just as he pleased while Ripton Hall went to rack and ruin. His father begged him to come home, but he was too selfish.”
    “He was defending his country, Mr. Morgan. That’s hardly selfish.” Someone needed to defend Gareth.
    “He was running away. When Bronwen married Lord Lewys, he fell to pieces.”
    “I was under the impression his drinking was a recent thing.”
    Morgan snorted. “It’s worse now, I grant you. He’s no longer amusing, just oblivious. I’ve tried to talk to him to no avail.”
    Anne could imagine the one-sided conversation. But Morgan had his weakness of the flesh, too. It seemed that he and Gareth had shared it.
    “Are you warning me against this marriage?”
    “You’re a fool if you go through with it. He’s only marrying you for whatever fortune you can bring him—he can never love another. But he might kill you as he