Free The Gilded Web by Mary Balogh

visit during the afternoon, Amberley,” she said finally, breaking off quite abruptly what she was saying.
    â€œWhat?” he said. “Oh, yes, I suppose it is. Do you mind, Eunice? Am I keeping you from something more important?”
    â€œNot at all,” she said. “I had planned to spend the afternoon reading, but I would just as soon spend it conversing with you. Something is the matter?”
    He shook his head and smiled at her. “No, no,” he said. “I merely felt the need of your good sense.”
    She looked at him closely for a few moments. “If you wish,” she said, “we may remove to my bedchamber. Daylight does not seem quite appropriate to such activity, but that is no matter if it will content you.”
    He continued to smile at her. “Would it embarrass you, Eunice,” he asked, “to be made love to during the daytime?”
    â€œI believe it would,” she said frankly. “Though it is quite absurd to feel so when the same thing happens, after all, whether the room is light or dark. Come along, Amberley, I can see it is what you wish.”
    He rose to his feet and looked down at her apologetically. “You are good to me, Eunice,” he said. “You can read me like a book, can you not?”
    â€œI can see that something is troubling you,” she said, “and that somehow you are in need of me. Perhaps afterwards you will feel like talking about it. But only if you wish. I shall not pry into your affairs.”
    And she was as good as her word, Lord Amberley found. If she was embarrassed, she did not show it, but allowed him to take his pleasure beneath the bedsheets rather more lingeringly than was his habit with her and to sink into blissful unconsciousness beside her afterward. When he awoke, she was lying as usual on her back, her legs neatly side by side, her hands clasped loosely over the blanket, her eyes open. He felt a momentary regret that he had never been able to give her pleasure in their couplings. She seemed not to want it and had told him quite matter-of-factly on the only occasion when his hands had strayed that it was quite unnecessary for him to caress her.
    He lifted his hand and stroked her cheek with one knuckle. “Thank you, Eunice,” he said.
    â€œI am always happy to give you pleasure,” she said.
    â€œHave you heard of the scandal?” he asked.
    â€œI very much doubt it,” she said. “I do not meet a great number of people outside my salon, Amberley, and quite frankly, I do not derive any pleasure from listening to gossip. Most of it is untrue anyway.”
    â€œThis is all too real, I am afraid,” he said. “Dominic took it into his head two evenings ago to kidnap Madeline in order to save her from an elopement that she had teased him into believing possible. He had some corkbrained friends of his take her to my house, tie her to the bedpost so that she would not run away, and gag her so that she would not disturb the servants’ sleep. The scheme worked beautifully well except that the girl was not Madeline.”
    â€œAnd I can guess the rest of the story,” she said. “The girl has been compromised and must be married. Lord Eden is too young to be faced with such a responsibility, so you are to wed her. It is quite what I would expect of you, Amberley. You have some misgivings about the girl?”
    â€œShe will not have me,” he said, “or Dominic.”
    â€œShe must be very new to London and society, then,” Mrs. Borden said, “or of very firm character. Has she not yet found out what will happen to her?”
    â€œI am afraid she must soon,” he said. “The scandal broke yesterday when a new footman of mine gossiped.”
    â€œThen you must go back to her and renew your offer,” she said.
    Lord Amberley turned onto his side and raised himself on his elbow. “Yes, I am afraid I must, Eunice,” he said.
    She