Free The Gilded Web by Mary Balogh Page A

turned her head and looked at him. “It is making a decision that is hard, Amberley,” she said. “Once the decision is made, then there is nothing more to worry about. You have decided to do what is right. Did you wish me to reassure you? Is that why you came? You are right. Of course you are.”
    â€œOh, yes, I know that, Eunice,” he said, the same smile on his face as he had worn downstairs earlier. “But I wanted to marry you, dear.”
    â€œYou only think you do, Amberley,” she said, “because you are comfortable with me and we share a friendship. But friendship is not sufficient for a good marriage. At least, for you it is not. You need more. You need passion, and you cannot get passion from me. Only comfort and companionship. We are only an episode, you know. We would have ended sooner or later. It is as well to end our association now when we still like each other a great deal.”
    â€œI will miss you,” he said. “I notice that you are assuming that our affair must end if I marry Miss Purnell.”
    â€œWell, of course it must,” she said. “I know you well enough, Amberley, to realize that you could not be unfaithful to a wife. And I believe you know me well enough to understand that I would not receive another woman’s husband. We need feel no guilt over this afternoon. You are not yet betrothed, and I did not know of your obligation. But this is the end now. You must not return.”
    â€œNo,” he said. His smile was a little twisted. “I must not.”
    â€œJust tell me one thing,” she said. “Will you be able to make a marriage of it, Amberley? Is there the chance that you will find with this Miss Purnell the passion you will need?”
    â€œI think not,” he said. “But I will make a marriage of it, Eunice. I will owe her that. She is quite blameless in all this, you know. A total innocent. I must spend my life making her a good husband. She was to marry Peterleigh.”
    â€œThen she is a very fortunate lady,” Mrs. Borden said. “Peterleigh is humorless and egotistical. No woman could be happy with him. I would say that her misadventure was most fortunate.”
    He grinned unexpectedly. “Thank you, Eunice,” he said. “I must get dressed and leave you now. I must try to find Miss Purnell tonight. If she has the courage or the rashness to go out, she will probably be at either Lady Sharp’s soiree or the Higgins’ rout. If she is wise, she will stay at home and I shall pay my call tomorrow morning.”
    It was impossible to know, Lord Amberley thought a few minutes later as he bent to kiss her cheek, whether Eunice was sorry to see him go or somewhat relieved that she no longer needed to render him a service that she did not enjoy.

    L ADY M ADELINE R AINE WAS ENJOYING herself at Lady Sharp’s soiree. There were advantages to being two-and-twenty and still neither betrothed nor married, she was discovering with pleased surprise. She had been rather fearful that this year she would be just too old to attract the female friendships and male admiration that had always come her way so easily. She had half-expected to find herself relegated to spinster status.
    But it was not so. The younger girls seemed eager to be seen with her and to copy her fashions. And the gentlemen appeared to find her no less attractive for all her declining years. Indeed, they seemed to vie for her attention more than ever. There were three of them now conversing with her and Lady Pamela Paisley.
    And one of them was Sir Derek Peignton, the adorable blond giant whom she had not encountered during all her previous Seasons, although he must be close to Edmund in age. She was quite in love with him. She had danced with him twice at the Easton ball and had allowed him to drive her in the park the afternoon before. He had touched his hat and bowed to her on Bond Street that morning when she had deigned to