Free Beauty and the Earl by Jess Michaels Page B

my mission for Lord and Lady Rothcastle.”
    “How much do you intend to tell him?” Olivia asked.  
    From her expression, Violet saw that her friend was as torn about this idea as she was. As courtesans, they dealt in mystery, not this kind of intimacy.
    “I don’t really know,” she admitted. “I know there are things I shall never reveal.”
    “You mean about—”
    Violet nodded to interrupt her. “Yes. About him. But as for everything else, I’ll have to see how far I need to go to open Liam’s heart and get past his defenses.”
    Olivia pursed her lips.
    “What is that expression?” Violet asked, folding her arms.  
    “I worry, Violet,” her friend admitted, utterly serious, which was unusual. “You say you are trying to open this man’s heart, but I fear you will be opening your own as well. What if you come to care for him, even love him, because you shared so much of yourself?”
    Violet straightened up, her heart clenching with her friend’s pointed question.  
    “I had to consider that, of course,” she admitted. “But I know what we are, Olivia. Courtesans cannot love—we cannot afford it.”
    Olivia’s gaze dropped from hers and her cheeks paled. “I-I suppose you are correct about that.”
    Violet shrugged, as if to dismiss the topic. “And this man has made it clear he will not want to keep me. If he uncovers my deception, he certainly won’t want to keep me. So I do this with no illusion that it is anything more than deception on my part.”
    Olivia nodded. “Be careful,” she advised, then stood up. “Now I should finish readying myself before supper.”
    Violet smiled at her friend as Olivia slipped from the room. Olivia worried about her, which she appreciated. But she could handle this. She had to.
    With a sigh, she moved from the chamber and walked downstairs. Since there was time before supper, she had the perfect opportunity to do a little looking around. She knew full well one could tell a great deal about a person from examining his surroundings.  
    She looked around the wide hallway at the bottom of the stairs. There were many doors and many rooms to explore, so she chose the first one on her right to start with. It was a parlor, though not the one she had been guided to upon her first visit. Like Liam’s bedroom, the room was rather sparse, with minimal decoration and plain furniture. Strange, since his sister had a sense of style. And yet Liam went as minimal as he could in his home.
    She walked from the room to the next in the hallway and caught her breath. This was an office, likely Liam’s office, judging from the paperwork stacked on the desk, waiting to be addressed. A parlor couldn’t tell her much, but this room most definitely could.
    She moved inside and walked the perimeter of the room slowly. Again, there was little to see and only the work indicated someone bothered to live here at all. There was no art, plain paint colors, the furniture seemed comfortable, but there was nothing with personality to be seen here. It was as if he had come into this house and stripped everything of value and joy out.
    Her breath hitched at the thought. It seemed like the man wanted to be wrapped in the pain his past had created. As if he shunned anything that might help him move forward in his life.
    Once again, Violet thought of his sister and the fear in her eyes when she spoke of him. Lady Rothcastle feared for his future. At the time, Violet had simply filed the information away, but now she wondered…
    Was Liam even thinking about a future? Did he believe he would be around for one? Or was his cutting off of everything good around him a symptom of something far more sinister and fearful?
    She shivered and pushed those thoughts aside, though she knew she would be watching him far more closely from now on. She stepped up to his desk and looked at the papers there. They were estate business, mostly. A few pieces of correspondence that looked like they had gone