Free Every Scandalous Secret by Gayle Callen Page B

statue was the only beacon in the night.
    “Ladies?”
    The male voice made several of them gasp, and Miss Randolph even dropped her sketchbook with a clatter. Susanna wondered if Mr. Wade had been lingering in the dark watching them. It made her skin tingle just imagining it, and she found herself suddenly eager for the unfolding scene.
    “Mr. Wade,” Caroline said, rising as if she greeted him during a morning call. “Did we disturb you?”
    He came forward out of the darkness, his hair gilded by the white moonlight. Susanna knew she was not the only one to notice that his cravat was tossed over his shoulder instead of tight about his neck, his collar buttons opened to see the smooth line of his throat, his Adam’s apple, and even the faint depression at the base of his neck. Much more skin than a lady was used to seeing. Though his eyes gleamed, she thought there was a trace of weariness there.
    “No, I have not yet retired,” Mr. Wade said, grinning. “We gentlemen are in another wing playing cards and billiards, and wouldn’t have heard you all escaping your rooms for the night.”
    “We are not escaping,” Susanna said lightly. “We are sketching a night scene.”
    He walked closer until he stood even with the statue. He was taller by half a head, but the curling hair could have been the same.
    “So you are sketching this?” he asked, eyeing it, then the ladies.
    They clutched their sketchbooks to their chests in shared embarrassment, as if caught doing something indecent.
    Lady May gave a drunken giggle. “We have been sketching statues our whole lives. I think we should use a living person as a model.”
    Every eye went wide. Susanna stared around her, looking for affront and instead seeing their intrigue. “Ladies, many of us sketch people.”
    “But not someone like Mr. Wade,” Lady May continued. “Would you pose for us, sir?”
    Susanna opened her mouth, uncertain what her duty was as the eldest—and most sensible—lady present, but Mr. Wade spoke first.
    “Only if you truly believe I could help further your education,” he said with sincerity.
    Caroline’s gaze collided with Susanna’s. Perhaps she saw the double meaning in Mr. Wade’s words as well.
    He rested his forearm on the shoulder of the statue. “I do believe I can hold very still. It will be a lark, will it not?”
    Lady May giggled again. “Let us have a new subject to draw, Miss Leland. There is no harm.”
    She could have reminded them what might befall them if their parents discovered this night lesson, but lately, she wasn’t the sensible one at every occasion. And she liked the feeling. Their eyes were alive with excitement—and truly, what was the harm?
    “Very well,” she said.
    Mr. Wade just watched her, that ever-present smile gleaming. She never forgot the wager—he never allowed her to forget, what with his constant presence. His deeper plan was to seduce her secrets from her, or so he’d boldly said. She lifted her chin in answering challenge as she watched him. How this helped him, she didn’t know, but was curious to find out.
    Mr. Wade rubbed his hands together. “What should I do?”
    All four women stared at Susanna silently.
    “Since we already began with the statue standing,” she said, “we’ll keep that for the theme tonight. Stand just at the edge of the window, partially in the light, partially out.”
    He did as she instructed. “I just stand here?”
    “What a shame we don’t have a book for you to read.”
    “There’s a book on a lower shelf just past the fireplace,” Caroline said. “The bookend is an antique. Otherwise, it would be in the library. Shall I fetch it?”
    Soon Mr. Wade was holding the open book in one hand. “I’m reading in the moonlight?” he said with faint sarcasm he directed Susanna’s way.
    She gave a pleased smile. “It will give the ladies more to draw, especially where your hands and arms are concerned. Shall we begin? Remember, we will not have time