Free The Accidental Duchess by Madeline Hunter Page A

Cassandra on the sofa.
    “He will come around,” Cassandra said.
    “Ambury?”
    “Southwaite. With Emma. He is still in the first throes of both excitement and worry. She will negotiate more movement and freedom in a few weeks.”
    “I do not see why she should have to negotiate anything. She is not some child. She took care of herself well enough before they wed. She can even make her own way if she needs to, which I greatly envy. My brother should not be able to change her habits and interfere with her pleasure on a whim.”
    Two years ago she never thought she would have to make this speech to Cassandra, of all women. Cassandra had been the freest unmarried woman she knew back then. She had both envied and admired her, and tried to pattern her own freedom upon that example.
    Not that she had ever gotten far in doing that. Someone always interfered. Her brother. Her aunts. Her own fears and lack of confidence. Cassandra possessed a lush beauty that encouraged a boldness of vision that captivated everyone, even if they did not agree or approve. When Lydia gazed in the looking glass, she saw a somewhat ordinary female lacking distinction, who could never pull it off.
    Cassandra laughed. She reached over and plucked at an errant curl and tucked it back into place in Lydia’s coiffeur. “You will go on about how the world should be, instead of accepting how it is, Lydia. As I said, your brother will come around. Emma will see that he does. We women are not without our weapons in such skirmishes.”
    She wondered what those weapons were, and what their limitations might be. Neither Cassandra nor Emma appeared oppressed, but that had a lot to do with Southwaite’s and Ambury’s characters, rather than any feminine weapons. If married to different men, they would both be disarmed.
    “At least you do not have to wait for negotiations,” she said, broaching the topic that had brought her here. “You at least still dance to your own tune sometimes. Ambury would not object if you went out some night alone, for example.”
    “Is there any particular place you think I would want to go?”
    “Was I that obvious?”
    “Only because I know you so well.” She bent closer, like a conspirator. “What are you plotting?”
    “In a word, revenge. I am finally ready to give the cheating knave who robbed you his due.”
    Cassandra leaned away abruptly. “Robbed me? Lydia, what are you talking about?”
    “You told me that you lost a huge amount at the tables because a scoundrel cheated. Don’t you remember? I said I would turn my mind to how to extract justice.”
    “Darling, that was long ago. Almost two years, surely? I had all but forgotten it. Since that financial quandary led to my alliance with Ambury, I do not even hate the man anymore.”
    “Well, I do. He is a cheat. He has kept at it all this time too. I figured out who it is and I have been watching him for months, when I can. I even had someone teach me sleight-of-hand tricks, so I could decipher just how he pulls it off.” Hopefully Cassandra would never learn how badly that had turned out. That someone had been Trilby and it was how he came to know her better than he might have otherwise. “I am ready to bring him down.”
    Instead of cheering, Cassandra appeared vexed. “You have been watching him for months? He only plays at the worst hells these days. Do not tell me that you have been a regular visitor of such places.”
    “I could hardly study him if I never went where he plays cards.”
    “Good heavens, Lydia.”
    “I do not know why you are so shocked. I told you I was going to do this when you first described the dilemma he created for you. It is why I learned the games in the first place, and practiced with cards so hard.”
    “Are you saying you only picked up this . . . entertainment, so you could catch him at his tricks? Pray, never tell your brother that. He will forbid either you or Emma ever speaking to me again.” Her eyes narrowed