Don't Tempt Me by Loretta Chase Page A

Marchmont had intended, stuck in Beardsley’s mind and influenced his tone.
    Marchmont wasn’t sure, though, that the resulting sympathetic story was entirely the result of his own manipulations. He’d noticed the way Zoe moved andthe way she looked at or away from Beardsley at crucial moments while she spoke.
    She was cleverer, too, than anyone could have supposed. Without actually lying, she’d contrived to create the impression that she’d been given as a slave to Karim’s first wife. That had reduced the salaciousness factor considerably.
    I know the arts of pleasing a man , she’d told Marchmont. She’d pleased a hardened journalist out of his natural cynicism, certainly.
    â€œAlmack’s must have been atwitter last night,” said Adderwood. “Everyone would know you’d gone to Lexham House.”
    â€œThey not only knew it, but had me racing to Doctors’ Commons for a special license,” said Marchmont.
    Doctors’ Commons, which lay in the neighborhood of St. Paul’s, was the lair of ecclesiastical lawyers. Therein was the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to whom a gentleman applied for a special license. Such a license allowed him to dispense with banns and marry when and where he chose.
    A short, intense silence ensued.
    Then, “You wouldn’t,” Adderwood said. “I know you’re a careless fellow. I know you regard yourself as under a great obligation to Lexham. All the same…” He trailed off, clearly unsure whether he was approaching dangerous waters.
    â€œI’m under the greatest possible obligation,” said Marchmont. He could not imagine a greater one.
    He’d gone a little mad after Gerard died. He’d wanted to shoot every horse in the stables and shut himself away with his grief.
    But Lexham wouldn’t let him.
    â€œYou’re the Duke of Marchmont now,” Lexham had said. “You must carry on, for your father’s sake. And for Gerard’s sake.”
    Lexham had taken him away on a rambling tour of the English countryside, then up into Scotland, into the Highlands and thence to the Inner Hebrides, whose bleak beauty and isolation had worked their magic. It had taken a long time for Marchmont to calm and begin to heal. Lexham had given up months with his own family and the parliamentary work he loved. He’d given up precious time he’d never get back. He’d done it for another man’s son.
    There was a debt of honor if ever there was one.
    â€œStill, marriage would be…extreme,” the duke went on with his normal sleepy amusement. “I’ve only promised to launch Miss Lexham into Society. It shouldn’t be difficult.”
    Adderwood’s eyebrows went up. “Not difficult? It’s one thing to captivate one of those inky newspaper fellows. Winning over the ladies of the ton is another proposition entirely.”
    â€œWho cares about them?” said Marchmont. “I mean to win over the Queen.”
    â€œYou’re joking.”
    â€œIt will be amusing, but I’m not joking.”
    â€œYou think you can arrange for Miss Lexham to be presented at court?”
    â€œNothing could be simpler.”
    â€œYou’re mad.”
    â€œIt runs in the family.”
    â€œMarchmont, you know the Queen is a stickler for propriety,” Adderwood said. “Miss Lexham hasspent the last twelve years in what Her Majesty will regard as a dubious situation. One touching story in a grubby newspaper is not going to earn the lady an invitation to court.”
    â€œA thousand pounds says I can obtain that invitation,” Marchmont said. “It says, furthermore, that Miss Lexham will make her curtsey to the Queen before the month is out.”
    â€œDone,” said Adderwood.
    Lexham House
Wednesday, 8 April
    Zoe gave one last, dissatisfied glance at her reflection in the dressing glass and turned to her maid. “Well,