Read Online Edith Layton by The Return of the Earl - Free Book Online

my motive for being here. It’s just that I’m not used to subterfuge.”
    “Well, get used to it,” Sophie said angrily. “The fellow’s a criminal, for heaven’s sake! He has wiles, and money, at least enough to spend fostering his schemes. And you know that servants, even the best of them, are not only indiscreet, they can be bought.”
    “Not my Annie,” Julianne said, straightening her back. “I don’t know about London servants, but ours are practically members of the family…”
    “Who don’t have as much money as the rest of the family,” Sophie said coldly, finishing Julianne’s sentence for her. “And who have to sleep in the attics, do the washing and pick up after you. Even on a farm. Am I right?”
    “Well, yes. But…” Julianne’s voice dwindled. It was true, though she liked to forget it. Still, there were some things she had to establish here and now. She began to suspect that if she didn’t show some spirit, she’d be run over and squashed flat by her cousin. Sophie might be small and adorable, and good company when she wanted to be, but she was also high-handed, arrogant, and possibly more conscious of class than any girl Julianne had ever met.
    Sophie noted her silence with approval. “I also want to warn you that though I do think you look very well, I told you that so you’d be careful not to take his compliments to heart. I’m sure he’ll have many for you. I saw the look he gave you when you met.”
    Julianne felt a flush of pleasure. So she wasn’t wrong about that look he’d given her!
    “He was trying to figure out where you fit in thescheme of things,” Sophie went on, treading on Julianne’s fantasies. “Now, about that, tonight we must avoid using your name until we have to.”
    Julianne started to protest, but Sophie cut her off. “We’ll tell him in due time, but we can find out a lot this way, even the runner said so. Be on guard. The imposter will be. Never forget he’s clever. He probably knows there’s a reason we didn’t give him your name. So he’d try to charm it from you, and I’m afraid he may be able to do that. He’s obviously a flirt and wouldn’t stop at being a seducer to gain his ends. It’s clear he’s already impressed you.”
    Julianne bit her lip.
    “It’s not that you’re not pretty,” Sophie said in more kindly tones. “But he’s a man trying to gain what few men have, and I doubt he cares what you look like so long as he thinks you can help him. I’m not trying to hurt your feelings. I just want to make sure you know the lay of the land. Think about it. He’s a handsome rogue. I’m sure he can get women anywhere he likes; why, he may even have a wife. We’ll never know, from him, at least.”
    Julianne’s eyes grew wide.
    Sophie nodded. “You didn’t think of that, did you? Well, so it may be. Kings have wooed with less reason than an estate like Egremont. You’re intelligent enough, Cousin, but you haven’t experience with the world. You’re an innocent, from a farm.”
    Julianne looked down at her crimson gown. Now she felt about as enticing as a sow with rouge on its jowls and a ribbon round its neck. The worst part wasthat Sophie was right. She was ill equipped to deal with a charming imposter—if he was one. But she also realized it would be disastrous to let Sophie think she had as little experience of the world as she did.
    She drew herself up. “Perhaps I’m not as experienced with the social world as you are, Sophie. I never had a Season in London, true. But I’m nobody’s fool, and,” she went on, waving aside Sophie’s hasty assurances that she knew that, “I wish you’d stop saying ‘farm’ that way, as though we lived in a barn or next to a sty, or took pigs into the parlor for the winter. We have a very fine house, not as fine as this one, maybe, but historic and well furnished, and quite sufficient for our needs. And we have acres of good land, with tenants on it as well. We have woodlands