Read Online If He's Sinful by Hannah Howell - Free Book Online Page A

the Wherlockes as he promised.”
    Ashton studied the four very serious faces of his friends. “You are about to give me bad news.”
    “It can wait,” Brant began.
    “No. Spit it out.”
    “Well, even though Marston says he is not finished, the lineage he did give us is very impressive. The Wherlockes and the Vaughns are intertwined with many of the most important families in England. At the moment, what most concerns you, us, is one marquis of Salterwood, a Wherlocke, who married one Minerva Wherlocke, a very distant cousin. He bred one child on his wife, a girl, and died ten years almost to the day after his marriage. His widow then married the baron of Haverstile three years later and died within four years of her wedding, along with her husband, in a boating mishap. The baron adopted her child shortly after the marriage, making that child Penelope Wherlocke Hutton-Moore.”
    “Hell.”
    Chapter Five
     

    “You should have heard her, Artemis,” Penelope said as she kneaded the bread while her brother removed peas from their pods. “She was absolutely furious that Radmoor had given her—how did she put it?—some pathetic, tawdry little ring of sapphires and diamonds and not the Radmoor emerald.” She looked across the kitchen table at her brother. “She truly cares nothing for the man.”
    “You suspected that all along,” said Artemis, then opened a pod and rolled the peas inside into his mouth.
    “I did, but feared it was my own jealousy making me think such things. After all, Radmoor is very handsome and a viscount, with a strong chance of gaining more titles. Even though his father leapt from scandal to scandal and bed to bed and apparently left little more than debt behind, Lord Ashton is still accepted in society. Except for the previous viscount, the Radmoors have a long and illustrious heritage. Marrying into that family would be quite a coup for the daughter of a baron who gained his title because he procured women for the prince.”
    “Really? You can get a title for that?”
    “Oh, aye. Do not forget that some very high titles have been given to people simply because some king or prince begot them on the wrong side of the blanket. Compensation for the cuckolded husband, I suppose.” She set the bread dough in a bowl and draped a cloth over it before moving to the sink to wash her hands. “So much anger,” she murmured.
    “At the Hutton-Moores’?” Penelope nodded and Artemis grinned. “So that is why you arrived here far earlier than you usually do.”
    “It is. Clarissa and Charles were so consumed by their anger, they did not notice me slip away.” She frowned as she dried her hands. “I think they may have threatened Radmoor.”
    “With what?”
    “There was something said about his father’s debts. I think Charles may have gained hold of some of them, a lot of them, and now holds the markers over him like a sword of Damocles. Think, instead of a lot of men owed smaller sums, many of them willing to take payments or wait, Radmoor now faces one man who could bring him to his knees by simply demanding immediate payment of many debts.”
    “Clever,” murmured Artemis and shrugged at his sister’s scowl. “I did not say it was right, just clever. Evilly so.”
    She shook her head at his weak attempt to slither out of a scolding for his remark. “I also think they put the notice of the betrothal in the papers before there was any actual proposal made. Clarissa said something about the ring being an insult, one delivered because they had rushed the man.” She gathered up a small basket of apples that had wintered over very well in storage, sat down at the table, and began to peel them. “It is the why of such machinations that I cannot understand.”
    “They want those titles in the family. Titles that actually carry a little power and respect.”
    “Perhaps. Charles would benefit through Clarissa. I fear Radmoor is quite firmly trapped. He is badly in need of money. He