Read Online Lord Rakehell by Virginia Henley - Free Book Online

occur to me.”
    Grosvenor Square, London
    â€œIt’s all right, Jenkins, I’ll get the door.” Anne waited until the butler left before she opened it. “Frances, you’re late. Florence is already here.” Anne hung up her friend’s cloak on the hall stand and led the way upstairs to the drawing room.
    â€œI had to bide my time until John Claud went out. If he had known I was coming to Grosvenor Square, he would have insisted on joining me.”
    â€œI know I invited you to tea, but I believe something stronger is required to banish our inhibitions for this strategy session.” She poured them each a glass of sherry. “We need a bold plan, if we are to make our Season count for anything. None of us want just any husband, or one our family chooses for us. We must each narrow it down to one man. If we don’t pursue our dreams relentlessly, we will never achieve our goals.”
    Florence Paget took a tentative sip of her sherry. “But my family has already chosen a husband for me.”
    â€œThen we will have to thwart them,” Anne declared firmly. “Bottoms up, Florence.” She swallowed her sherry in one gulp and refilled her glass. “I warrant your family has chosen Viscount Henry Chaplin? Tell us truly, Florence, who is your heart’s desire?”
    â€œI have lost my heart to the Marquis of Hastings. But it’s a secret. No one knows; this is the first time I’ve ever whispered his name.”
    â€œHenry Rawdon? Well, I must admit he is rather dashing. He asked my brother-in-law Westmorland to nominate him for the Jockey Club.”
    â€œHe’s filthy rich as well as being a marquis,” Frances added. “Very good choice, Florence. I’ll make sure he gets an invitation to my parents’ annual ball.”
    â€œBut Henry Chaplin will be escorting me.” Florence sighed unhappily.
    â€œThat’s a perfect cover,” Frances pointed out. “Anne will confide to Hastings that you find him attractive; then when he asks you to dance, it will give you the opportunity to secretly flirt with him. Your parents and Viscount Chaplin won’t suspect a thing.”
    Florence drained her sherry. “I’ll do it!” she vowed recklessly.
    Anne looked expectantly at Frances Hamilton. “I know you have made a long list of eligible men, but whose name is at the very top?”
    â€œThe greatest title in England is the dukedom of Marlborough, so the name at the top of my list is the heir, Blandford Churchill.”
    â€œThat’s rather ambitious,” Florence remarked faintly.
    â€œThat’s the reason the three of us must form an alliance and swear an oath to succeed. Instead of merely wishful thinking, we decide here and now whom we shall marry, and from this day forward we will do everything in our power to make our choices reality,” Anne declared passionately.
    â€œA triple-threat alliance. One for all and all for one, like the Three Musketeers.” Frances was eager for the plan. “What shall we call ourselves? The Fearless Debutantes?”
    Anne laughed in derision. “The bloody Brass Monkeys if we want to be ridiculous. Next you’ll be suggesting we sign the pact in blood.”
    â€œWell, when you put it that way, it does sound a bit childish, like something my sister Maud would come up with,” Frances admitted.
    â€œAnne, you haven’t named
your
future husband,” Florence pointed out.
    â€œI’m going to marry Frances Hamilton’s brother, of course.”
    â€œJames isn’t the marrying kind.” Frances thought fleetingly of their maid Jenny, who was ripe with child. The girl had mysteriously disappeared from Hampden House and was now employed by her sister Harriet. It had happened when James came home from Ireland and Frances had put two and two together. “However, John Claud shouldn’t prove difficult. He already worships at your