Read Online Notorious by Nicola Cornick - Free Book Online

said. “All yours and no one else’s.” He raised a hand in farewell and walked away, leaving Susanna feeling shaken by a minor earthquake. For in that moment she knew Dev had spoken the truth. He had been hers and she had destroyed everything that had been between them and she would never have that again.

CHAPTER FIVE
    T HERE WAS NOTHING , D EV thought, quite like a group of ill-assorted people who did not enjoy one another’s company pretending to be having a marvelous time. It was raining, they were in St. Paul’s Cathedral and they were looking at tombs because Susanna had expressed a wish to see some of the more esoteric sights of London. Dev had wondered what the hell she was playing at—until he had overheard Fitz praising her for her intelligence as well as her beauty. Cunning jade. Fitz was pretty stupid himself, Dev thought, but he liked to consider himself cultured and what better way than to show the dazzling Lady Carew around this historic site that was the burial place of heroes.
    “Remind me what we are doing here again?” Chessie grumbed at him. “I was supposed to be attending Lady Astridge’s musicale this afternoon. Instead you bring me to this mausoleum so that I can watch Fitz dance attendance on Lady Carew.” Her pretty face screwed up into a tighter expression of disgust. “If I had wanted to torture myself I would have stayed at home and read an improving book.”
    Dev drew his sister behind one of the huge pillarsthat supported the soaring roof. He wanted to tell her to stop being so childish and petulant, but he supposed she did have an excuse. For the last fortnight it seemed that Susanna’s name—or at least her assumed name—had been on everyone’s lips. The ton was full of the arrival of the beautiful, rich widow in their midst, the papers followed her every move, the London gown shops reportedly sent her dresses hoping she would wear them to the nightly balls she attended. And Fitz was now behaving as though he could not quite remember whom Chessie was, so dazzled was he by his new inamorata. To Chessie, fathoms deep in love with Fitz and now thwarted and ignored, it must be unbearable. Dev felt a pang of sympathy for his little sister, who had been so close to her fairy-tale betrothal and was now slighted. Chessie was pining visibly, losing weight, appearing thin and wan, all her vivacious sparkle lost. The ton was laughing at her. Emma had told Dev all about the gossip and had, he thought, derived a certain pleasure from doing so.
    “We are here to thwart Lady Carew,” he said calmly, “and you will not do so by flouncing around like a child in a temper.”
    A spark of interest came into Chessie’s eyes. “Tell me how I am to achieve that then,” she said.
    “By being everything that Lady Carew is not,” Dev said.
    Chessie’s mouth drooped. “You want me to be ugly and stupid? I cannot see how that will help.”
    Dev stifled a grin. It was true that Susanna was both beautiful and intelligent and no matter how much he detested her it was pointless to deny it. Very few men would be indifferent to Susanna. Some might dislike her wit, but with them she would be clever enough to pretend to be stupid. It was difficult to identify her weakness but he was determined to find it. Find it and use it against her.
    “You are younger than Lady Carew,” he said. “That will do for a start.”
    Chessie arched her brows. “Is that the best we can do? I am a year or two younger?”
    “Four years,” Dev said, without thinking.
    Chessie frowned. “How do you know?” Her gaze was a little too penetrating for Dev’s liking. “Did you know her very well in Scotland?”
    Intimately.
    Dev glanced across to where Susanna was perusing her guidebook, head bent, a very pretty picture of beauty and scholarship combined. Superimposed on the image of the bluestocking was another, that of the wanton beauty who had lain in his arms for just one night. In the heat of their lovemaking her cool