Read Online Pleasure For Pleasure by Eloisa James - Free Book Online Page A

me to say it, Griselda, I think that Sylvie has a wonderful idea. All you would have to do is make him fall in love with you. He’s not a complete devil. You might find him amusing. Felton says that Darlington graduated with a First, which is remarkable for a gentleman. Likely, he’s bored.”
    Sylvie was waving a fan gently before her face and nothing could be seen but her mischievous eyes. “I think that I have seen the gentleman in question, dear Griselda.”
    â€œHmmm,” Griselda said.
    â€œYou must have noticed his shoulders.”
    â€œAs Tess mentioned, this is a remarkably improper conversation,” Griselda said, obviously remembering her role as chaperone.
    â€œI am quite used to impropriety,” Josie said. “Not a one of my sisters found her husband without a scandal.”
    â€œI certainly don’t want a husband!” Griselda said.
    â€œOf course you do,” Sylvie stated. “Every woman wants a husband; they are so necessary to one’s comfort, like a flannel night rail in the winter. Necessary, but tedious to acquire.”
    â€œAnd you did tell Imogen that you were considering marriage,” Josie added.
    â€œWell, I certainly wouldn’t marry a man like Darlington.”
    Sylvie’s eyes rounded into a shocked expression. “We never suggested such a thing! Never! Of course, you will want to marry a man with a sweet and modest disposition. Otherwise not even an optimist could see you sharing breakfast with him after a year or so.”
    â€œMy own Willoughby was remarkably modest,” Griselda remarked. “But my ability to watch him eat calves’ head pie for breakfast lasted precisely one day, as I recall.”
    â€œI expect I would have been just the same,” Sylvie said with a little shudder. “But I mean to begin as I shall go on, and therefore I shall inform Mayne that we shall never breakfast together. That way he will not be disappointed by my absence.”
    Josie thought that was a bit mean, but after a moment she realized that Mayne probably didn’t care about breakfasting. She wasn’t stupid, nor naive. What Mayne wanted was to sleep in the same room with Sylvie, not eat there.
    â€œI suppose I could contemplate a flirtation with Darlington,” Griselda said.
    â€œJust long enough to reduce him to a state of slavering adoration,” Sylvie said reassuringly. “Then you can shake him from your skirts like so much dust.”
    Josie liked the sound of that.
    â€œThis is not the sort of solution that had occurred to me,” Griselda said, looking thoughtful.
    â€œIndeed,” Tess said with a gurgle of laughter. “Griselda and I and Josie’s other sisters have been pursuing irreproachably correct ways of ameliorating the situation. Really, Josie, you do have a number of admirers now.”
    â€œOld men,” Josie said impatiently.
    Sylvie raised an eyebrow. “Dearest, young men are invariably tedious. I think you don’t realize what a sacrificeGriselda makes by even contemplating a brief flirtation with a man not yet thirty. Without experience, they have nothing to say.”
    â€œDarlington always has something to say; that’s his stock in trade,” Tess observed.
    â€œBut he is unlikely to have made many mistakes, and mistakes are what make a man truly interesting.”
    â€œHas Mayne made mistakes?” Josie asked with some curiosity.
    Griselda laughed, but Sylvie said, “Without question. He has the look of a man who has mistakenly found himself in far too many beds, for one thing. He has clearly put too much value on variety. I shall insist that as my husband, he show far more prudence.”
    â€œBut do you mean that he will…he will continue to—” Josie stopped. There were limits to what a young unmarried woman was supposed to voice, after all.
    â€œOh, undoubtedly,” Sylvie said, fanning herself. “Although he is