Read Online Sherri Cobb South by French Leave - Free Book Online Page A

like to come upstairs.” She rose and held out one hand invitingly.
    Sir Ethan shook his head. “No, that won’t do.”
    “Pray, why not?”
    “Because I love me wife,” he said simply. “No offense, madam, but I don’t want any other woman. If there’s no other way, I’ll—”
    “Yes?” she prompted. “What will you do?”
    Sir Ethan gave a rueful smile. “I’ll take plenty of cold baths.”
    Mrs. Hutchins had been seventeen years in her profession, and in that time she thought she had seen it all. She had been wrong. This married father of four somehow seemed as innocent as the greenest youth bedding his first woman. She would gladly have foregone her usual exorbitant fee and taken him upstairs for free, just for the novelty. But he would not have gone with her if she had offered, and somehow she would have been disappointed in him if he had.
    “Very well, Sir Ethan. Your assumptions are correct. There is such a way as you supposed. But I am in business to earn a living, you know. How much are you prepared to pay for the information you seek?”
    The sum he proposed made her blink. “My dear sir, if all men valued their wives so highly, I should soon be forced to seek another profession.”
    She rang for tea and cakes, and instructed her butler to deny her to callers. Then she and Sir Ethan spent a very informative half-hour, at the end of which time he took his leave. His hostess did not ring for the butler, but instead walked him to the door herself.
    “Remember, Sir Ethan, if your wife objects, you may always be sure of a welcome here.”
    “Thank you, madam,” he answered in a tone which, while respectfully polite, clearly communicated to her the unlikelihood of his ever appearing on her doorstep again.
    “Oh, and Sir Ethan—”
    He had already started for the stair, but upon hearing her call his name, he turned back, and found himself seized by the lapels and kissed squarely on the mouth with a ferocity which knocked the curly-brimmed beaver from his head.
    “Forgive me, ducky,” she said with a wink, when at last she released him, “but I do have a certain reputation to uphold.”
    * * * *
    Lady Helen shifted to the edge of her seat as the carriage clattered down the familiar London streets. Very soon now she would be reunited with her husband and (she devoutly hoped) all her fears would be put to rest. For there was no denying that, in his absence, her doubts about her marriage had fed upon themselves until she no longer knew what to believe. At times, such as when a hastily scrawled letter had been delivered assuring her of his safe arrival in the Metropolis, she chided herself for her own foolishness; at others, primarily when she lay alone in her bed at night, it was all too easy to believe that he had never truly loved her at all, that winning her hand had been nothing more than a challenge to him, another rung on the ladder from workhouse orphan to knight of the realm.
    In the light of day, she knew these fears to be exaggerated to the point of absurdity. Still, nothing less than the sight of his face and the feel of his arms about her would put the problem (for problem there undeniably was) in its proper perspective. Consequently, her heart leaped every time she sighted a carelessly dressed, dark-haired man of medium height—no very rare breed in London, and hence the source of considerable agitation of spirits. The nearer they came to her Grosvenor Square town house, the more impatient Lady Helen became. The excited chatter of Miss Colling, so infectious at the beginning of the journey, had begun to pall. Lady Helen could only be thankful that the twins, at least, had long since fallen asleep, and that the younger children were riding with Nurse in a separate carriage some distance behind.
    “Voyons!” cried Lisette. “Why do we go so slowly?”
    “I don’t know,” Lady Helen confessed. “Have we indeed slowed down? I thought as much, but supposed it must be my