Read Online The Seduction of His Wife by Tiffany Clare - Free Book Online Page B

ill. Had taken to a fever. Knowing the man, I couldn’t leave him, so I took him back to my ship and brought on a doctor. It took a few months, but he finally made it back on his feet.”
    “What was wrong with him?” Abby’s eyebrows creased in a frown.
    “The cause of his condition is far more romantic than the underlying truth.” Richard put his napkin on the table and lifted his wineglass between his hands. “He was in love with a beautiful Englishwoman. A lady of decent standing. He was so much in love with this woman that he couldn’t think reasonably when she disappeared abroad.”
    Grace gasped and placed a hand over her heart. “What happened to her?”
    “It matters not in this story.”
    “Did he find her again?” Emma asked.
    How horrible for the woman to have found love only to lose it so tragically. Not so much different from her own story. She’d been infatuated with Richard since they were both young. And she had been no more than a nuisance to him. His leaving had proved that. It had taken her five long years to figure out that she was unwanted by the one man she was meant for.
    “Yes, and in a rather unlikely place.” Richard stared back at her, eyes narrowed as though he could read her thoughts or at least interpret her pensive gaze, which was probably full of longing. She quickly looked down to her plate and busied herself with cutting off a piece of pheasant.
    “She had married another in her youth,” he continued. “He died tragically from what I hear and left her on her own in a country far different from ours. Because she was a woman, she could not speak for herself.”
    “Doesn’t sound so different from England.” Abby snorted. “It’s not as if we have any rights.”
    “Oh, but you do. It did not matter that she was English. She had no protection. No man to speak for or defend her. She was sold into slavery.”
    Emma’s fork chinked against her plate. Surely this story was false. Someone would have saved the woman from such a fate. Perhaps Richard embellished the story to make it more interesting.
    “How is that possible?” Abby’s voice wavered. “She must have had relatives who could come and take her away from such a horrible place.”
    “I’m inclined to believe the same thing,” Emma added.
    “Ah, but she had no relatives, and she was in terrible circumstances of her own.”
    “What happened to her?” Grace asked, her voice breathless. It was as if this was the most enthralling story she’d ever heard.
    “My friend found her in a harem and, unable to tolerate her enslavement, he finally purchased her from the prince who owned her.”
    “She didn’t want to stay with the prince?” The timbre of Grace’s voice was skeptical.
    “The prince did not love her. He had countless women at his disposal. One wasn’t so much a loss.”
    Emma doubted the story ended there. Actually, she doubted the story held any truth. Richard was paying her younger sisters with a kindness, so she’d say nothing on the matter. Let them have their fairy-tale endings. It didn’t seem as if they happened in real life.
    Emma suggested, “Shall we retire to the drawing room? I imagine the gentlemen would like to help themselves to some after-dinner refreshments and a cigar in the games room.”
    Richard turned to her with a mistrusting glare. Yes, she’d escape at the first opportunity, and he probably knew her intention. Had he given her more choice in the matter of begetting an heir, she might feel differently. Unlike the heroine in the story he’d spun, Emma planned to take destiny in her own two hands and mold it as she saw fit.
    She had to hold her smile back. It thrilled her to get the better of him.
    “An excellent plan. We will meet you in the drawing room in half an hour,” Richard said.
    She nodded and lowered her head enough that he wouldn’t see the glint of victory reflected in her eyes. Everyone stood from the table; her sisters, bless their souls, came around to