Read Online To Seduce a Bride by Nicole Jordan - Free Book Online Page A

since I know few people in London. And I intend to remain as inconspicuous as possible.”
    â€œI should hope so. Advertising your presence there would not be good for your sisters—or for your continued career at the Academy, either.”
    â€œIndeed. So I must keep my location a secret. I will take refuge there and tell the world I have gone to visit my former home in Hampshire. Only you and Roslyn will know where I truly am. Certainly I don’t want Winifred to know.”
    â€œYou intend to deceive her?” Tess asked in surprise.
    Lily’s smile turned rueful. “I fear I have no choice. Otherwise she will doubtless tell the marquess I am in London, and then he will likely call on me there, and I don’t want to have to deal with him. So you must help Winifred misdirect him and throw him off my trail.”
    Tess finally laughed. “Very well, if you insist. But just remember, I warned you. Is there anything I may do to help you prepare?”
    â€œNo, thank you. But you and Roslyn could handle my few classes at the Academy, if you don’t mind?”
    â€œOf course I don’t mind. You have done the same for me numerous times.”
    Lily smiled, glad that her obligations would be taken care of. And their elderly butler, Simpkin, could be trusted to look after Boots and the kittens. She would say farewell to the felines before she set out for London this afternoon.
    At the thought, Lily felt a swell of anticipation bubble up inside her. Living with Fanny’s Cyprian friends should indeed prove an interesting adventure.
    And in the meantime, she wouldn’t be bedeviled by a handsome, devastatingly charming nobleman or have to worry about fending off his unwanted, thoroughly bewildering desire to court her.

Chapter Three

    I cannot believe that Lord Claybourne found me, and worse—that he still means to court me!
    â€”Lily to Fanny
    London, two days later
    â€œI wish we could send that dastardly villain to Hades,” Chantel Amour muttered as she daintily sipped her tea.
    â€œHe is not quite a villain,” Fanny replied dryly. “He is simply a keen businessman. And he wants payment for the debt you and Fleur incurred in his gaming hell.”
    Fleur Delee gave an elegant sniff. “You cannot believe Mick O’Rourke is anything less than odious, Fanny. Not when he is coercing you to pay or else he will lay charges against us to send us to debtor’s prison.”
    â€œI never said he isn’t odious. Just that we are in this fix because you gambled away a fortune you didn’t have.”
    â€œBut O’Rourke plied us with brandy and encouraged us to play deep at the Faro table,” Chantel complained. “I have no doubt he arranged the entire episode because of you, Fanny. He wants you to agree to be his
chère amie.
”
    Fanny pressed her lips together. “I
know
what Mick wants, but he won’t get it. We will just have to think of another way to repay him.”
    Lily looked on as the three friends argued. When she’d shown up unexpectedly on the doorstep of Fanny’s London home two days ago, she had been welcomed without much protest once she explained about needing to escape Lord Claybourne’s unwanted attentions. An hour later she was settled here in the boardinghouse run by Fleur and Chantel.
    To Lily’s surprise, the mansion was quite large and unexpectedly elegant. She’d been given her own bedchamber on the third floor and invited to use the owners’ private sitting room on the floor below, as well as the communal drawing room and the two small parlors on the main floor.
    This afternoon the four of them had gathered in Fleur and Chantel’s private sitting room in order to discuss possible ways of earning enough money to repay the enormous gaming debt they owed.
    Watching the women together, Lily had no trouble seeing the tremendous affection Fanny bore the aging courtesans. Reportedly