Read Celeste Bradley - [Heiress Brides 03] for Free Online Page A

peaceful parlor and listen.”
    Sophie hated it when he called her “lover” or “darling”—hated it because her ignorant heart tended to leap a little every time. And because it came too easily to him. A multitude of women had probably been called so by Lord Graham Cavendish—either playfully on the ballroom floor or playfully in the bedchamber.
    She hated being one of the multitude.
    Yet there was something different about Graham today. He was truly weary, and not in a “had too much to drink and stayed up all night seducing” sort of way. Sick and weary, as if his mind was too worried to rest.
    Which was ridiculous, because Graham worried about nothing. Worrying implied caring.
    Nonetheless, he was here and he wanted to know what she was working on. She shuffled her papers one last time. “I haven’t finished yet . . . but I think it’s my favorite folktale to date.”
    He murmured something encouraging, so she took a breath and began to read to him. He listened silently, but she felt the tension easing from him with every breath.
    “. . . and the rich man took a second wife, who brought along her two daughters. They had beautiful and fair features but nasty and wicked hearts . . .”
    He snorted. She looked up. “What is so amusing?”
    He didn’t open his eyes. “Why, in your fairy stories, are the beautiful girls always cruel?”
    Sophie grimaced slightly. “Oh, that part is the simple truth.”
    He opened his eyes. “Deirdre is beautiful, but she’s very sweet.”
    Sophie shrugged. Her cousin Deirdre was a blond beauty of the goddess variety, statuesque without being overly tall and well versed in Society’s little nuances by Tessa’s sometimes cruel tutelage.
    She was also willful, seditious and more than a little outrageous. Only a man as strong and self-assured as Lord Brookhaven could ever have tamed headstrong Deirdre. Sophie had become fond of Deirdre eventually, for her cousin’s heart was as warm as it was determined, but Dee wasn’t precisely “sweet.” Sophie certainly wasn’t going to argue about it, however. “Deirdre is merely the exception that proves the rule,” she said primly.
    He rolled his eyes. “I hate it when people say that. What does it mean? Either something is a rule or it isn’t—exceptions don’t prove anything.”
    Sophie opened her mouth to cast some aspersion on his reasoning ability, but then stopped. “I—I never considered that before.”
    Having won his point, he then graciously demurred. “Then again, Tessa proves the rule enough for anyone.”
    They both snickered at that. Tessa, being of venomous personality by sheer will and selfishness, was easy but satisfying game. As lovely as Deirdre but well-known for her spite, Tessa provided endless opportunity for derision simply by being herself.
    Sophie found it doubly tempting to tell Graham of Tessa’s latest sexual exploits, but refrained. Tessa was rather disgusting, but she was also the only chaperone Sophie had. Without her, Sophie would be expected to return to Acton forthwith—and that could not be allowed.
    Sophie changed the subject. “There are many truths to be found in these stories. I have learned a great deal about life in general.”
    He uttered a disbelieving laugh at that. “Truths? They’re entertaining, to be sure, and it is reassuring to hear that the virtuous usually win the day, but they are nothing like real life.”
    But I want the virtuous to win the day
.
    No, Graham was right. Sophie put down her papers. “I am not so naive as that, Gray,” she said sternly. “I know perfectly well that the Tessas and the Lilahs will usually triumph.” Damn the Lilahs anyway. “But thatpoint doesn’t detract from my conviction that they ought not to.”
    She expected him to laugh that argument off, as he usually might. Instead, he seemed to grow almost angry.
    “Sophie, nothing really turns out the way we expect.” He stood, suddenly too agitated to sit. “You ought to expect