Read In the Garden of Temptation for Free Online

my hair. The quicker this evening
begins, the quicker it ends.”
    Words so easily spoken and so utterly
mistaken.
     
    *****
     
    Catherine halted at the bottom of the
staircase and tried to catch her breath. She had just navigated the
steps and had found it treacherous going, considering the tightness
of her gown. It would have been easier if she could have lifted the
skirt above her knees before she attempted the descent, but Willy,
the lecherous little gnome, stood at the foot of the stairs,
waiting to escort her to the drawing room.
    She refused to provide him with any further
stimulation, for he leered at her in undisguised appreciation, and
she found his lack of respect maddening. She could hardly blame
him, though. If her husband did not place her high in his esteem,
how could she expect the servants to feel differently?
    “ I don’t need you to
accompany me, Willy. After all these years I know where the drawing
room is.” She made her attitude haughty, almost rude.
    Willy was unperturbed. “Only doing what Lord
Bourgeault has instructed me to do, my lady.”
    This, of course, was his way of saying he
need not follow the orders of anyone save those of his master. He
approached the double doors and, flinging them open with a
flourish, announced his mistress to the occupants of the room.
     
    *****
     
    Adam stood by the fireplace, sipping on a
glass of wine and studying the shabby drawing room that the baron
and he now occupied. He had difficulty believing this man really
had a wife, for he found no evidence of a woman’s touch
anywhere—not even in this room where the Bourgeaults received their
guests.
    The earl looked at his host, but the baron
seemed oblivious to all but the glass of sherry he nursed. The
conversation had drifted back and forth with little of worth being
discussed, since the two men had less than nothing in common, until
the talk had died out completely.
    But the atmosphere had become heavy with a
sense of expectancy. The baron would occasionally glance at the
door as if he were anticipating some impending event, leading Adam
to believe the man was not as unaware of his surroundings as his
cavalier attitude might suggest.
    The announcement of Lady Bourgeault brought
to an end the bored silence that had settled over the gentlemen.
Adam glanced up in mild curiosity and nearly spit out the mouthful
of wine he had just taken.
    It was she! In the doorway stood the goddess from the stable
yard. Too stunned at first to speak, Adam was vaguely aware of the
baron rising from his chair to beckon the lady into the room. Never
had Adam seen such an extraordinary combination of angelic beauty
and vulgar display. He realized one nearly blinding emotion,
though, as she entered the room and drifted toward him. Keen,
overwhelming disappointment.
    The baron’s wife—how had Lord Bourgeault
managed to attain such a prize? She had not even hinted at the
possibility of her being the lady in residence, and he would never
have guessed. The earl was staggered by the revelation.
    Lady Bourgeault closed the distance between
the two men and herself as her husband made the introductions. If
Adam expected her to be discomposed in light of the fact that they
had already met, again he was surprised. She stared directly into
his eyes, brows slightly raised, daring him to expose her
subterfuge.
    He would, however, swear she was not entirely
untouched by anxiety for, though her face was a mask of
indifference, her breathing had accelerated as evidenced by the
gentle heaving of her overexposed bosom.
    Adam’s good manners were put
to a difficult test, as it took all his willpower not to stare in
open fascination at a decolletage more daring than any he had ever seen on a woman
who called herself “lady.”
    The baron presented his wife with near
gleeful anticipation. “Is she not a beauty, Ashworth?”
    No doubt of that, the earl thought, but his
host spoke of his wife as if she were an inanimate object, a
possession to be