Read Karla Darcy - [Sweet Deception Regency 04] for Free Online

corner of the sofa, her eyes unfocused on the window. She had never really considered the fact that Pax would one day marry. Somehow Leslie had thought her life would continue as it had for the last five years. But she suddenly realized that Pax had to marry, to have heirs. If not this year, then surely the next year. It was inevitable, as immutable as the tides. The sixth Duke of Ruhaven would have to marry to ensure there was a seventh Duke.
    "But what will happen to me?" Leslie wailed in a tiny voice filled with hurt and confusion.
    Once Pax married there would be a new mistress of Windhaven, and Leslie might no longer be welcome in the home she loved. The Duchess would surely not want Pax's ward living there. Leslie could just envision Cecily moving in with mountains of luggage and a brigade of prune-faced servants scurrying about. Everything would change then. And Cecily didn't like her, using every opportunity to push Leslie into the background. The sly cat would take great pleasure in packing Leslie's trunks for an immediate departure.
    "Anyone but Cecily!" She rolled her eyes heavenward hoping for a miracle.
    Surely her guardian could find someone better than Cecily to marry. She wanted Pax to marry, didn't she? Of course she did, Leslie affirmed stoutly. Then why did the very thought of it send a stab of pain into her chest. From the moment she had first seen her guardian, his happiness became the wellspring of her life. She excelled in her studies because she knew it would please him. She learned to fish and hunt, knowing he would enjoy her company. She worried and fretted when he was fighting the French and tried to entertain him with her accounts of the estate in her letters. Leslie loved Pax and wanted him to be happy.
    It was just that she had never thought about his marrying. But now that she had, Leslie would have to make sure that he married someone other than that "Miss Sly Boots". After all, it was not as if Pax were head over heels. At least she didn't think so.
    Jumping up, Leslie rummaged under some cushions in the corner, pulling out her box of books. Some of these were treasured storybooks but just lately she had stumbled on a trunk full of "ladies books" as she called them. There had been novels, recipe books and some home-remedy medical journals. But the most treasured item was a tiny, pink satin volume called, Lydia Plunketell's “Treatise On Friendship, Companionship and Love For The Gentlewoman.” Leslie had been thrilled to finally discover what love was all about.
    Returning to the sofa, she reverently opened the book to the appropriate chapter: "Love - wherein the gentlewoman ascertains if the object of her devotion is worthy of consideration." Skimming quickly to the section entitled "Signs," Leslie read slowly trying to remember Pax's behavior around Cecily. After reading carefully for fifteen minutes, she closed the book and sank back against the faded damask cushions.
    Pax did not seem to be pale of aspect. In fact, his color was quite healthy. He did not sigh continuously when not in Cecily's presence. However, it did appear to Leslie that Pax tended to sigh a great deal when the blonde was chattering at him. He had not been inundating the woman with little poems and presents. And he most certainly was not breathing heavily when Cecily was in the vicinity. Thanks to the extensive information in the book, Leslie felt she was well on the way to being an authority on love. It was obvious from her study of the signs that Pax was not dying for love of Cecily.
    Limp with relief, Leslie hugged the treasured volume to her flattened bosom until an alarming thought intruded, sending her shooting upright on the sofa. Pax was not in love with her yet . But with Cecily staying at Windhaven, the conniving chit would have ample time to engage his interest, and Pax might, out of sheer propinquity, think he was in love. What a disaster! If only there was some other woman around who could pique his