Read Rules to Catch a Devilish Duke for Free Online

sort to dissemble about it. As he’d commented before, he generally got what he wanted. He did have a reputation for enjoying the company of ladies, but the majority of them—at least the ones she knew of—were wealthy, independent, and either highborn or so popular that their birth didn’t matter. While she was independent for the moment, she was only highborn on her father’s side, and she certainly wasn’t wealthy. Or popular.
    She shook out her thoughts. Why she felt the need to tally her qualifications for being a mistress, she had no idea. Until two weeks ago she’d thought that the rules of Society didn’t apply to her at all. Then she’d discovered that she’d been very, very wrong. And now, while a night or two of pleasurable scandal was one thing, becoming even a duke’s pampered mistress would make matters even worse.
    “You’re being quiet,” he observed. “Do you require more assurances of your safety?”
    Sophia forced a chuckle as she hiked up her sleeve and approached his chair. “I’ve survived ice and turkeys. Do your worst, Your Grace.”
    “For God’s sake, call me Adam. Or Greaves, at least. As you said, we’ve faced fair and fowl—both spellings, mind you—together.”
    Adam. It was an honest, forthright name for a man with a reputation for subterfuge and subtle skill, but it suited him, nonetheless. But now those gray eyes were gazing at her again, as if he could hear her thoughts. She cleared her throat, hoping he couldn’t hear all of them. “Adam, then. I expected to see Lady Helena Brennan here already,” she ventured, as he led her into the portrait gallery.
    She felt his gaze on her. “Did you, then?” They strolled in silence for a moment. “Evidently you aren’t aware that Helena recently wed Lord Crandell and moved to Surrey.”
    “Oh.” No, she hadn’t known that. Once the Season ended, most of the good gossip left London along with the regular members of The Tantalus Club. “Am I happy for her?”
    If she was being too bold or speaking out of turn, she had little doubt that Greaves would tell her to mind her own damned business. Best to know now, however, precisely where she stood. Or if she needed to make her way to Hanlith before nightfall, after all.
    A muscle in his lean cheek jumped. “ I am marginally put out, but somewhat admiring of a devious intelligence I hadn’t thought she possessed. Crandell is a lump, but he’ll provide for her.”
    She nodded, secretly wondering why anyone would choose to marry a lump if given any chance at all to do otherwise. She certainly wouldn’t—but then, sometimes a person didn’t have the chance to choose. “Then I am happy for her.”
    The glance he sent her this time was even sharper. “Yes, thank heavens she’s escaped the clutches of a fine town house and pin money some kingdoms would envy.”
    So now he’d decided to be offended. Splendid . “I didn’t mean it that way. Lady Helena—Lady Crandell—sought a certain thing and she was able to find it.” Sophia sighed. “I admit to a weakness for happy endings.”
    “You don’t like working at The Tantalus Club?”
    “Oh, I love being there,” she returned, meaning it with every fiber of her being and pushing back at the tears which threatened when she thought of leaving the club. “Diane—Lady Haybury—saved a great many of us from disaster. That may not have been her aim in opening that club, but she’s inconvenienced herself enough now on occasion that she does realize how vital the Tantalus is to her employees.” Realizing she sounded overly vehement, she paused, looking up at the wall of portraits. Then she stopped close to the center of the long hallway and stared.
    The portrait there, though not the largest or the most elaborately framed, was quite simply the most … compelling piece in the room. An unsmiling man in his early twenties stood in what looked like a drawing room. He leaned one elbow along a mantel of dark mahogany with a