Read The Spinster and the Rake for Free Online Page A

measured tones, only her becomingly flushed face betraying her agitation.
    “I’m afraid I must decline your kind offer,” she said stiffly. “I am entirely able to purchase that gown if by any chance I wished to. However, I do not.” She bit back the blistering attack on his behavior that threatened to bubble over. By the light in his cool green eyes she knew perfectly well that he was entirely aware how outrageous his offer had been, and she wouldn’t gratify him by ringing a peal over him as he so richly deserved.
    He shrugged philosophically. “Well, if there’s no persuading you we might as well leave.”
    “We?” she echoed, uneasiness warring with a treacherous spurt of pleasure.
    “I am scarcely going to leave you to make your way home alone. I can’t think why two lovely women thought it would be acceptable to go for a walk in the heart of London without a footman at least to accompany them. This is no longer the country, Miss Redfern.”
    “And you are such a stickler for the proper observances, aren’t you, my lord?” she shot back pertly.
    “That’s my girl,” he approved softly.
    Once more Gillian cursed her flippant tongue. “But we wouldn’t think of taking you away, Lord Marlowe. Though what a bachelor would be doing in an establishment such as Madame Racette’s excites my curiosity, I must confess.”
    “Your curiosity will have to remain excited—I have no intention of telling you.” He moved away and murmured something in a low voice in Madame Racette’s attentive ear. That lady had watched the past few minutes’ byplay with great fascination, and now accepted Marlowe’s instructions with a complacent nod.
    “I will inform the lady,” she replied in a low voice that nevertheless reached Gillian’s straining ears. She felt a very real temptation to stroll back to the private showing room from which Marlowe had so recently exited. She had never seen a wicked woman before, and would have been greatly interested to see the sort that Ronan Marlowe preferred. Before she could screw up her courage, however, Marlowe put one strong hand under her elbow, with a flirtatious and, for once, relatively silent Felicity on his other side, and a moment later they were strolling down the sidewalk at a leisurely pace, heading back toward Berkeley Square.
    “What makes you think we’ve finished our shopping?” Gillian demanded crossly, hotly aware of the hand beneath her arm, her mind still lingering belatedly on the phrases “hideously drab clothes” and “unpaid drudge.” If that was what he thought of her it was a wonder he even bothered to recognize her. Though perhaps the adoring creature on his right was the reason for his attentions. The thought depressed her even more. She would have to hint him away if that was what he had in mind. She didn’t intend her Felicity to end up leg-shackled to a rake twice her age.
    “I have not the slightest objection to escorting you further. I merely assumed since you came out without anyone to carry your purchases that you weren’t planning a major shopping expedition. But if you wish . . .”
    “Don’t be difficult, Gilly.” Felicity finally found her tongue. “I think it absolutely delightful of Lord Marlowe to escort us home. We can look in shop windows on the way, and perhaps we could persuade him to stop in for tea. Mama will be delighted to make his acquaintance.”
    “Your mother and I have been acquainted these twenty years,” Marlowe said easily. “Since long before you were born. If I remember her correctly, she would be far too exhausted to support having uninvited guests drop in for tea. Instead, why don’t you allow me to take you to Gunters for ices?”
    Before Gillian could politely but firmly refuse, Felicity had clapped her hands together. “That would be delightful. And we could stop in that little jewelry store on the corner and pick up my locket. The man promised he’d have it mended by Tuesday, and here it is