Read Undressed (Undone by Love) for Free Online

and sighed, hoping the familiar sight would bring her comfort and slow her racing heart. Her eyes skimmed across the inky celestial canvas as she mentally catalogued the stars’ positions. There was Leo, to the right of the moon, and the brilliant, twinkling speck that she knew was the planet Jupiter. She sighed again, more deeply this time. Tonight had been a disaster. The young ladies of the ton were so lovely in appearance, such dazzling beauties like Jupiter itself. Yet she was unexceptional, the faintest star, barely visible to the naked eye. She’d felt awkward and coarse among them, completely incapable of joining in their conversations about painting and music and fashion. She’d been mostly ignored once the initial curiosity had worn off, and she’d been happy to fade into the furnishings.
    But then Lady Brandon had taken out her quizzing glass and held it up to one eye, appraising her without the slightest bit of pretense .
    “A Scot, are you?” the woman had said at last, her voice as cold as ice .
    “Of course she’s not a Scot,” Lady Danville answered . “She’s my daughter.”
    “But raised where, my dear?” the woman pressed, her pale, watery eyes flashing angrily despite her overly polite tone.
    Lady Danville’s cheeks reddened. “It does not matter where—” 
    “Let the gel answer, Harriet.”  Lady Brandon silenced Brenna’s mother with an imperious glare . “The poor child can speak, can she not?”
    Brenna felt a flush climb up her neck . “I assure ye I am fully capable of speech.”   
    “I’m pleased to hear it . Perhaps you can sate my curiosity, then, and tell me where you were raised.”
    “In Lochaber, just south of Fort William,” Brenna answered, her voice cool and composed despite her discomfort . “At Castle Glenbroch.”
    “Lochaber ? The Highlands, then?” Lady Brandon asked.
    “Indeed.”  Brenna raised her chin and met Lady Brandon’s disdainful gaze . “’Tis the western Highlands. Lochaber has fared well since the Butcher’s ravages following Culloden.”  As Brenna paused for a breath, she noted the wide-eyed, scandalized expressions surrounding her.
    “Jacobite,” someone to her right whispered vehemently .
    Lady Brandon leaned forward in her chair, her blue-veined hand clutching her cane so tightly that her knuckles turned white . “Is that so?” she finally said in reply, all pretense of politeness now gone. “The ‘Butcher,’ eh? Well, some find the Highlands charming, I suppose, but I’ve never seen the appeal of such a horrid place. Everyone so ragged and unattractive, the landscape so barren and bleak.”  She waved one thin, clawlike hand in dismissal. “It’s positively depressing. I hear that Lord Stafford is taking great pains to improve the land in Sutherland.”  
    “Improve the land?”  Brenna’s voice rose a pitch . “You call burning roofs over the elderly and infirm an improvement? ‘Tis murder!”
    “Oh, don’t be so dramatic, gel . How old did you say you were?”
    “I dinna say, my lady . But if ye must know, I am six-and-twenty.”
    “Hmmm.”  Lady Brandon’s thin lips curled into a sneer, and the woman swept her gaze from the top of Brenna’s beribboned head to her dainty silk slippers . “Six-and-twenty and not yet wed? I’m not at all astonished, given your impertinence.”  She turned her attention back to Brenna’s mother. “Well, Harriet, you’ll have quite the time of it, civilizing her, won’t you?”
    Brenna could only stare at her own hands, clasped tightly in her lap, as a titter of laughter followed the woman’s outburst . Fearing what she might say if she remained another moment in the dreadful woman’s presence, she rose unsteadily, her head held high. “Ye must excuse me, Lady Brandon. Could ye direct me to the ladies’ withdrawing room?” 
    In reply, the woman tipped her ostrich-plumed head toward the doorway . Brenna bowed stiffly before sweeping off in that direction with