AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’ve been spying on her.”
The breath exploded from Lucas’s throat. “I could not help seeing wh
at I saw,” he lied. “My bedchamber windows face hers, Westie! It’s a clear view across our bloody gardens!”
“You could have chosen to draw the curtains or look away.”
“As I suppose you’d have done if put in my position?” Lucas drawled. As expected, it elicited a look of chagrin. “I’ve never seen her show carnal interest in Harrow or vice versa. Not once. Her affection is restricted to the other man, as is Harrow’s. They appear to…share him,” he said with a nervous swallow.
“And you propose to replace this fellow, is that it?”
“With regards to Diana, yes. If I’m right, Harrow will be happily rid of her when he has his lover all to himself. He can always find another faux mistress—one who won’t be a distraction to his amour.”
“What if you’re wrong about their arrangement? What if your spying has only partially revealed the relationship between the three of them?”
Lucas shook his head. “She’s Harrow’s protection from persecution, his employee. They’ve become friends, but they are nothing more to each other. I’ve been observing them, Westie. Her relationship with Harrow is purely platonic.”
“As platonic as can be when they both love the same man, you mean?” scoffed Westing. He all but squirmed before continuing on to ask, “Do they…interact…with him separately, or together?”
“I don’t know,” Lucas answered truthfully, his insides twisting. “Every instinct tells me separately.”
“Instinct? George’s bollocks, man, but you put a lot of faith in your gut! You need to know for certain, not guess at answers.”
“How can I find out anything more without actually joining their circle?” But his spirits were already lifting. His friend had moved from “abso-bloody-lutely not!” to telling him he needed to know more, which meant there was hope.
Westing’s face showed all the signs of a fierce internal debate being waged behind it before he answered, “I’ll help you—but only insofar as to learn the truth of it. I’ve my own life to consider, and Charlotte’s family won’t tolerate her suitor being associated with a scandal. Certainly not one of this nature. If you mean to cozen the man into thinking you’re falling in love with him, you’ll have to do it when I’m not around. And that is certainly something I never imagined saying to you.”
Relief washed over him. “You have my undying gratitude, Westie. You won’t regret it.” Rising, he went to his brandy decanter and poured them each a drink.
“I had better not,” his friend warned, eyeing him dubiously. “Good Lord, man. Why could you not have chosen an easier mark at which to aim the arrow of your ambition? Of all the women in London—in the whole of England, for that matter—you decide only the most difficult one to obtain will do. Aside from the queen, that is. Although, at this point, I’m not even certain of that. She might be easier to persuade. And safer.”
Lucas thought about it for a minute. He didn’t know why her, exactly. But he couldn’t tell Westing that. “I like a challenge,” he finally said with a shrug.
“A challenge?” Westing’s voice had risen an octave, and his eyebrows looked as if they were trying their best to meet his hairline. “If a challenge is what you seek, climb a mountain or sail the seven bloody seas—your chances of survival would be better!”
Laughter came easily now that he had an accomplice. “Something about her draws me, Westie.”
“You and every other male that sees her,” groused the other man over the rim of his glass. “I’ll not deny she’s damned attractive. However, some of us have better sense than to be lured onto the rocks by feminine wiles.”
If that’s what happened, then so be it. “It’s too late to turn this ship. I’ve set my course, and I mean to stay it.”
But Westing had more questions in store. “And what if you find out she is in fact…with…both of them? Will you still want her?”
“Why would I not?” he answered drily. “It’s not as if I’m looking to make her my wife.”
“God forbid!” said Westing with a shudder. “Your father would never allow it.”
“Forget my father—it’s my mother I’m concerned about. She’d part my head from my shoulders with the sharp side of her tongue.”
“Indeed. So your only motivation in this is to verify the color of the lady’s bedsheets?”
“You’ve met her, what do you think?” Lucas waited, but his friend’s answer was slow in coming.
“I think if I were not already nearly engaged to someone else, I might consider pursuing her, myself,” said Westing at last. “She is not at all what I expected.”
The way he said it made Lucas’s jaw tighten. “Yes, well. The most interesting people tend to thwart all expectations.”
“Indeed they do,” said his friend with a pointed look that quickly turned droll. “In truth, were she not a courtesan, I think any man would count himself damned lucky to have her for his own.”
