John, Trem, and Monty would come to tease him about his love of courtesans.John even joked that he felt responsible for leading him down such a sinful path, because it had beenhisidea to visit Madame Stirling’s that evening all those years ago.
Whenever his friends questioned his fixation, Leith claimed he liked courtesans for their elegance, their beauty, their refined manners.
And he did appreciate his mistresses for these qualities.That was true.
But he also loved that, with a courtesan, he could simply get what he needed, and she had no incentive, no motive, to ask him formore, in any regard.
So, for seventeen years, he hardly strayed from the course he had charted that night at Madame Stirling’s.
Why would he?
It was, after all, he told himself, exactly what he wanted.
Prologue the Second
London, England
July 1807
Four Years Later
His best friend,Lord Augustus Carrington, the Earl of Montaigne, had gone mad.
Over a woman.
When Monty had first begun his little affair with the maid in his house, Leith had hardly noticed.Like John and Trem, Monty bedded many women and, therefore, while it was somewhat novel that the woman worked in his own home, Leith had thought little of it.
But, for some weeks now, Leith had been growing concerned.
Every time he saw Monty—whenhe saw Monty—he was full ofher.This maid named Olivia.A girl who was, as far as Leith was concerned, quite comely, but far from the most attractive woman his friend had ever bedded.And certainly, one of the most inappropriate when it came to her station in life.
Yet Monty could not stop talking about her.
Or tupping her, apparently.
All over Carrington Place, to hear him tell it.
Leith cringed to imagine that he had ever sat in the green parlor there, now that he knew what had happened between Monty and this servant girl in one of its armchairs.
Under the circumstances, Leith felt duty-bound to take matters into his own hands.
Now, he was outside Carrington House, from which Monty had just departed for his yearly trip to visit one of his many cousins in the country.He had not wanted to leave, he had told Leith, because he hated to be parted fromOlivia.
Olivia!
And that was not all.
Yesterday afternoon, when they had gone for a ride in the park, Monty had alluded to afuturewith this woman.
He hadn’tsaidhe would marry her.
Not directly.
But it was clear that, even if he had not thought of the idea himself, he soon would.He had spoken of never wanting to leave her side!
With many of his friends, Leith wouldn’t worry.Most of the young men he knew were sensible enough to set up a favored woman as a mistress in a town house somewhere.
Leith, however,knewMonty.He was too kind, too generous, for his own good.And he didn’t care a whit for the rules of society.If he wanted to marry a maid, he would marry her—and surely regret it for the rest of his life.
