Monty took his wife’s hand.“We only want you to know that you have other choices.”
“This is my choice,” Miss Salisbury said, her momentary frustration gone, her expression bored once more.“I ask that you respect it.”
Monty nodded.Olivia frowned.
And Leith could bear this display of Monty and Olivia’s decency no longer.The woman had made her preference clear.
“A fortnight, Miss Salisbury,” he broke in.“Will that be sufficient?I never keep a lady for longer, but, under the circumstances, I am willing to be…” he looked over at Monty, whose expression was stony “…flexible.”
“Do you believe that a fortnight is long enough to catch the notice of other gentlemen?Men with whom I could find a more lasting arrangement?”
“Certainly.”
Her dark eyes met his own.They were totally opaque to him.He didn’t understand how a woman of her upbringing could appear so calm at such a moment—although he supposed that was a silly thought.Plenty of courtesans came from respectable, if not wealthy, families.It was just that he had only known themaftertheir decision to forgo respectable life, that was all.
“My cousin tells me that you are a tastemaker in these matters.”
Usually, Leith was proud of this status.It was true that, once he kept a woman, she became fashionable.And he knew he could identify a special quality in a woman—that his patronage was not given without reason.
But, under the eyes of Miss Salisbury, he felt, instead of proud, uncomfortable.Itchy.He had esteemed himself for years on his ability to make distinctions when it came to women.Now, however, he struggled to access that feeling—and it made him irritable.
“Yes,” he managed.“As I said, I do not form long-standing attachments.But the women who have favored me with their affections often later find men looking for such arrangements.Indeed, not a few are married now, although not within our sphere.”
“One is,” Olivia said.“Lady Killston.”
Ah, yes, Leith thought, without amusement.Fanny.She had been his for a fortnight three years ago.She was a stunningly beautiful woman, cultured, intelligent, whom he had been lucky to find just as she entered London intent on following in her older sister’s footsteps.For her, he had briefly considered breaking with his usual proclivities.
He hadn’t and, instead, Lord Killston, a Scottish earl, had taken a fancy to her.He was no longer accepted in most of good society, but Leith had heard he did not regret his choice of wife.
Leith himself was not the kind of man who could live with such a choice.Still, if there was one woman who might have tempted him, it would have been the now Lady Killston.
He turned his gaze once more to Miss Salisbury.The comparison between her and Fanny—well, it was cruel.
“Lady Killston is a singular woman indeed.”
“I assure you that I do not aspire to such accession,” Miss Salisbury drawled.“I merely need funds to keep my family estate from the auction house.”
“Such modest aspirations are doubtlessly wise.”
Her eyes burned with that shrewd gaze he found so unbecoming.Yet he sensed, from her expression, that she was no more impressed with him than he was with her.
Had she ever even before met a marquess?He doubted it.And yet she was treating him as if he were a ragamuffin asking to shine her boot.
“It is not a matter of modesty, I assure you.I have no more desire to be a lord’sladythan I do to be leeched.”
“And here I thought it wasmypurse that was being sucked dry.”
She startled at his words, but then her expression settled.Indeed, she gave a little prim close-lipped smile.
“Quite right, my lord.”
Leith took a breath.Monty shot him a glance of warning from across the room.He couldn’t offend this chit, for his best friend’s sake.That was the whole point of this.
“Let us talk terms, then.I want to make sure that the cousin of my best friend is being treated fairly.”
“Five hundred pounds.Seven public outings.And the education that I will need in the bedchamber.”
Leith felt his mouth fall open.He didn’t know where to start—with the audacity of the sheer price that she was demanding or her lack of scruples about alluding to their future tupping in front of Monty and Olivia.Really, he was beginning to understand how Arnold, his steward’s prize bull, felt during breeding season.
