Vice

But the morning wore slowly onward, and it was early afternoon before the key turned again in the lock and the door opened to admit the little maid.

"Mistress is waitin' on ye in the small salon, miss." She curtsied. "If ye'd be pleased to come wi' me."

"It's about time," Juliana said, sweeping past the girl, who scurried after her, ducking ahead so she could precede her along the corridor, down a flight of stairs to a pair of double doors at the head of the main staircase.

The girl flung open the doors, a

A smiling Mistress De

Juliana could see no treachery in the wide blue eyes, could hear no devious undertone in the smooth and gentle voice. But she withdrew her hands firmly, although not discourteously, and said, "Madam, I find it hard to forgive something I don't understand. Had you asked me to remain within doors, of course I would have done so, after your kindness yesterday."

Elizabeth regarded her quizzically. "Would you?" Then she nodded. "Yes, perhaps you would have. Living in town makes one so suspicious, I'm afraid. One forgets the ingenuousness of the country girl."

She sat down on a velvet chaise longue and patted the seat beside her. "Do sit down, my dear I have a proposition for you."

"A proposition?" Juliana sat down. I am willing to work, madam, as I made clear yesterday. If you have work for me, then of course I shall be most grateful."

"Well, I don't know whether you would describe my proposition as work precisely," the lady said with a judicious little frown. "But I suppose it is work of a certain kind."

Juliana looked around the room. It was smaller and more intimate than the salon downstairs, its opulent, elegant furnishings seeming to invite the sensual pleasures of idleness.

"Madam, is this establishment a bawdy house?" She asked the question to which she'd already guessed the answer during her long hours of cogitation

"Indeed not." Mistress De

"I see," Juliana said aridly. "A high-class bawdy house."

Mistress De

"I am not interested in whoredom, madam." Juliana rose from the chaise. "If you will return my clothes, I will leave here as I came. I'm grateful for your hospitality and will willingly pay for it by working in your kitchens if you wish it."

"Don't be absurd!" Mistress De

"I am perfectly ready to begin now." She pulled her hands free with an angry gesture. "I'm no milksop, Mistress De

"Perhaps I can be a little more persuasive."

Juliana spun around at the soft drawl. A man stepped through a crimson velvet curtain at the end of the room, and she glimpsed a small chamber behind him. He wore riding britches and a deep-cuffed black coat edged with silver lace. A single diamond winked from the folds of his starched white stock.

He stood against the curtain, negligently taking a pinch of snuff. All the while his gray eyes rested on her face, and Juliana had the uncomfortable fancy that he was seeing into her soul, was seeing much more than she had ever revealed to anyone.

"Who are you?" she demanded, her voice sounding raw. She cleared her throat and took a step back toward the double doors behind her.

"Don't run away," the newcomer said gently. He dropped the silver snuffbox into his pocket. "There's no need to be alarmed, as Mistress De

"No, indeed not, my dear. This is His Grace the Duke of Redmayne," Elizabeth said, placing an arresting hand on Juliana's arm. "He has a proposition to put to you."

"I have told you, I am not in the least interested in your propositions," Juliana declared, her voice shaking with anger. She flung Mistress De

A

"The penalty for murdering a husband is death at the stake, I believe."

Juliana stopped at the duke's low, considering drawl. Her hand on the door was suddenly slippery with sweat, and the blood pounded in her temples. Slowly she turned back to the room, and her great green eyes, living coals in her deathly pale complexion, fixed accusingly upon Mistress De

"My dear, it's for the best," Elizabeth, said. "You'll see what a wonderful opportunity this is. if you'll only listen to His Grace. I know a hundred girls who'd give their eyes for such an opportunity. A life of luxury, of-"

"Allow me to lay out the benefits and rewards, madam." The duke spoke with open amusement now, and the cleft in his chin deepened as his lips quirked in a tiny smile. "It seems the young lady requires a deal of persuasion."

"Persuasion… blackmail, you mean," Juliana snapped. "You would hold that over my head?"

"If I must, my dear, yes," the duke said in tones of the utmost reason. "But I trust you'll agree to accept my proposition simply because it's a solution to your problems, will not be too arduous for you, I believe, and will solve a major difficulty for myself."

Juliana turned the porcelain handle of the door. All she had to do was push it, race across the hall and out into the street. But if she left the house in the clothes given her by Mistress De

"Elizabeth, would you leave us, please?" The duke's soft, courteous tones broke through the desperate maelstrom of Juliana's thoughts.

Her hand dropped from the doorknob. She was caught in the trap that she'd sprung herself with that foolish burst of confidence yesterday. There was nothing to be gained at this point by fighting the gin. Like a snared rabbit, she'd simply chew off her own foot.

She stepped away from the door as Elizabeth billowed across the room.

"Listen well to His Grace, my dear," Mistress De

"Thank you, madam." There was a touch of frost in the duke's interruption, and a tinge of natural color augmented the rouge on Elizabeth's smooth cheek.

She curtsied to the duke, cast another look, half warning, half encouragement, at Juliana, and expertly swung her wide hoop sideways as she passed through the door.