Read The Importance of Being Wicked (Millworth Manor) for Free Online

considered himself an excellent judge of character, he had long ago faced the fact that that particular skill was only accurate in regard to men. He had no idea how to correctly assess the character of women, a lesson painfully learned through the course of three failed engagements. But even he could see there was definitely much more to the prim, efficient Lady Garret than one might at first suspect. Some of her comments simply did not ring true. This was a woman who was hiding more than she revealed.
    Which only raised the question of what did she have to hide?
    And what would it take to find out?

Chapter 3
    “I want to know everything there is to know about Lady Garret.” Win paced the floor of the library at Millworth Manor.
    “I thought you wished to know everything there is to know about Garret and Tempest?” Gray’s mild tone did nothing to disguise the pointed nature of his question.
    “That’s what I said,” Win snapped, then caught himself. He was not normally a surly sort. Even in the days immediately following the fire, when even the best natured of men might well be surly, he had managed to regain his usual good humor. But a blazing inferno was a flickering match when compared to that woman. He could lay the blame for his current mood squarely at the sturdily shod feet of Lady Garret.
    “What you said was that you wish to know everything about Lady Garret, not Garret and Tempest.”
    “You must have misheard me.” Win waved off the comment.
    “My hearing is excellent.”
    “Then I misspoke. You can’t blame me. The woman lingers in one’s mind. Lurking. Ready to pounce at the first opportunity.”
    “Like an unrepentant melody?”
    “More like the taste of a new dish that one isn’t certain one likes because it’s so obviously good for the digestion.”
    Gray laughed.
    Win paused in mid-step and glared at him. “This is not amusing. We are trusting this woman, and her eccentric Mr. Tempest, with the future of Fairborough Hall. If we muck it up, generations yet to come will look back at this very moment. They will say, ‘There, that’s when it happened.’” He shook a pointed finger at his cousin. “‘That’s when that idiot viscount handed the rebuilding of Fairborough Hall off to that overbearing female.’ I shall be known throughout all eternity as the man who allowed a woman to destroy his family’s heritage.”
    Gray choked back yet another laugh. “You’re being absurd.”
    “Am I?” Win said darkly. “We shall see. One never does give due credence to a prophet in his own time, you know.”
    “You’re blowing this out of all proportion. I thought you would get over it by now. If anything you’re more overwrought today than after you met with her yesterday.”
    “I’ve had time to think. Mark my words, Gray, that woman is—well, I don’t know what she is exactly beyond annoying and superior and condescending and far too intelligent—for a woman, that is.” Win narrowed his eyes. “Do you know she has surveyors and men taking measurements at the hall even as we speak?”
    Gray gasped. “Oh no, not that. Do you mean to tell me the vile woman is . . .” He paused for dramatic emphasis. “Efficient? Competent? Even, dare I say it, organized?”
    Win glared at the other man. For a moment he wished they were boys again and he could take his cousin outside and thrash him thoroughly. Or rather attempt to thrash him, as they had always been evenly matched.
    “You’re just irritated because she got the upper hand with you yesterday.”
    “I allowed her to have the upper hand.” Win sniffed. “It was part of my plan.”
    Gray grinned. “You don’t have a plan.”
    “No, but if I did this would be part of it.” He resumed pacing, but it didn’t quite help his concentration as it usually did. No doubt because the library at Millworth Manor was not where he usually paced.
    His family had arranged to lease the manor through the summer as it was no more than a half