Excerpt of An Heiress's Guide to Deception and Desire by Manda Collins

An Heiress’s Guide to Deception and Desire

By Manda Collins

Excerpt

Applegate’s Tea Room, London, 1867

They’re behaving as if I haven’t been on my own, managing my life, for the year they were in Paris.”

Miss Caroline Hardcastle set her teacup down with rather more vehemence than she’d intended, and the resulting clink of cup against saucer seemed to echo through the tea room.

“My dear,” Lady Katherine Eversham said soothingly, “you knew there would be a period of adjustment once they returned, did you not?”

Caro, who lived with her parents in their opulent Belgrave Square townhouse, had become accustomed to the freedoms afforded to her during their time abroad, and as a result their return had been rather more difficult than she’d imagined.

“It isn’t as if I don’t love them.” She sighed. “I adore them—of course I do. But Mama has a way of making her negative opinion of my hat or gown known without even uttering a word.”

Kate raised one dark brow. “But you get along well enough with your father, don’t you?”

Before the Hardcastles had left for France, Caro had enjoyed a close relationship with her papa. Despite her mother’s objections, he had shared with Caro many aspects of his business in which he manufactured tinned food products. She’d even been inspired to write cookbooks featuring recipes using Hardcastle Fine Foods.

But perhaps because she’d become accustomed to going about her business without input or interference from her parents, Caro found even her father’s mild questions about where she intended to spend the evening intrusive.

To make matters worse, the time away from London had created a distance between them where the operations of the business were concerned.

“Even he is too much for me to bear at the moment,” Caro admitted. “It’s as if in the time since they’ve been gone, I’ve crossed some bridge from child to adult and now they’re trying to force me back into the nursery. At least before, Papa treated me as if I were intelligent enough to understand manufacturing. Now he simply follows Mama’s lead and relegates me to the role of some delicate creature to be coddled.”

Kate took a sip of tea. “I think it could be that you’re ready for your own household, my dear.”

Caro stared down into the dregs of her cup. Kate wasn’t wrong. She was well past the age at which most young ladies of her class were married with children. There had been a time just a few years ago when she’d thought herself on the path to marriage with a man of whom even her exacting mother would have approved. But Lord Valentine Thorn, as he was then, had turned out to be more attached to the opinions of his aristocratic family than he’d been to her. Since the death of his brother, he’d taken up the courtesy title of Viscount Wrackham and was now the direct heir to his father’s dukedom. A circumstance she was quite sure had made him even more attached to his family’s judgments.

“You are right, of course.” Caro leaned back in her chair, suddenly exhausted. “But they will never allow me to set up my own house, no matter how I might wish it. For all that my funds are my own, I cannot quite bring myself to cut all ties to my parents, which would be necessary—emotionally, if not financially—for me to live on my own.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.” Kate’s eyes were smiling but her mouth was pursed in exasperation. “I do not know what happened between you and Val, but you shouldn’t let it keep you from finding happiness with someone else if that is what you wish. I thought before I met Andrew that I would never let another man in my life again, and look at us now.”

As if to emphasize her point, the rare sunlight of an April afternoon in London glinted off her friend’s sapphire wedding ring.

“Of course, I’m not letting Valentine keep me from happiness with someone else,” Caro said with a laugh. Though some hidden part of her wondered if that were the truth. “I’ve merely been very busy these last years. I’ve written cookbooks. Collaborated on our column. And now there is the Lady’s Guide literary salon. How I even have time to chafe about my parents’ return to London, I don’t even know. Really, it’s amazing I was able to see you this afternoon.”

Then, realizing how much time had passed, Caro glanced at the watch pinned to the bodice of her gown and frowned. “It’s not like Effie to be late. I wonder what could be keeping her.”

Miss Effie Warrington, whom Caro had met through their literary salon and then introduced to Kate, was currently one of the most celebrated actresses of the London stage. Despite their different social backgrounds, the two women had a fondness for the same books, and Effie had been one of the first to write to Caro and Kate about her enthusiasm for the Lady’s Guide column. The subjects of misogyny and crimes committed were, perhaps because of her profession, of particular interest to Effie. They’d also found they shared some of the same tastes in fashion and haberdashery.

Effie had been particularly enthused about their appointment today, saying she would need the brief respite before playing Ophelia in tonight’s premiere of Hamlet. So, it was odd and out of character for the always punctual actress to be late.

“Perhaps something came up at the theatre?” Kate asked, her eyes troubled. “Or she was unable to get away?”

But Caro knew Effie would have sent word if she couldn’t come.

The two women were debating whether to leave when the tiny bells on the door tinkled. Caro looked toward the front of the shop thinking to see her friend but instead saw Effie’s maid, Miss Lettie Smith, scanning the dining room before hurrying toward Caro.

“I’m that sorry, Miss Hardcastle,” the young woman said as she approached their table. “But I knew my mistress was set to meet you here this afternoon and I thought maybe you or Lady Katherine would know what to do—her husband being a policeman and all. It’s Miss Warrington.”

Lettie paused to draw breath before sobbing out her next words.

“She’s gone missing.”