A Taste of Temptation by Amelia Grey Page A

duped welled up in him again. “She designed our meeting in my room.”
    “Say what you will, but she couldn’t have done it without your help. Even so, you must marry the girl.” So much for his aunt’s beating around the bush. She came right out with the hatchet.
    Andrew drank from his glass again. He held the strong wine in his mouth for a moment before swallowing. “No.
    There are things you don’t know about her.”

    “She’s from an excellent family with ties to the Duke of Norfolk.”
    “So I’ve heard,” he grumbled.
    “So what else is there to know? There’s never been a hint of scandal about her. I’m hoping when I go see Agatha I can tell her you will do what’s right by her niece and marry her.”
    “No.”
    Claudette’s voice remained calm even though he sensed she was getting agitated. “It’s in the scandal sheets, Andrew. Dorothy must have been the one to have told the gossipmongers. That sweet Lady Lynette wouldn’t dare breathe a word of gossip to anyone, but it’s only a matter of time before Miss Banning’s name is whispered behind fans.”
    “I gave up long ago trying to find out how they got their gossip or even caring. But you asked what else there is to know about Miss Banning. I’ll tell you. I think she’s addled or simple-minded or something, because she’s obviously not in her right mind.”
    “What are you talking about? I’ve talked to her. She’s as sane as you or I.”
    “When I found her in my room she told me she was looking for a ghost.”
    His aunt’s amusement started with a slow smile lifting her lips at the corners, which quickly erupted into soft, comfortable laughter that grated on Andrew’s tenuous hold on his anger.
    He tried not to show his annoyance. He had no appreci-ation for being anyone’s entertainment, including his favorite aunt.
    Grimly he said, “If Miss Banning spoke the truth and she’s a ghost hunter, don’t you find that peculiar behavior?

    How can I marry a young woman who is not right in the mind?”
    “We’re not talking about you, Andrew. We’re talking about her. It’s her reputation that’s damaged, not yours.” The reminder sobered him and he set his port aside. His aunt would be one hundred percent right had it not been for the fact the young lady had been ruined by her own design. Once they were seen alone in his bedchamber she was accused.
    “And if looking for a ghost is all that is stopping you from doing the right thing, forget about it,”Claudette said, with a bit of a sly grin on her lips. “Looking for someone from the spirit world does not make her weak in the mind any more than looking for a fourth husband makes me a madwoman, as some of my dear friends accuse me of being.”
    “I’m serious, Aunt Claude.”
    “So am I,” she said, although the amused smile lingered on her lips. “Half the members of the ton have either looked for a ghost or claim to have seen one.”
    “I have to think about heirs. Miss Banning could truly be mad,” he said, not that he really believed that. Her wit had been too sharp and her self-confidence too high for her to be weak in the mind. He didn’t believe she was insane any more than his aunt did, but he still didn’t want to marry the scheming Miss Banning.
    “And so could your friends be mad in the head, but they’re not, and neither is she. I can’t believe you are even bringing such a thing up. Don’t you remember when Lord Dunraven thought a priceless golden raven had been stolen by Lord Pinkwater’s ghost?”
    “Members of the ton thought that, not Chandler.” His aunt gave him a look that let him know she didn’t believe him and then continued. “And just last year Lord Chatwin thought a ghost had spooked his horse and then rode off on it. I believe it was Lady Veronica’s ghost. No, my dear, belief in the spirit world does not a simpleton nor a madwoman make.”
    Andrew laughed, amused that his aunt remembered the rumors and gossip of the past and