The Courtesan's Daughter by Claudia Dain

conduct a proper courtship no matter the reality of his debts, who looked at her as though she had insulted him beyond measure for choosing a courtesan’s life over a life with him, brought out the very worst tendencies in her. Tendencies of a violent and, she suspected, passionate nature.
    She might, in fact, be more her mother’s daughter than she had at first assumed.
    “Not a good beginning to our bargaining, Caro,” Ashdon breathed, shocking her anew by using the intimacy of her given name. “How shall you negotiate a high price when you go about assaulting the man who would pay for you?”
    Lord, but she hated him.
    “You have no money, Lord Ashdon,” she said coldly. “You cannot afford me.”
    “What is your price?” he countered. “See if I can meet it.”
    “You cannot.”
    “Try me.”
    Caro cast a quick glance about the room. Her mother was coming over, no doubt as a result of that slap; the guests were leaving; dawn was pushing against the night sky. She had only seconds to answer Ashdon.
    Things were moving too quickly. She was not entirely certain anymore that she wanted to be a courtesan. It seemed a vastly complicated business all of a sudden and she was less than certain she would be successful at it. But Lord Ashdon was staring down at her, his blue eyes just as piercing and challenging as they had been when first she met him, and her mother was going to cast her out of the house in just a few hours unless she did something to prevent it … and there was something decidedly delicious about sparring with the devilish Lord Ashdon.
    “I believe pearl earrings would suit me very well, Lord Ashdon,” she said softly.
    “And what would I get in return for a pair of fine pearl earrings ? ” he whispered.
    “Come by at eleven o’clock and I shall tell you.”
    Lady Dalby, still looking fresh and perfectly composed as the dawn broke the sky into yellow shards of light, said, “Caroline, I am quite dismayed by your behavior. Must I apologize for her again, Lord Ashdon? I am quite prepared to do so.”
    Lord Ashdon bowed serenely and said, “Completely unnecessary, Lady Dalby. Lady Caroline and I have worked things out nicely.”
    With just a few more words of parting, he was gone. And Caro was left to face her mother.

Twelve
    “WORKED things out nicely?” Sophia said once they were alone and in her bedroom. The servants were cleaning up, the grate was being brushed, the silver polished, the crystal washed, and the tables cleared. Anne was in her bed, asleep. Fredericks was supervising the servants. In short, there was no one and nothing to divert her mother’s attention, to Caro’s great misfortune. “Does that mean you have chosen him, the man you refused as husband, to be your first … well, to be your first?”
    Oh, my. To be her first. She hadn’t quite thought that far ahead.
    “I’m … not quite certain,” Caro said as her mother stretched out her long legs atop the elegantly proportioned recamier positioned by the front bedroom windows. Not that anyone interesting would be out at this hour, but her mother liked to keep an eye on things.
    “You’d best become certain, Caro,” Sophia said calmly.
    “I know, Mother. I know. Everything is just so confused. I don’t quite know how I got to this moment.”
    “You decided not to marry and to become a courtesan,” Sophia said softly and not unkindly.
    “Yes, I remember deciding that. It seemed so sensible a decision at the time.”
    “You mean in the safety of your home, surrounded by your loved ones?”
    Caro looked at her mother and felt her eyes fill with tears. “Yes. Exactly.”
    “Darling?” Sophia said. “Tell me honestly, do you like Lord Ashdon? ”
    “Like him?” Caro said, her tears drying instantly. “I think he’s a horrible man. He’s intemperate and without manners and … just … horrible.”
    “Yes, I quite agree with you, but that doesn’t quite answer, does it? Do you like him? Or let me ask