Dreamspinner by Olivia Drake Read Free Book Online

Emmett gave a snort of disgust. “They blasted him as the high-and-mighty duke who’d stooped to drug peddling. William had the audacity to blame it all on me.”
    “How could he do that?”
    “He claimed I’d planted the opium to invent a scandal. And when his business enterprises went into a downslide, he said I’d used my influence to induce the banking community to refuse him loans. He was just a gambler who never learned how to hedge his bets.” Emmett waved a hand around the room. “Everything I have, Princess, I earned. I wasn’t born with a fancy title and a castle. William Deverell never knew the value of hard work.”
    “That’s no reason for you to hate his son.”
    “Isn’t it, now.” Stroking his handlebar mustache, he went on scornfully, “Kent inherited the tendency to make poor investments. He squandered the last of the Deverell fortune developing some newfangled threshing machine that never worked.”
    “What he does with his money is his own concern.”
    “Perhaps. But mark my words, he’s cut from the same cloth as his father.”
    “You’re not being reasonable—”
    “You don’t know the whole story.” Yanking back a panel of Nottingham lace, Emmett peered into the black night. In a flat voice, he added, “Kent Deverell drove his own wife to suicide.”
    Despite her knowledge, shock shook her. “That’s hearsay.”
    “Hearsay usually has a grain of truth. He neglected his wife in favor of his farming.”
    Unable to contain her agitation, Juliet rose on weary legs and paced the library. “I thought you disliked gossip. Won’t you even give him a chance to exonerate himself?”
    He swung around, his gaze keen. “Why should it matter to you? I trust you aren’t entertaining any notion of letting that devil court you.”
    Recalling her promise to meet Kent, she hid a throb of guilty longing by pretending to examine an engraved brass vase. “Or course not.”
    “Good. Because by God, he’d better not lay a hand on my daughter again.”
    “I doubt he’ll return here, Papa. I just wish ...”
    His heavy footsteps came closer. “Wish what, Princess?”
    Juliet raised troubled eyes to his face; those robust features, so dear to her heart, now seemed harsh and obstinate. “I wish I could wipe away the past. Why must your feud be mine as well? It’s not fair to make your hatred a family tradition.”
    As the mantel clock chimed four times, Emmett patted her shoulder. “You let me worry about the Deverells, Princess. They’re not worth bothering your pretty head over. Now, you’d best get some sleep.Come the afternoon, we’ll doubtless be under siege by gentlemen callers.” Looking considerably cheered by the prospect, he motioned her to the door.
    On leaden feet she mounted the grand staircase. She’d been dismissed, dumped back into the category of vacant headed debutante. Rebellion flared, fueled by resentment. Why did everyone assume she wanted gentlemen callers, that she looked forward to a life empty of all but inane conversation about the latest fashion or a dull tidbit of gossip?
    In the confines of her elegant bedroom, she barely noticed as a sleepy maid helped her undress and settle into bed, then extinguished the gas sconces. Alone, Juliet stared up at the darkened canopy and imagined how furious her father would be if she dared disobey him.
    She tossed onto her stomach and restlessly rubbed her cheek against the smooth feather pillow. Something ached inside her, a frustrated yearning for adventure, a feeling akin to reaching out for a perfect foxglove only to have the wind snatch it from her grasp. An image burned into her mind and fired her with unbearable longing: Kent Deverell with his devilish eyes.
    Should she go meet him or shouldn’t she?
     

Chapter 3
    She’d kept her promise. As Juliet Carleton followed the path through the Embankment gardens, elation and guilt battered Kent in a storm of emotion. With studied nonchalance he stood with one elbow