Indiscretion by Jillian Hunter Read Free Book Online Page A

then?"
    "No. I'd have married anyone my parents chose to escape them. David took care of me, but I put him through an entire year of misery before I accepted my life. I came to him as damaged goods."
    He looked tortured. "I thought you loved each other. If I'd known you were unhappy, I'd have—"
    "What? Murdered him in a duel and caused the scandal of the century? We did love each other. In any case, he's gone now and I'll never know how much he understood about my past, but is it any wonder I should enjoy seeing you suffer your share of humiliation?"
    "Is that what you want? To humiliate me?"
    She gave him a smile reminiscent of her old hellion self. "It isn't really such a horrible punishment, is it? Are you at all surprised that I would want to savor a small measure of revenge?"
    * * * * *
    P atrick didn't know if foul play had been involved in Edgar's death. He didn't know if he believed Nellwyn's intentions were entirely unselfish. The silly woman had sought dangerous thrills all her life, including an excursion into the head-hunting jungles of Kali Simpang with the island's white rajah.
    But he did know he couldn't give up his hopes for renewing his association with Anne. He couldn't give up the only woman who had cared enough about him to cry at his bedside, a woman with her sense of spirit. She had shown more capacity for caring than all his past lovers combined; he was too old to pretend qualities like love and loyalty didn't matter, and he was saddened to learn how much distress he had brought her with their careless act of abandon.
    He told himself he would prove how much he'd changed, and that the thoughtless rogue she remembered had come to his senses.
    She couldn't resent him forever for a mistake they had made in another life. They were both basically decent people who deserved another chance.
    Hell, he thought philosophically, he might as well make the best of a humiliating situation. After all, he'd never get a chance to be this close to her again, not living in the same house.
    He stood and sketched a dignified bow in front of the sofa. "Will there be anything else, my lady?"
    She looked up at him in alarm. "Is there something seriously wrong with you?"
    He put one hand on his hip, brandishing an imaginary tray in the other. "Will her ladyship be taking tea in front of the fire or at her desk?"
    She blinked, startled by the sight of the rawboned Highlander mincing about like a May queen. "You look positively ridiculous. Stop it this instant."
    "Ridiculous?" He tossed his imaginary tray over his shoulder and bent over her, shedding his masquerade to give her a glimpse of the dangerously determined man beneath. "You just wait, Lady Whitehaven. I will live to please you, aye, in public and in private. Your every whim will be my command, and Society will remark that no woman ever had a more devoted servant. But when I'm through with this charade, when the mystery of Edgar's death is solved, we shall see who ends up giving the orders around here."
    She smiled to hide the panic his promise evoked. "I do not think so."
    He smiled back to show her the cast-iron confidence of his will. "Wager on it, woman."

 
     
     
     
    7
     
     
    A few days later they took the train from London to Woolwich and from there embarked on a pleasure steamer to Aberdeen. Nellwyn had arranged for them to travel the rest of the way to Balgeldie House by private coach.
    Patrick envisioned intimate moments with Anne at sea on a mist-shrouded deck; the churning of paddle wheels would provide pleasant background for the love words he would whisper in her ear. They would drink champagne in the saloon, and he would soften her resistance.
    Instead, he found himself banished to the damp little cabin above the boiler room with two obnoxious footmen who were traveling with the Duke of Glaswell. The footmen looked down their noses at Patrick; as butler to a widowed baroness, he was considered their social inferior.
    Patrick did not enjoy his first