Love With a Scandalous Lord by Lorraine Heath Read Free Book Online

the sorrow her stepfather would experience.
    When she spotted Rhys leaning casually against theelaborate scrollwork that surrounded the massive fireplace, her heart began thundering. He was strikingly handsome, wearing a black jacket over a black waistcoat. Holding a glass, his hand was poised near his lips as though he’d been on the verge of taking a sip and had suddenly decided he’d rather be doing something else.
    Like watching her.
    She warmed considerably with the attention, acutely aware of his stormy gaze traveling over her, caressing her cheeks, her throat, her bare shoulders—
    “My goodness, Lydia, when did you grow up?” her stepfather asked.
    She tore her gaze from Rhys. She hadn’t noticed her stepfather greet her mother and was surprised to find him standing beside her. “Father, you know I grew up a long time ago.”
    He arched a brow. “Father? This morning I was still Papa.”
    The heat of embarrassment crept up her chest, her throat, her face.
    “Perhaps it’s the formality of the occasion,” Rhys said.
    He moved away from the fireplace and set his glass on a table near a large, gleaming piano. A harp rested beside the piano. Lydia wondered if both instruments were merely for decoration or if the Marquess knew how to play them.
    She smiled tentatively, wishing only he and she were in the room. She didn’t relish having an audience who seemed intent on ruining everything—not intentionally, but through ignorance. How could her parents not understand what this moment meant to her and how desperately she wanted to be perceived as a truelady?
    “ Papa just sounds so Texas,” she admitted.
    “I daresay you do as well, Miss Westland,” the Marquess said. “You have a most delightful accent.”
    “I’m afraid, my lord, you are the one who has an accent.”
    “In England, one does not correct one’s betters,” he said.
    “We’ll keep that mind if we run across any,” her mother retorted.
    Rhys jerked his gaze from Lydia to her mother. Lydia wanted to die of mortification on the spot. Honestly, would it have hurt for her mother to know some of the rules and to abide by them?
    “Abbie,” her stepfather warned.
    “I kept quiet this morning when that old battle-ax was harping on you. I didn’t come here to be insulted, and I won’t put up with it, Grayson.”
    “You’re quite right, Mrs. Rhodes. I apologize. Grayson, will you allow me the honor of escorting your wife into dinner?” he asked.
    Lydia couldn’t have been more disappointed if he’d announced she had to eat in the nursery with the children. She wanted his attention, and here he was offering his arm to her mother.
    She watched as they led the way out of the room. Rhys bent his head and spoke quietly to her mother, obviously enchanted with her. Yet she’d never opened an etiquette book in her life.
    “Lydia?”
    Startled, she fought to regain her composure. She glanced up at her stepfather. “I guess you get to escort me to dinner,” she said softly, trying to hide her frustration.
    “It is truly my honor to do so.”
    She rested her hand on his arm. “I can’t believe you grew up surrounded by all this.”
    “It was more like I surrounded it . I was always skirting the edges, attempting to find my way in, but never succeeding.”
    “It would be sweet revenge if one of your daughters married an English lord, don’t you think, Papa?” she asked.
    Sadness and loss filled his eyes, as he touched his knuckles to her cheek. “Are you thinking you’ll be that daughter?”
    “I wouldn’t mind.”
    “Remember, Lydia. Simply because something glitters, it does not mean that it’s gold. Fifteen years ago, were I given the opportunity to change places with Lord Blackhurst, I would have gladly done so. Today, I am far too wise to accept such an offer.”
    She knew his change of heart had come about because he loved her mother.
    But Lydia loved no man. Why not find one here?

Chapter 4
    R hys was fairly certain he’d