Regency 05 - Intrigue by Jaimey Grant Read Free Book Online

tracks. His eyes widened a bit and he stared at the floor. A frown creased his brow, hands tightening into fists. He felt like punching a wall.
    The worst thing that could have happened, had. He was well on his way to falling in love with her.
    This was not good.

    Malvina sensed a certain restraint when Gideon and Wolf joined her for dinner that evening. They were polite to each other but with a certain coldness on Wolf’s part and a reserve on Gideon’s that had her contemplating what could have possibly occurred to cause it.
    And Wolf was far more polite to her than he’d been since they’d retrieved him from school. He smiled and inquired after her health, something she couldn’t recall him ever having done before.
    The gentlemen exchanged a look and Malvina’s eyes narrowed. Gideon was behind her son’s new attitude, then. She hated to think how this came about as she, more than anyone, knew how temperamental Wolf could be. He had always been a troubled lad, his violent starts worsening dramatically after his father’s death. She wondered just how much Wolf knew of his father’s activities four years ago.
    Malvina shook her head, as if to shake away the memories plaguing her. Glancing up, she realized the gentlemen gazed at her expectantly. Had they asked her a question?
    To avoid appearing rude, she murmured, “Yes, of course.”
    A grin split Gideon’s face and even Wolf snickered in a rare display of actual mirth. Malvina felt her own lips inching upward as she asked, “I have agreed to something I normally would not even consider. What is it?”
    Gideon shot a look at Wolf. Her son stifled a laugh behind his hand.
    The elder of the two turned his full attention on her. “Wolf and I thank you for your permission, my love, but we will pass on dressing in skirts, painting our faces, and dancing a jig in front of Carlton House.” Her grin became a reality, a laugh even bubbled forth. “Oh,” he continued as an afterthought, “the monkey declines, as well.”
    She couldn’t hold it any longer. She laughed until tears ran down her face, marveling at how very good it felt just to laugh. Then, suddenly and without the slightest hint of warning, her tears became anything but happy. She buried her face in her handkerchief, trying vainly to stem the flow, but to no avail. Misery choked her, consumed her, until all she felt was the burning in her lungs as she struggled to draw a breath.
    Too much had happened, was still happening. In an effort to protect her son, she allowed herself to get mixed up with a man whose loyalties were suspect. In an effort to protect herself, she allowed herself to become engaged to a man she’d met only hours before. And now, several days later, she experienced a moment of happiness, a moment of joy with her son and her betrothed. Always present in the back of her mind was the inescapable knowledge of her nemesis, That Man .
    Sniffling, pressing her tiny scrap of a handkerchief to her eyes and then nose, she was dimly aware of a large form hunkering down beside her chair. A hand clasped her arm, offering comfort when she wasn’t sure she even deserved it.
    “Malvina, love. What ails you?”
    Gideon’s warm tones washed over her, sending her into a new fit of sobbing. It was some moments before she was able to respond with a choked, “Oh, nothing, everything!”
    “Everything?”
    Malvina’s head lifted, settling on Gideon’s warm brown eyes. The warmth was a little less now, as if her statement had hurt him. Perhaps it had. She’d not been thinking of him when she declared everything in her life was wrong.
    “I didn’t mean you…us, Gideon,” she hastened to assure him.
    It struck her in that moment that of all the things in her life, Gideon was one that brought her comfort despite how little she knew of him. But it made no sense to trust him, find joy in his presence. And he could certainly find a much more suitable bride in London.
    She admitted, “Though I do have