The Affair (Entangled Scandalous) by Lily Maxton Read Free Book Online Page A

rented rooms at the time. They found a knocked-over lamp in one of the other tenant’s apartments.”
    “That must have been awful,” she said, horrified. “What happened to you after that? Did you have relatives to take you in?”
    He shook his head. “None who wanted to, at least. I ended up in a workhouse. And as soon as I could escape from there, I did. I found a job with a merchant and slowly worked my way up to more pay. I never bought anything for myself. I lived in the cheapest rented rooms I could find and only bought new clothes when the ones I wore had nearly turned to rags. After years and years, I’d saved up enough to start my own bookshop. It was a dream I’d held onto for a long time. My father had liked to read. We couldn’t afford books, but we’d borrow from a lending library.”
    She regarded him with awe. It was more than a little impressive that he’d had the strength of will to go from the workhouse to owning the most successful bookshop in London. But something else tangled with her pride. “You’ve been alone all this time?”
    “Everyone is alone,” he stated, as though it was a simple fact of life. “You were married, and you were alone.”
    But not in the same way. She’d had her sisters. She’d always had someone to lean on when she hadn’t felt strong. Cale hadn’t had anyone since he was a child. And yet, she suspected his solitary life was a choice, a self-imposed isolation.
    What would a child do if he’d lost everything he’d ever loved in one instant? Cale had protected himself from further loss.
    The thought, the realization, suddenly felt like an unbearable weight on her heart, and she experienced sorrow in the aftermath of something that should have made her feel free.
    He seemed to sense her change in mood. His next words deftly moved them onto an easier path. “I hope there’s no more question of your husband being a fool.” He sounded thoroughly satisfied.
    “What husband?” she asked, an impish smile curving her lips.
    He laughed and drew her in for a kiss.
    And she forgot all about sorrow.
    …
    When she looked back on the next week, it seemed like a dream. Her time with Cale was so vivid, everything else faded into obscurity, until she couldn’t be sure if the hours she spent away from him were a dream or real.
    All she’d known at the time was that she didn’t want to wake.
    She would feign mild illness, and after her family left for their amusements each night, she would meet him at his townhouse. She learned from her mother that Lord Thornhill had inquired after her health with due concern when they’d seen him at a ball—news that Elizabeth had listened to with a wash of guilt.
    Still, whatever guilt she felt over her deceit didn’t prevent her from going to Cale. They talked late into the evening on any topic imaginable; they made love, sometimes multiple times each night, and not with dwindling passion as Elizabeth might have expected, but increasing. The more familiar they became with one another, the more right things felt.
    Sometimes at night, Cale would read to her, or they would play cards, something quiet and mundane. They were memories she held close and dear. Memories she valued even more than the passion she experienced with him.
    She would sneak back into the house with the help of one of her maids whom she trusted not to gossip, and no one was ever the wiser.
    But Elizabeth knew this furtive dalliance must end. It would have been easy to let it draw out for weeks or months or as long as Cale wanted her, but she was becoming dangerously fond of a man she knew would never commit himself to anyone.
    And it was in an effort to salvage some small piece of her heart that she resolved to end their relationship on the eighth day. Because she knew with a horrible certainty that if she didn’t end it, Cale would. She didn’t know when, but it would surely happen.
    She’d allowed herself one full week as his lover. It would have to be