The Rake's Redemption by Sherrill Bodine Read Free Book Online Page A

shattered the spell. “Bring the young miss in. The night air will bring an inflammation of the lung. Hurry now.”
    Turning back the way they had come, Dominic’s arm encircled her waist and she leaned against him following Mrs. Forbes’s retreating back. The heady perfume of night-blooming jasmine overpowered all the other scents in the garden. The air was heavy with it, pressing against her. The path seemed uneven now, and she stumbled slightly, but was caught firmly in his strong arms.
    She needed to say something to him, needed to understand what was happening, but was unsure of what she wanted to know. Nevertheless she tilted her head against her shoulder, whispering, “Dominic…”
    He placed two fingers over her parted lips. “In the morning … Juliana. We will talk in the morning.”

Chapter 3
    From her bedroom window Juliana saw the sun rise over Mrs. Forbes’s garden wall, now such an ordinary rose brick, so unlike the enchanted bower of the night before. She had not closed her eyes all night. At one point, in the dark, chill hours, she had lit her bedside candle to search through her luggage until she found her jewel case. Taking out the locket containing Will’s and Sir Timothy’s pictures, she had placed it under her pillow. She wasn’t quite sure why she had done that, perhaps because suddenly Wentworth Park and the life she had lived there seemed very far away.
    She tried to blame these feelings on the excitement of the trip to London and the anticipation she felt. She tried to blame her sudden eagerness for life on the romantic atmosphere created by Robbie’s violin. She tried to blame those moments of madness in the garden on the moonlight: any reason, any other reason than the marquis himself. But she could not deny that Dominic Crawford, Marquis of Aubrey, was the reason she had not slept. His fingers pressing hers, his arms enfolding her, his lips caressing hers, awakening a new joy, freeing a flood of emotion she had thought locked away forever. He had understood, she had seen it in his eyes. And when he had said they would talk in the morning, she knew he, like she, was unable to break the spell around them. That he, like she, needed time to consider the strange affinity between them.
    Somewhere in the distance a cock crowed. Everyone would be awake soon. She would once again see the marquis. The thought both frightened and pleased her. Juliana was not sure which emotion was stronger.
    The cock crowed and Dominic stretched languidly under the down coverlet. Another sleepless night. But instead of the dreams of Culter Towers that left him drenched in sweat, or tossing in blinding fury, or full of painful longing for his father and what once had been, his dreams had brought a longing for her. At last a woman he might trust. A woman like the one woman he had carried in his soul since that night on the Peninsula when a soldier spent his dying moments painting word pictures of his young wife at home. In spite of the years of corruption or perhaps because of them, Dominic had cherished that vision and idealized that woman until she became the unattainable goddess all young men yearn for. But he was no longer a young man who believed in dreams. They had all died for him and Jules in one night at Culter Towers.
    Juliana had for a moment wiped away the pain of that night. And she had offered him hope for the future. He had seen it in her eyes, reflecting the brilliance of the moon, softening under his touch. He had felt it, when her hands so shyly had crept to his chest, no coyness, but instead a wonder of recognition in their touch. For the first time the wall he had built around himself had not protected him; Juliana had touched his heart.
    But the years of corruption had taught him to beware, and those years intervened now, warning him to go slow, to be sure. This morning he would see her again and perhaps the cold light of day would temper the hope coursing through him. Yes, carefulness was the