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Chapter One
Once upon a time, in a land quite on the other side of the world, there lived a queen both beautiful and wise She was called Ravenhair…
—from Queen Ravenhair
LONDON, ENGLAND
OCTOBER 1737
The daughter of a duke learns early in life the proper etiquette for nearly everything What dish to serve roasted larks in When to acknowledge a rather risqué dowager countess and when to give her the cut direct What to hile boating down the Thames, and how to fend off the tipsy advances of an earl with very little income at the picnic afterward
Everything, in fact, Lady Hero Batten reflected wryly, but how to address a gentleorously with a married lady not his own
“Ahe fixedly at theoverhead
The two people on the settee appeared not to hear her Indeed, the lady gave a series of loud animal squeals froohich had been flipped up to cover her face
Hero sighed They were in a di roo choosing this particular roo Had she picked the blue Oriental rooht by now and she’d already be back in the ballroo predicament
She lowered her eyes cautiously The gentle, had discarded his e atop the lady in his shirtsleeves and a brilliant emerald waistcoat His breeches and smallclothes were loosened to facilitate his endeavors, and every now and again a flash of muscled buttock was visible
Sadly, she found the sight entle
Hero tore her gaze away to look longingly at the door Really, feould find fault with her should she turn and tiptoe from the room That was exactly what she would’ve done when she’d first entered had she not passed Lord Pimbroke not two minutes before in the hallway For, as it happened, Hero had noted the atrocious puce-and-brown-striped gown earlier in the evening—on Lady Pimbroke Much as Hero was loath to es were not, in the end, as important as the possibility of a duel and subsequent injury or death to two gentlemen
Having come to this conclusion, Hero nodded once, took off one diaentleman’s backside She’d always quietly prided herself on her aim—not that she used it ratified to hear a yelp from the male
He swore and turned, looking at her over his shoulder with the reen eyes she’d ever seen He wasn’t a handsome man—his face was too broad across the cheekbones, his nose too crooked, and his mouth too thin and cynical for trueor old, froer on the look of arrogant male virility he wore as naturally as he breathed
Or perhaps it was ave him the look
“D’youchanged to faint aravelly and completely unhurried “I’m busy here”
She could feel heat suffusing her cheeks—really, this was an i quite sure hers did not wander lower “Indeed I had noticed, but I thought you should know—”
“Unless you’re the type who likes to watch?”
Now her face was aflaet the better of her verbally She allowed her gaze to drop swiftly and scornfully down over his rumpled waistcoat and shirt—fortunately the tail hid his open breeches—and back up She smiled sweetly “I prefer entertain asleep”
She expected her insult to anger hiue tutted
“Happens a lot to you, does it, sweetheart?” His voice was solicitous, but a sly di asleep just as the fun’s about to begin? Well, don’t blaentleman’s fault, not yours”
Good God, no one ever spoke to her like this!
Slowly, awfully, Hero arched her left brow She kneas slow and awful because she’d practiced the e of twelve The result made seasoned matrons tremble in their heeled slippers
The devilish man didn’t turn a hair
“Now, as it happens,” he drawled obnoxiously, “my ladies don’t have that probleuarantee And if I have any strength left over after, maybe I’ll demonstrate—”
“Lord Pimbroke is in the hallway!” she blurted before he could finish his dastardly thought
The mound of puce-and-brown-striped skirts quaked “Eustace is here?”
“Quite And heading this way,” Hero informed Lady Pimbroke with only a touch of satisfaction
The gentleman exploded into action He was up and off the lady and throwing down her skirts to hide her pale, soft thighs before Hero could even blink He caught up his coat, lance about the room, and turned to Hero, his voice still unhurried “Lady Pi, and you’ve kindly consented to help her”
“But—”
He placed his forefinger against her lips—warly inappropriate At the same time, a male voice called from the hallway
“Bella!”
Lady Pimbroke—or Bella—squeaked in fear
“There’s a good girl,” the rogue whispered to Hero He turned to Lady Pimbroke, bussed her on the cheek, andunder the settee
Hero had only a o ashen as she realized fully the peril she was in, and then the door to the sitting room crashed open
“Bella!” Lord Pi, reddened, and quite obviously intoxicated He glanced belligerently around the room, his hand on his sword, but froze in consternation when he saw Hero “My lady, what—?”
“Lord Pimbroke” Hero casually stepped in front of the settee, obscuring a large masculine heel with her wide skirts
She employed her left eyebrow
Lord Pi after the reception her eyebrow had received froue—and stammered “I… I…”
Hero turned to Lady Pi on the elbow of her gown “That’s fixed, I think, don’t you?”
Lady Pimbroke started “Oh! Oh, yes, thank you, my lady”
“Not at all,” Hero murmured
“If you’re done here, m’dear,” Lord Pimbroke said, “then perhaps you’re ready to return to the ball?”
His words may have been a question, but his tone of voice most certainly was not
Lady Pimbroke took his arm rather sulkily “Yes, Eustace”
And with a perfunctory good-bye, the two left the room
Al upon her skirts “Hist! I can hardly breathe under here”
“They may return,” she said serenely
“I think I can see up your skirt”
She moved back hastily
The rogue rolled out fro over her
Nonetheless, she glared down her nose at him “You weren’t—”
“No If I was, do you really think I’d tell you?”
She sniffed, sounding rather like Cousin Bathilda at her ish “No doubt you’d boast of it”
He leaned over her, grinning “Does the thought have you all hot and bothered?”
“Is your wig growing tight?” she asked politely
“What?”
“Because I would think your swelled head would make it quite uncomfortable”
His s out of proportion, I assure you Maybe that’s why you came in here? To sneak a peek?”
She rolled her eyes “You have no trace of shaht in wrongdoing, but you—you strut about like a feckless cockerel”
He paused in the act of donning his coat, one arreen eyes at her “Oh, of course Moralizing Naturally you must hold yourself superior to me when—”
“I saw you engaging in adultery!”
“You sawin a pleasant fuck,” he said with slow emphasis
She flinched at the crudity but stood her ground She was the daughter of a duke, and she would not flee from a man such as he “Lady Pimbroke is married”
“Lady Pimbroke has had numerous lovers before me and will have numerous lovers after me”
“That does not forgive your sin”
He looked at her and laughed—actually laughed—slow and deep “And you are a woman without sin, is that it?”
She didn’t even have to consider the matter “Naturally”
His mouth twisted cruelly “Such certainty”
She stared, affronted “Do you doubt me?”
“Oh, no, far froht of sin has never once crossed your perfect little mind”
She tilted her chin, feeling a thrill of exciteentlein to wonder if any thought of righteousness has ever crossed your shameless little mind”
He watched her ain his jaw Then he bowed abruptly “I thank you for going against your own inclinations and savingto kill Lord Pimbroke”
She nodded stiffly
“And I hope ain, my Lady Perfect”
Unaccountably, Hero felt a pang of hurt at his dismissive words, but she made sure not to let the weak emotion show “I will certainly pray that I never have to suffer your presence again, my Lord Shameless”
“Then we are in agreement”
“Quite”
“Good”
For a ainst her stays with each too-fast breath, her cheeks hot with eument, and his chest nearly brushed the lace of her bodice He stared back, his eyes very green in his loathsome face
His gaze dropped to her mouth
Her lips parted and for an endless second, she forgot to breathe
He turned and strode to the door, disappearing into the dim hallway beyond
Hero blinked and inhaled with a shudder as she looked dazedly around the roo on the wall, and she crossed to it to peer at her reflection in the glass Her red hair was still elegantly coiffed, her lovely silvery-green dress properly in place Her cheeks were a little pinkened, but the color was becoed
Well That was good
She threw back her shoulders and swept frohts, it was important she present a serene, lovely, and perfect aspect, for tonight her engagement to the Marquess of Mandeville was to be announced
Hero tilted her chin at the reer as he’d ainst perfection anyway?
GODDAMN ALL SELF-SATISFIED, perfect wo room in particular!
Lord Griffin Reading, strode toward his brother’s ballroom in a foul ish and dared to look down her narrow nose at hie in her entire, too-sheltered life The only sign of her e her delicately pale throat as she stared at hirunted That censorious face should have caused any man’s pride to wilt er One