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“His bride,” his mother said bitterly “His bride” She threw Clara the sort of look Caesar iven Brutus when the knife went in
“This way at least, the deed was done behind the scenes,” Longmore went on, “not in front of the whole blasted ton”
While hise reached the front of Warford House The footed, the ladies shaking out their skirts as they stepped out onto the pavement
Longrateful look before she hurried inside after their mother
His father, however, lingered at the front step with Long in?”
“I think not,” Longmore said “Did my best Tried to pour oil and all that”
“It won’t end,” his father said in a low voice “Not for your ed sensibilities and whatnot You see how it is We can expect no peace in this family until Clara finds a suitable replace to happen while she keeps encouraging that pack of loose screws” He o aill you, dammit?”
Countess of Igby’s ball
Saturday 30 May 1835
One o’clock in the
LONGMORE HAD BEEN looking for Lord Adderley for so proven too thick to take a hint, Longmore had decided that the simplest approach was to hit him until he understood that he was to keep off Clara
The trouble was, Sophy Noirot was at Lady Igby’s party, too, and Longus, owned only the usual number of eyes
He’d beco Sophy flit hither and yon, no one paying her the slightest heed—except for the usual assortht maidservants existed for their sport Since he’d more had started to move in, more than once, only to find that she didn’t need any help ould-be swains
She’d “accidentally” spilled hot tea on the waistcoat of one gentleman who’d ventured too close Another had followed her into an antecha on his face A third had followed her down a passage and into a roo a moment later
Preoccupied with her adventures, Longmore not only failed to locate Adderley, but lost track of the sister he was supposed to be guarding from lechers and bankrupts This would have been less of a proble her more closely But Sophy had her own lechers to fend off
Long wasn’t his favorite thing to do, and thinking aboutat a time upset his equilibriu on what he’d decided was his property Unfortunately, this ht of Clara at the sa on a politely poisonous conversation with her best friend and worst enemy Lady Bartham
In short, nobody who should have been paying attention was paying attention while Lord Adderley was steering Clara, as they waltzed, toward the other end of the ballroo to the terrace None of those who should have been keeping a sharp eye out saw the wink Adderley sent his friends or the acco smirk
It was the crowd’s s and hishere
Thethe sense of so in the air, the shift in the attention in so toward a coe in the atht was about to happen
The current eeping toward the terrace
His gut told hi was vehement, and he was a man who acted on instinct He moved, and quickly
He didn’t have to push his way through the crowd Those who knew hiet out of the way or be thrust out of the way
He storathered They got out of his way, too
Nothing and nobody obstructed his view
About the Author
LORETTA CHASE has worked in academe, retail, and the visual arts, as well as on the streets—as a ht have developed an excitingly checkered career had her spouse not nagged her into writing fiction Her bestselling historical roency and Romantic eras of the early 19th century, have won a nu Romance Writers of America’s RITA® For more about her past, her books, and what she does and doesn’t do on social media, please visit her website, LorettaChasecom
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Also by Loretta Chase
Scandal Wears Satin
Silk Is For Seduction
Don’t Tempt Me
Your Scandalous Ways
Not Quite A Lady