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Chapter One

London, 1811

My life is over Lady Diana’s hand trembled as she handed the paper back to her furious uncle, Lord Bolingbroke Her fiancé had disappeared last week and, according to this ’s Gazette, had yesterday returned from Gretna Green a married man Lucille, her best friend—former best, she corrected herself—was now Lady Grenville

Aunt Jane, her nor silence “I warned you ould happen if you lifted your skirts before his ring was on your finger!”

Diana’s temper flared “And I told you it’s a lie! I never allowed—”

“Oh, stop it, girl!” snapped her aunt “Everyone thinks you did, and that’s what matters That, and the fact that Grenville is now lost to us forever”

“I beg to differ,” Diana shot back, folding her ar hands “The facts reat deal Aunt Jane, you’ve been with me to every ball, every party When has there ever been an opportunity for me to behave in such a ossiping old—”

“Not every party,” interjected her uncle “Your aunt did not attend the Hancocks’ party with you a fortnight ago I did, and you were out of ht for quite some time”

The insinuation elicited a pain in Diana’s heart such as she’d not felt in years She was accustomed to her uncle’s hard ways, but this was too h her, she kept her voice calm “If you will remember, Uncle, you went to play cards in the library with the other gentlemen and I was not permitted to accompany you But I remained in the ballroom the entire time, as you instructed I did not even visit the powder—”

“Ither off with a look of cool disdain “Thanks to your i with you”

Her gasp was a sound halfway between laughter and horror “What i you tell ood name”

“It is no lie,” he replied, narrowing his eyes “Grenville told everyone you invited him to take liberties with you, and I know it to be true Your aunt told me you let him kiss you”

She let out an incredulous laugh “I allowed hi more! One simple kiss with one’s fiancé surely cannot be equated with ‘liberties’”

But his expression re “He intimated it was far more than ‘one simple kiss,’ which you should never have pers”

Heat crept into Diana’s cheeks, and her heart began to pound anew “It was once, Uncle, and only once He’d only just asked for e his affection for fear of endangering the idity’”

Bolingbroke’s beefy face darkened to an ugly purple “Insolent harlot! You dare cast my oords back at me?”

“I a “And you were the one to speak them Do you deny them now?” She braced herself as he took a step toward her

Aunt Jane stepped in, her cheeks as pale as parch hand on his sleeve “Arthur, please—”

“Enough!” shouted Bolingbroke, shaking hirowl “I will not tolerate defiance in my household Not fro a fat finger in his wife’s face and causing her to flinch “There is more to this than one kiss Grenville said he’d heard tales concerning her lack of propriety on other occasions from several different men”

Shock coursed through Diana, swiftly followed by anger “What men? Who has spoken such lies?”

But her uncle ignored her outraged inquiry “Being a gentleman, he had refused to believe them—until he’d witnessed it himself It is an embarrassment not to be borne!”

“But she claims to be innocent,” pleaded Aunt Jane in a small voice “Surely there must be some way to prove—”