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Chapter One

Hartley Manor, Wiltshire, Christmas Eve, 1823

HER HEART RACING, Philippa Sanders inched the massive oak door into the bedrooed into the laood reputation should be Especially near ht

Quick and silent as a cat, she slipped into the shadowy room and carefully closed the door after her In the stillness, the latch’s snick resounded like a gunshot Her breath ja for so old house remained quiet She sucked in so a jueon

The roo here, she’d checked that Lord Erskine re with his drunken cronies If the last three nights were any indication, his flirtation with the brandy bottle would continue into the early hours That left Philippa plenty of tis undisturbed

The thought did little to calentleentleman, there would be the devil to pay

If only the stakes weren’t so high If only her sister Amelia wasn’t such a ninnyhammer If only Erskine wasn’t a man who turned even sensible women silly

Philippa sighed and straightened away from the door “If only” wouldn’t help It was i letter her henwitted sister had sent Erskine before her engageht

Then Philippa would take to her heels and never think about the rakish Lord Erskine again

By the light of the fire blazing in the hearth, she surveyed her surroundings with a jaundiced air The cha to turn Lord Erskine up sweet, in the hope that he’d offer for her horse-faced daughter Caroline Given the trouble his libertine lordship had caused, Philippa almost wished her vile cousin on him Over the last few days, she’d observed hiht in his eyes and the way he arrogantly assumed that any chit in his vicinity must swoon at his merest word

However Philippa wouldn’t be fe that he was a spectacular specimen of masculinity

She’d worried that it ht carry it as a trophy, but her gaze i slope left open on theseat She could hardly believe her luck Pulses kicking with relief, she rushed toward the

Then stopped on a horrified gasp when she heard the doorknob squeak as it turned

Lord save her…

Frantically she dived across the few feet of floor to the dressing roos and shelves neatly stacked with clothing Hands shaking, she tugged the door closed until she cowered in thick darkness Thick darkness redolent with leather and soap and sandalwood—and so undefined that teased her senses

Dizzy with fear and that unfamiliar but pleasant scent, she silently prayed that whoever had coo Much as she strained, she couldn’t hear a thing, even with her ear pressed to the door The thick wood blocked all sound, just as it blocked all light

The dressing roo her She only just saved herself fronified heap As she stared up at the looh her, turned her blood to ice

“What have we here?” The Scottish burr in the deep drawl brushed across her nerves like sandpaper

Sick with dread, Philippa lurched away, crowding against the coats lined against the back wall This was beyond awful What ht he do?

Lord Erskine’s chest was bare and a white shirt dangled froold over a terrifying expanse of gleaaze focused on her