(1983) Forbidden Love by Karen Robards

Author:Karen Robards [Robards, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Adult, Suspense
ISBN: 9780440221067
Publisher: Dell
Published: 1983-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

Over the next few days, Megan tightened the screws as best she could. She flirted outrageously, encouraging her many admirers to ridiculous excesses. The house was positively aswarm with young men; they brought flowers and books and boxes of chocolates as a tribute to her beauty. She was out every night until long past midnight, and then rose very early to drive through the park with one or the other of her swains. Lady Alicia, in her element when partaking of the ton’s glittering pleasures, was as eager as Megan to gad about to soirees and parties and balls. An acknowledged beauty herself when she had come out some sixteen years before, Lady Alicia did not let her poorly disguised jealousy of her protégée’s success stop her from enjoying herself enormously. She was an established leader of London society, and her social position with its accompanying privileges meant all the world to her. After all, it was why she had married the distressingly earthy Earl of Weston. He had been the catch of the Season, rich and handsome and blessed with impeccable lineage. It had been quite a feather in her cap to get him to propose, and she had made haste to accept with her family’s full blessing. And, from her point of view, the marriage was a success. Oh, it had taken her some few months to teach Justin that a highborn lady such as herself could not be expected to pander to his male appetites, but once he had learned that she had no intention of acting the whore for him he had left her alone. The last fourteen of their fifteen years of marriage had been ideal. She had all the advantages of being the Countess of Weston without having to suffer the disagreeable burden of her husband’s presence.

Unlike Lady Alicia, Justin had no stomach for the never-ending social round of London in November. Even at the best of times, he preferred the peace and quiet of Brant Hall, or even the independent bachelor life that he led in London without Lady Alicia. But now that it was Megan tormenting him, he could barely stand to enter his own house. The sight of so many young puppies slobbering over his ward set his teeth on edge. He wanted to kick them down the steps, and since he could not his anger built each day. In self-defense, he spent most of his time at his club, playing cards for high stakes and not coming home until dawn. He was drinking heavily, and it made his temper hair-trigger quick. More than one of his cronies refused to play with him in such a mood, for his skill with the pistols was well-known.

If Megan had known how well her punishment was working, she would have been delighted. But she saw very little of him, just an occasional glimpse as he entered or left the house, and she had no idea that the torment she had devised for him was so effective.

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