A Common Scandal by Amanda Weaver

Author:Amanda Weaver
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-08-25T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

“Miss Wheeler, perhaps we could sit.”

“Did you see any of the others out here?” Amelia twisted her hands together and looked back and forth along the darkened garden path. Mr. Cheadle reached for her elbow to guide her to a bench but she slipped past him.

“There’s no one else here. Please, sit. This bench is quite nice.”

She might be distracted trying to locate Nate in the darkness but she wasn’t so far gone as to sit on a bench in a secluded alcove with Cheadle. He must think her a simpleton.

“I’m quite restless this evening. Perhaps we’d better walk.”

Without waiting for Cheadle’s reply, which was surely a protest, she set off at a clip down the path deeper into the garden.

“Miss Wheeler, I assure you—”

“Hush. Do you hear voices?”

“I hear nothing.”

“There it is again. Someone is whispering.”

“Miss Wheeler—”

But Amelia hurried toward the voices before Cheadle could stop her. Now the voices were quite distinct. Whomever it was thought they were whispering, but they were doing a very poor job of it. There was a great deal of shushing, giggling and rustling of clothes. A vision of Nate pulling Julia into his arms rose up in her mind. Nate holding Julia’s waist, Nate lowering his head and pressing his lips to hers, Julia surrendering herself to him...

No. Not yet. Not at this house party where she’d be forced to see it all every day. When they’d left and she was back in London, away from him, he could press his suit with Julia. Then it would be a mere line in the Society pages of the paper. “Lady Julia Harrow to wed Mr. Smythe of Portsmouth.” She’d be able to retreat to her room and react as she wished. If they announced their engagement at this house party, she’d be forced to smile and wish them well. No doubt she’d be pulled into the gossiping circle of young ladies to debate dresses and flower arrangements and wedding breakfasts. What a horror. Despite what had passed between them, Nate was not destined for her. She knew it. But she wasn’t ready to see him tie his future to another woman, not right in front of her eyes.

She pursued the voices around two more turns in the path, certain at any moment she’d burst upon Nate and Julia locked in an embrace. Her heart pounded and her ears roared. Please, not yet, she begged to the sky. From up ahead, just around the corner, came another feminine gasp, one slightly breathy with pleasure. It was a sound she herself had recently made in Nate’s arms. She felt sick and still she couldn’t stop. Maybe she should see it with her own eyes. If she saw Nate with Julia, maybe her own mad obsession with him would end. Either way, she would find them.

Bursting around the corner, she indeed found a couple in a passionate embrace. In the dim light, she registered a bare leg and a male hand on an exposed breast before both parties gasped and fell back.

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