A Rake's Vow by Stephanie Laurens

Author:Stephanie Laurens [Stephanie Laurens]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780061762710
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2012-03-02T09:40:58+00:00

Vane was halfway across the neighboring county before he came to his senses. His greys were pacing steadily down the moonlit road, their easy action eating the last miles to Bedford, when, like Saint Paul, he was struck by a blinding revelation.

Miss Patience Debbington might not have lied, but she hadn’t told the whole truth.

Cursing fluently, Vane slowed the greys. Eyes narrowing, he tried to think. Not an exercise he’d indulged in since leaving the conservatory.

On leaving Patience, he’d gone to the shrubbery, to pace and curse in private. Much good had it done him. Never in his life had he had to cope with such damage—he’d hurt in tender places he hadn’t known he possessed. And she hadn’t even touched him. Unable to quell the cauldron of emotions that, by then, had been seething inside him, he’d fastened on strategic retreat as his only viable option.

He’d gone to see Minnie. Knowing she slept lightly, he’d scratched on her door, and heard her bid him enter. The room had been in darkness, relieved only by a patch of moonlight. He’d stopped her lighting her candle; he hadn’t wanted her, with her sharp old eyes, to see his face, read the turmoil and pain he was sure must be etched into his features. Let alone his eyes. She’d heard him out—he’d told her he’d remembered an urgent engagement in London. He would be back, he’d assured her, to deal with the Spectre and the thief in a few days. After he’d discovered how to deal with her niece, who wouldn’t marry him—he’d managed to keep that confession from his lips.

Minnie, bless her huge heart, had bidden him go, of course. And he’d gone, immediately, rousing only Masters to lock the house after him, and, of course, Duggan, presently perched behind him.

Now, however, with the moon wrapping him in her cool beams, with the night so dark about him, with his horses’ hooves the only sound breaking the echoing stillness—now, sanity had deigned to return to him.

Things didn’t add up. He was a firm believer in two and two making four. In Patience’s case, as far as he could see, two and two made fifty-three.

How, he wondered, did a woman—a gently bred lady—who had, on first sight of him, deemed him likely to corrupt her brother simply by association, come to indulge in a far from quick roll in the hay with him?

Just what had impelled her to that?

For some women, witlessness might have been the answer, but this was a woman who’d had the courage, the unfaltering determination, to warn him off in an effort to protect her brother.

And had then had the courage to apologize.

This was also a woman who’d never before lain with a man, never before so much as shared a passionate kiss. Never given herself in any way—until she’d given herself to him.

At the age of twenty-six.

And she expected him to believe . . .

With a vitriolic curse, Vane hauled on the reins. He brought the greys to a halt, then proceeded to turn the curricle.

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