Devall's Angel by Allison Lane

Author:Allison Lane [Lane, Allison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Regency Romance
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 1998-04-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Devall urged his horse forward the moment Angela appeared out of the morning fog. It had been several days since he had joined her on her morning ride, so she seemed surprised to see him. But he hadn’t dared risk being spotted when her reputation was already suspect. Yet time had stretched interminably since the ball.

Thrusting the thought aside, he smiled. “Truth has prevailed at last.”

“Yes, and good has come of it, as you suggested. I thought I could be comfortable with Garwood, but who can live with a man so quick to judge and so loath to forgive once he has done so? Thank you for your efforts on my behalf.”

“I did nothing.” He was oddly uncomfortable, having had little experience with praise.

“Not according to Major Caldwell.”

“Jack has a way of exaggerating.”

They trotted in silence for several minutes.

“Why haven’t you tried to improve your own reputation?” she asked at last, repeating a question she had uttered before.

He shrugged, supplying his usual answer. “I care nothing for society’s opinion.”

“I find that hard to believe – unless you hate people. Your life must be quite lonely.”

He glared at her.

“Think about it,” she persisted. “Society shuns you, yet the lower classes can only stand in awe of your title. Major Caldwell is a wonderful friend, but he is out of the country much of the time. Doesn’t that leave you isolated?”

“I have other friends.” But a wave of loneliness washed through him. He rarely saw any of his friends, and Jack was the only one he could really count on to support him. He pulled himself together. “I have more freedom than society would ever allow.”

“Freedom to do what? Flout convention? Pursue personal feuds regardless of morality or law and with little regard for the innocent bystanders you might harm? I cannot believe you enjoy hurting people. So why have you often done just that?”

“I have my reasons, which I need not explain to you,” he snapped, not wanting to admit that her words cut deeply into his heart. He was suddenly choking, as though a giant bellows had sucked half the air from the park. A lifetime of self-preservation instincts rose, igniting his temper.

“As I suspected,” she said smugly. “You are hiding behind your reputation. If your actions are noble, why not admit it? If they are not, then you cannot claim that rumor exaggerates. Or are you afraid to face society as an equal?”

“I fear nothing.”

“Then try it. Tell people who you really are. Only truth can set you truly free,” she declared, paraphrasing the Bible. Without another word, she cantered away, leaving him shaking.

What did she expect him to do? He had no wish to participate in the shallow inanities that passed for entertainment in London. And his position as an outcast gave him the freedom to address wrongs that could be righted in no other way.

He galloped in the opposite direction.

Why was he listening to her anyway? She would move out of his life as quickly as she had moved in.

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