Diamond in the Rough (The Carmichael Saga Book 1) by Christi Caldwell

Author:Christi Caldwell [Caldwell, Christi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-11-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Abaddon didn’t have too much of a problem with the nobility.

Yes, he thought they were hoity-toity, self-important snobs, but he also had seen enough of those men and women come through the door of this library to know they were to be pitied more than anything.

Gilded birds, the lot of them, trapped in cages, with their wings clipped, and no hope of flight or escape.

He’d seen enough and had enough experiences with them to also know their world was the last one he wished to belong to.

That those people weren’t the kind he cared to rub shoulders with—aside from his dealings with the ones eager to fill their minds with knowledge or escape in the pages of the books he offered.

That was, with the exception of the Duke of Strathearn, his greatest sponsor, and the latest gentleman to enter his shop.

And now the exception includes a certain lady who kisses like a temptress.

“A quiet day,” the duke remarked. Tugging free his gloves, Strathearn stuffed them inside the front of his fine woolen cloak and cast an interested look out the window. “That is with the exception of…that one.”

He followed the other man’s pointed stare to where Glain, her cheeks red from either her blush or the cold of the winter air, moved with purposeful steps towards the black lacquered carriage waiting across the street.

Abaddon grunted. “You know, winters in London are quieter. To be expected there aren’t as many patrons,” he said, hoping that was enough to throw the other man off wherever this questioning was likely going.

Alas, his attempts proved in vain.

“I don’t recall seeing Lady Diamond here before,” Strathearn remarked.

“You know her?” Abaddon asked, that uncharacteristically impulsive question slipping out before he could call it back, and he silently cursed himself that lapse as his closest and only friend turned that sudden, entirely-too-interested focus back on Abaddon.

“Indeed. Our fathers were close as only two powerful dukes who took themselves and their stations too seriously could be.”

Of course, the duke would know a fellow duke’s daughter. Those two would move in the same circles. And it also meant, Strathearn had known Glain since she’d been a girl.

“Played together as children, did you?” Feigning casualness, Abaddon forced a drollness into his tone, attempting to pull more information from the other man about what Glain had been like as a girl.

The other man scoffed. “Hardly. She was a mere child, and I, a young man. My recollections of her largely include a silent, sullen girl too self-important to speak, even when spoken to. Her aloofness as a child, however, is nothing compared to the glacial woman she’s become. Now she’s Polite Society’s greatest Diamond, just as her Christian name suggests, as glitteringly beautiful as that precious stone, but as cold and unfeeling as it, too.” The other man’s lips tipped up in a derisive smile. “Her reputation as an ice princess precedes her.”

“Ice princess?”

Strathearn nodded. “So much so, the ton even refers to her as such.”

Abaddon’s frown deepened.

The frigid moniker

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