Duchess of Sin by Laurel McKee

Author:Laurel McKee
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Fiction, Historical, FIC027050
ISBN: 9780446544764
Publisher: Hachette Digital, Inc.
Published: 2010-11-30T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Will you wear the pearls, Lady Anna?”

“Hmm?” Anna murmured, startled by her maid’s words. Rose had been dressing her hair in silence, leaving her free to daydream. To remember last night with Conlan in every single, burning detail. That small office, bound by the misty night and her desperate desire suddenly set free, seemed like the real world and her familiar bedchamber the dream.

“Will you wear the pearls, my lady?” Rose repeated as she pushed the last pin into Anna’s upswept coiffure. “They go so well with the gown.”

Anna glanced in the mirror at the reflection of her gown, freshly pressed and hung on the wardrobe door. White again, of course, silk trimmed with fine lace.

She thought of her red dress, hidden deep under her bed. It was rather rumpled now, the hem torn and the lace damp from her mad dash through the mist. She could never give it back to Jane now.

She closed her eyes and saw Conlan’s green eyes watching her as she eased the gown from her body, leaving her completely naked before him. Bare in every way, her body, her secrets, the shame of the past. Then it had seemed so necessary to lay all before him, to seek forgetfulness and refuge in his lovemaking. And she found that, and so much more, in his arms.

Now, in the light of day, in her familiar home, uncertainty crept in. Could she trust him? For she knew very well that she could not trust herself.

“Yes, the pearls,” she said. She would look the perfectly respectable debutante for Grant Dunmore’s party. No one would imagine that she spent last night playing Adair’s doxy.

The door suddenly flew open, and Caroline rushed in. She wore her pale blue muslin evening gown, but her white satin sash was untied and her hair not yet dressed.

“Caro, you will be very late,” Anna said.

“I know, and we don’t want to make a bad impression on your favorite suitor. But I need to borrow your blue shawl.”

“Of course, if you’ll let me dress first.” As Anna stood to let Rose help her into her gown, Caroline plopped down at the foot of the bed as if she was in no hurry to leave or finish her own toilette. Anna didn’t mind. Company kept her from thinking too much.

“Is it true Sir Grant has a large library of old manuscripts?” Caroline asked.

“I have no idea,” Anna answered. She smoothed the lacy cap sleeves over her shoulders. “He doesn’t seem especially scholarly. Where did you hear that?”

“I saw Lord Hartley in the bookshop a few days ago, and he told me Sir Grant’s father was a great collector of works on ancient Ireland. I haven’t heard of any sale, so perhaps they are still in his library.”

“Ah, yes, your future husband, Lord Hartley,” Anna teased. “You’ll just have to ask Sir Grant.”

“If he does have such a collection, your marriage to him could be most beneficial.”

“That’s what I live for,” murmured Anna. “To be beneficial to you, Caro.

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