For the Sake of a Scottish Rake by Anna Bradley

Author:Anna Bradley [Bradley, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Published: 2019-10-29T20:52:17+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Five days later

Lucy was sitting on her bed with her feet tucked under her skirts and the Gillray print Ciaran had given her balanced on her knees. She traced the edges of it with her fingertips. Perhaps not every lady wished to be given a print of a bloody, bare-knuckle bout, but it meant everything to Lucy.

Ciaran was the only person in the world who could have given it to her. The only one who knew her well enough to know how perfect a gift it was. If only—

“Lucy?” There was a soft knock on her bedchamber door, and a moment later Eloisa peered inside. “Oh, you’re awake. I thought you might be resting.”

“No.” Lucy lay the print on the bedside table with a sigh.

They’d been out all afternoon with Ciaran, Lord Vale, Lady Felicia, and Lord Markham, riding in Richmond Park. The day was fine and they’d lingered for some time, but it wasn’t Lucy’s body that was trembling with exhaustion.

It was her heart.

It was so much harder than she ever could have imagined, acting as though she wasn’t in love with her pretend suitor, and it grew harder with every day that passed. Every time he smiled or laughed, every time he touched or teased her, she fell a little deeper under his spell.

Their courtship wasn’t real. In her head, Lucy understood that.

But in her heart…

Well, hearts were foolish organs, weren’t they? Even now hers gave an insistent thump just at the thought of him.

Lucy hadn’t any doubt she’d outwit her uncle and escape Lord Godfrey, but would she ever truly be free of Ciaran? Would her heart ever recover from him? Wasn’t she in more danger from him than she’d ever been from Lord Godfrey?

Perhaps this pretend courtship hadn’t been such a brilliant idea, after all.

“Where did you get this?” Eloisa had taken up the Gillray print and was studying it, a faint frown on her lips.

“Mrs. Humphrey’s Print Shop, on Bond Street. Ciar—ah, Mr. Ramsey gave it to me.”

“A print of a prizefight? What an odd gift.” Eloisa returned the print to Lucy’s table and sank down onto the edge of the bed. “I suppose that’s where you and Mr. Ramsey disappeared to the other day. I did wonder.”

“Did you? I wonder you noticed anything at all aside from Lord Vale,” Lucy teased gently, anxious to turn the subject away from Ciaran.

She expected Eloisa’s nose to turn up and a scold to leave her lips, but to Lucy’s surprise, her cousin didn’t offer her usual immediate denial.

Instead, Eloisa only let out a soft sigh. A soft, yearning sigh.

Lucy’s eyes went wide. “Eloisa? Is there something you’d like to tell me?”

An unexpected suitor, a hopeless passion, a broken heart? Eloisa hadn’t said a word about any of those things, but that soft little sigh said more than words ever could.

Eloisa didn’t answer at once, but sat twisting a fold of her skirts between her fingers, her gaze on her lap. Long moments passed in silence before she drew in an unsteady breath, and blurted out, “I’m in love with Lord Vale.

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