Heather & Velvet by Teresa Medeiros

Author:Teresa Medeiros [Medeiros, Teresa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Part Two

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Wi‘ lightsome heart I pu’d a rose

Frae off its thorny tree.

And my fause luver staw my rose.

But left the thorn wi‘ me.

Robert Burns 1791

Chapter Eighteen

Edinburgh, Scotland

1792

The Duchess of Winton stood at the mullioned window, watching the rain stream down the sparkling panes. Tendrils of steam curled from the tiny glass in her hand and warmth wafted out from the marble hearth, but still she shivered. The cold crept up from deep within her. She took a sip of the heated liqueur. It slid down her throat, as dark and bitter a comfort as the night outside the window.

Street lamps cast misty halos of light over the glistening cobblestones of Charlotte Square. The teeming streets of Old Edinburgh might have been a galaxy away from this elegant symmetry of park and avenues christened New Edinburgh. Wrought iron gates and snarling stone lions guarded the neat rows of brick town houses. Across the park, the lights from other mansions winked like distant stars. A shiny carriage clip-clopped past. A man in a woolen greatcoat bustled down the walk, his shoulders hunched against the icy rain. Prudence wondered if Sebastian was out there somewhere, cold and wet and alone.

She closed her eyes, battered by the memory of a stormy night when she and Sebastian had clung to each other in a haze of mud and rain and fear. She would trade all of her warm comforts for a chance to go back to that damp, dusty crofter’s hut and begin again. It was too easy to imagine Sebastian safe in this cozy drawing room—leaning against the pianoforte with negligent grace; clinging to Tricia’s arm with those long, elegant fingers, the paragon of a doting husband while he winked at Devony.

Prudence’s eyes flew open. Her lips tightened. Sebastian had made his choices. And she had made hers.

A stranger’s eyes glittered back at her from the darkened pane.

Who was the elegantly coiffed woman in the window? she wondered. In a room humming and twirling with laughing people, Prudence felt utterly alone with the woman she had chosen to become. She had swathed herself in armor of lace and silk, as soft as velvet and as hard as steel, burying the awkward, wistful girl who had dared to offer her heart to Sebastian Kerr. Her skin was porcelain, her heart ice, and no one would know or care if her own brittle laugh shattered her into a thousand pieces.

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A raindrop skittered down the window, wavering like an errant tear past her cheek. She touched her finger to the cool glass.

A breathy whisper interrupted her reverie. “Lovely creature, isn’t she? Wherever did she come from?”

“Tricia had her tucked away in the country,” another female voice answered. “Lady Gait swears she’s a Hapsburg princess. Her aunt was once married to one of their princes, you know.”

“Tricia de Peyrelongue has been married to nearly everyone,” a third woman said. “This one’s in no haste to follow her lead.

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