Lady Ludmilla's Accidental Letter (Merry Spinsters, Charming Rogues) by Sofi Laporte

Author:Sofi Laporte [Laporte, Sofi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lapuerta Publishing
Published: 2022-02-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

That had been a colossally strange evening, St Addington decided as he returned home.

The butler let him in, and the footman took his hat and stick.

Normally, he still went to the club afterwards. But tonight, he was oddly reluctant to do so. He felt like he had to mentally rethink the events of the evening.

And her.

The difference, this time, was that there hadn’t been that reserve, that antagonism he’d received from her earlier.

He was certain she would remember his role that fateful night at the ball when he’d challenged Matthew to the bet. Of course she’d remembered him.

But tonight, she’d been elsewhere with her thoughts. Almost absent-minded.

He’d felt his mask slip once or twice. And he was certain she’d seen past it altogether. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

He’d only ever allowed Adam to do so.

Adam, his cousin, the brother he’d never had. Adam had been the only one who’d continued to believe in him when no one else did.

When his world had tilted and everyone, including his father, had believed the worst of him. His father had gone to the grave believing he was a heartless philanderer and murderer. There was nothing he could’ve said or done that would’ve made him believe otherwise. Sometimes, St Addington thought, he had the impression his father preferred to believe this of his only son. As if that gave him some sort of perverse satisfaction. And the rest of society did the same. To blazes with what the rest of society thought. But the fact that his father did so as well had cut him deep.

To this very day, the rumours persisted.

That he’d seduced Lady Holborn and shot her husband. This had marked the beginning of his inglorious career as a rakehell, and many more dastardly deeds were to follow.

He’d been so young, merely seventeen. An innocent still. So very naive. She’d tried her best to seduce him. He still saw her beautiful, painted, cold face, the cold glitter of determination in her eyes. He didn’t know how to resist, at first. She’d somehow managed to separate him from his friends, and he found himself in a boudoir, alone with her. She’d slipped out of her dress and stood in front of him in all her naked glory. He’d backed up, horrified, until he felt the curtain behind him.

“There is only one way out.” She pulled her painted lips to a calculating smile. “And that is through me.”

He’d thought quickly. “Wrong.” He turned, pulled the curtain aside and tore the French windows open. He stood on a balcony.

“Foolish boy. You cannot jump. It will be the death of you.”

He looked down and gulped. They were three storeys high. There were no bushes on the ground, no flower beds that would feather off the blow.

She advanced, and he backed off.

He climbed over the railing.

“Foolish boy,” she whispered, “you would choose death over this?” She pointed with her hand at her beautiful, naked body.

“Any time,” he said, turned, and jumped.

Adrian had jumped off many trees in his lifetime.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.