One Night Of Scandal by TERESA MEDEIROS

Author:TERESA MEDEIROS [Medeiros, Teresa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ghost, American Light Romantic Fiction, Regency, Man-Woman Relationships, Fiction - Romance, Historical Fiction, Family, Juvenile Fiction, Contemporary, Romance - Historical, Fiction, Romance, Romance: Historical, Debutantes, Parents, Historical, General, Love Stories
Publisher: New York : Avon Books, 2003.
Published: 2003-07-08T20:00:00+00:00

* * *

Lottie jerked upright at the writing table, her fevered flesh drenched in icy sweat.

Still trembling, she shoved aside the crumpledpages of her manuscript and buried her face in her hands. The dream must have been her punishment for writing so late into the night and dozing off in the middle of a chapter. After helping Harriet move her meager belongings from the servants' quarters to the bedchamber across the hall, Lottie had retreated to her writing table to pour all of her doubts and suspicions into another scene of her novel. A scene where her heroine first begins to suspect that the man to whom she has entrusted her heart is a heartless killer.

But the dream had been more vivid than anything Lottie had ever written. Although she'd never caught a clear glimpse of the lover's face, she could still taste his kiss on her lips, still feel the unfamiliar ache between her thighs.

She pressed her fingertips to her temples, struggling to make sense of it all. Had the woman on the edge of the cliff been her or had she been poor doomed Justine, betrayed by a faithless kiss? Had the dream been a vision from the past or a premonition of the future? Or had it simply been a product of her own distraught imagination, fueled by that disastrous encounter between Hayden and Allegra in the schoolroom.

Lottie started as her bedchamber door flew open. Harriet came rushing in, her nightcap sliding down over one bleary eye. "Can't you hear those terrible screams? What on earth could make such an ungodly noise?" She bounded into the middle of Lottie's bed, barely missing Mr. Wiggles, and tucked her bare feet beneath her nightdress. "Could it be the ghost the servants are always whispering about? Is the manor truly haunted?"

For the first time, Lottie realized she hadn't dreamed the bloodcurdling scream that had awakened her. As she cocked her head to listen, the distant screaming evolved into shrill screeches punctuated by the sound of breaking glass.

Lottie shook her head. "That, my dear Harriet, is no ghost."

Harriet blinked like a frightened owl. "Then what is it? Are we being set upon by smugglers? This is Cornwall, you know. Are we going to be ravished in our beds?"

Still suffering the feverish aftereffects of the dream, Lottie muttered, "We should be so lucky."

But she knew perfectly well that no ghost or smuggler could set up such a dreadful racket. As those outraged shrieks continued, she felt her own temper mounting. She'd spent the last three weeks keeping it in check — striving to be a genteel wife, a patient stepmother, a long-suffering governess. And what had it gotten her? She'd been defied at every turn by a ten-year-old tyrant, mocked and insulted by her own servants, and left aching for the touch of a man who refused to so much as deny that he may have shoved his last wife over a cliff in a fit of jealous pique. As far as she was concerned, virtue had yet to reveal any rewards at all.

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