Reforming the Rogue by Donna Lea Simpson

Author:Donna Lea Simpson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Beyond the Page Publishing
Published: 2014-07-04T21:00:00+00:00

• • •

The next few days were a revelation for Linnet. Never had she given herself over wholly to merrymaking. From the age of sixteen she had worked, and before that she had endless duties at home, most of which involved caring for small children.

But Barton took her to see a rehearsal at the opera, to the lending library and the Tower menagerie. She was charmed by Mozart, overwhelmed by the sumptuous display of books, and brokenhearted over the poor caged beasts. He walked with her in Hyde Park—not at the fashionable time of day, true, but Linnet did not want to be stared at by his friends—and strolled arm in arm with her along the Serpentine.

He was an utterly charming companion, well-mannered, intriguingly intelligent, and she found they could talk for hours and never reach the end of their disagreements, which were always debated in a lively manner, sometimes dwindling to absurdity, which set them both to laughing like old friends. He was clearly still attracted to her but he behaved well, keeping his preference reined in and his hands busy. As a result, she found herself thinking more and more about their first meeting and his suggestion that he was likely to be a more potent and thrilling lover than his brother. Had he only been trying to lure her from his brother, or was there an undercurrent of honesty in his words?

Occasionally she found herself wondering about the enjoyment she took in his company. How could that be, when she had promised herself to despise him, when he had given her ample reason to? But she saw that there was more than one side to the complex Mr. Barton. He was multifaceted and intriguing and totally outside of her experience. Perhaps it had been a mistake to encourage this intimacy, but never far from her mind was the truth of his reasoning, and even more than he could know. She and he were to be family when Jess and Cairngrove married. They must find a way to get along, and it was proving surprisingly easy as long as he did not disparage Jess.

Finally, they went to Vauxhall; it was everything she had heard in some ways, and yet she found the crowd, the bumping of other people, the noise, distasteful. The fairy lights glinted off his dark eyes as Barton turned to her.

“You seem perturbed, Lin. Is everything to your liking?”

“It is just a little crowded and overheated,” she said, struggling past a particularly large man who inconsiderately blocked the path.

“Come this way,” Barton said, guiding her down another path.

It was dark and Linnet, aware that for the first time the man at her side had used her given name and that it had not sounded at all strange on his lips, felt the cool night air envelope her. “Ah,” she sighed. “This is much better.”

“I agree,” he said, his voice hushed.

They passed by a couple who lingered in the darkness of an alcove. Lin glanced at them, only to see that they were kissing passionately.

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