Stealing Sterling (The Dueling Pistols Series) by Katy Madison

Author:Katy Madison [Madison, Katy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Katy Madison Books
Published: 2012-07-09T18:00:00+00:00

Mary ran through the house with a growing sense of dread. She’d checked the front parlor, the back parlor, all the bedrooms, and the attic. She’d even checked the vegetable garden as if Suzanna might have suddenly taken an interest in how the carrots grew.

Last night on the eve of the monster wedding, Suzanna’s trunks had been in the front entry hall. Mary remembered seeing her tie on her bonnet and breeze out the door, saying, “Don’t wait up for me. John has promised to take me for a drive after we unpack my trunks.”

Had Suzanna even returned home? That was it; she must have spent the night with her future husband. It was dreadfully depraved, and utterly immoral but not unheard of. Couples had been known to get a little ahead of themselves. They had been on several unchaperoned excursions lately, which was acceptable because they were engaged, after all.

Aunt Lydia had lived with her future husband for several weeks before he made an honest woman of her. As long as no one outside of family realized that her sister and Sterling had gotten a little frisky before they should have, no harm was done.

Mary sat down on the steps fighting nausea. In her dreadful anxiety of not being able to find her sister, hope had reared its ugly gargoyle head. She shook herself. No one besides her and the wayward couple needed to know anything untoward had happened if she fetched Suzanna home this instant.

She grabbed her hat and shoved it on her head. She was halfway out the door, when her father called out, “Where are you off to, Mary? Shouldn’t you be supervising your sister’s preparations?”

“I just have to check one last thing at the church, and when I get back I’ll help Suzanna dress.”

She walked as fast as she could to Sterling’s house and pounded on the front door. She was still holding her hat on her head with one hand when he opened the door with the lovely stained glass panels.

Thank goodness he was fully dressed this time. She didn’t know if she could have withstood the sight of him half undressed knowing that her sister was in there with him. “Where is she? I have to get her home right away to get into her gown. If we hurry, no one will know she didn’t come home last night.”

Sterling pulled the door all the way open revealing the carpet Mary had picked out, and a lovely little side table with a jade and black ginger jar under a gilt framed mirror. “You’d better come in.”

She didn’t want to go in. She didn’t want to see her sister in a stage of undress.

“No. Just tell her to come out when she’s ready. And for God’s sake tell her to hurry.”

Sterling reached out and grabbed her upraised arm and tugged her across the threshold. “She’s not here.”

He shut the door behind her, turned around and folded his arms across his chest.

“The Cinderella carriage with the

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