Sweeter than Sin by Andrea Pickens

Author:Andrea Pickens [Pickens, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-10-04T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

After carefully securing the latch to the stillroom door, Kyra slumped back against the age-dark oak and tried to steady the trembling of her limbs.

One impetuous error of judgment.

Tears pooled in her eyes. Which had led to an even more grievous mistake. How could she have let herself be seduced by a serpent's forked tongue? Matherton had encouraged her to be rash, to be reckless. His words still echoed against her skull—a daring lady is deliciously alluring.

And she had believed him. But at heart, the fault lay with her, not with him. She could have said no to temptation.

"I am wicked," Kyra whispered, a wave of self-loathing cresting up inside her. "Wicked, wicked, wicked."

One life of a loved one had already been destroyed because of her actions. Now another hung in the balance. Agreeing to Matherton's despicable proposal was a small price to pay to protect her Father's happiness. Even if it meant giving up any hope of...

Pressing her back hard against the planked wood, she forced herself to forget the solemn, shadowed expression on Rafael's face as he had watched her move away from her former fiancé. He kept his feelings well-hidden, so she could only imagine what he must have been thinking.

Nothing good, that was for sure.

Which was all for the best. He deserved a lady untainted by scandal.

She touched the sprigs of St John's wort in her basket. Already the delicate flowers were beginning to wilt. An apt metaphor for her own tentative dreams, which had been nipped in the bud.

"Not that I had any right to dream that the future might hold happiness."

An insistent scratching on the other side of the door stirred her from her depressing thoughts.

Woof.

Setting her basket on the worktable, Kyra turned and released the latch. Hero's shaggy snout nosed the door open wider and a moment later his oversized paws were leaving muddy streaks on her skirts.

"Oh, you naughty hound."

Looking wholeheartedly unrepentant, he began to bat at the flounces that trimmed her hem.

She crouched down and hugged him, unsure whether she was laughing or crying as his tongue licked the salt from her cheeks.

"What a pair we are," she mumbled, scratching behind his ears. "Two outcasts, who have been a bit bruised by life."

His tail thumped the floor, beating a jolly tattoo. It was hard to stay downcast in the face of such exuberance.

"But we have each other, and you are right." She rose, reminding herself that the herbs and cuttings were there to be put to good use in making healing salves and potions for the estate tenants. "We must not allow adversity to defeat us."

* * *

Rafael followed the duke's butler through the stately entrance hall, careful to sidestep around the trio of maids at work waxing the wainscoting. Preparations for the upcoming ball were in full swing throughout the manor house and its grounds. Servants were everywhere, a buzz of festive excitement filling the air as they went about their appointed tasks.

Kyra, however, had proved maddeningly elusive over the course of the past week.

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