The Lady Who Loved Him (The Brethren Book 2) by Christi Caldwell

Author:Christi Caldwell [Caldwell, Christi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-02-01T18:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

The following morning, arms linked, Leo and Chloe made their way, of all places, through Hyde Park. With a maid trailing behind them, no less.

Leo gave his head a wry shake. He’d gone from bedding widows on empty paths to respectable walks with an unwanted servant underfoot.

“This is your strategy to make me respectable?”

Leo grunted as Chloe jammed her elbow into his ribs. “You needn’t sound so skeptical.”

He rubbed the wounded area.

“And unless you want all of Polite Society to know this,” she discreetly motioned between them, “is a ruse, then I’d suggest you have a care with your words.”

Being called out by a lady… With a sea of lords and ladies in the crowded Hyde Park looking unabashedly on. And yet, blast if the lady wasn’t right. Carelessness wasn’t a sin that had belonged to him.

Still…

“I still do not see how this will help with anything,” he gritted through a forced smile. What he required was entry to polite events hosted by Waterson’s circle and other stodgy members of the Whigs.

“It will. Trust me.” As they continued down a graveled path, he resisted the urge to point out that he, as a rule, trusted no one, and to encourage her to use the same discretion.

The lady would eventually have her eyes opened to the reality that was life. They all did, inevitably.

“I must confess,” she began almost hesitantly, bringing his gaze briefly over. “I’m surprised that you are not more… upset by my failure to fulfill my portion of the agreement.”

Given the access to Waterson he’d hoped to have, and invites to like respectable households, he should have been filled with a teeth-gnashing rage. He’d traded his freedom on the hope that it would benefit his career and the Crown. So where, as she’d aptly pointed out, were those sentiments on his part? Disquiet swept through him, and Leo trained his attention on the path ahead. “I trusted you’d crafted another scheme that would prove equally beneficial,” he countered, needing to shut her questions down, because they only stirred unwelcome ones in his own mind. Ones he didn’t have answers to. “Are you now doubting your abilities?”

Chloe bristled. “Undoubtedly not.” She stopped at the shore of the Serpentine, forcing Leo to a halt. Loosening her bonnet strings, she tugged the straw article from her head. “If doors aren’t opened by my family, we’ll simply see them opened ourselves.”

“You’re an optimist,” he murmured. Had he ever been so naïve?

Yes, yes, I was. I once smiled and read and fashioned a future for myself different than what my life was and then what it became…

Smiling, Chloe lifted that silly bonnet and shook it at him, killing his melancholic reverie. “I am determined.”

And as he was the wagering sort, by the glint in her eyes, he’d place bets on her ultimate success. Which would only mean his triumph, as well.

Marriage to her would still allow Leo to reshape his image and appease the discontented leadership within the Brethren.

Why did it feel

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