The Rake of Hollowhurst Castle by Elizabeth Beacon

Author:Elizabeth Beacon [Beacon, Elizabeth]
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2010-03-04T16:00:00+00:00

‘Roxanne, I’m awed by your stamina, but don’t you feel worn out after dancing half the night away and then spending a whole morning in the saddle?’ Stella asked mildly as Roxanne failed to reach her bedchamber without being seen. She sincerely hoped her face didn’t betray her turmoil and did her best not to flush like a schoolgirl under her friend’s speculative gaze.

‘It seems ridiculous now, but I quite lost track of time and need to set myself to rights before anyone calls and sees me looking like this,’ she replied, with an airy wave at her own person that she hoped would excuse her hurrying off without further ado.

‘Indeed you do,’ Stella agreed with a smile that robbed her agreement of any sting, but Roxanne shifted uncomfortably under her shrewd gaze all the same.

‘Yes, well, the sooner I let Tabby make me fit to be seen again the better, for I’m certainly not presentable at the moment. Whatever would your mama say if she could see me now?’

‘Heaven forefend,’ Stella replied with heartfelt fervour, and Roxanne only had to think of the furore if Mrs Varleigh Senior had seen her brazenly kissing Sir Charles Afforde to blanch at the very idea.

‘I really must change,’ she excused herself before she gave herself away completely and dashed into her bedchamber to set the bell ringing frantically for Tabby.

Wincing at the very thought, she nevertheless forced herself to look in the mirror and was horrified by the damage that a wild ride and an even wilder kiss from a rake had wrought on her appearance. A stranger coming across her by chance might be forgiven for thinking her a tramping woman dressed in the cast-offs of some charitably inclined lady.

‘Lord, I look a terrible fright,’ she muttered at herself, but couldn’t tear her gaze away from the wild woman in the mirror.

Fanciful though it sounded, she looked as if she’d had a flame lit inside her, almost as if her normally workaday dark brown eyes had felt the warmth of some star-drenched southern night and now couldn’t quite forget it. Or perhaps, her more prosaic self informed her sternly, she just looked as if she’d come close to being seduced by one of the worst rakes known to the ton. He was a danger to her reputation, of course, but not her heart—which was perfectly intact this time and only racing because she’d come so close to being forced to wed that rake and regret it for the rest of her days.

‘But would you really have regretted it so much, Roxanne?’ she demanded brusquely of the houri in the mirror and saw the wretch smirk and then wriggle with delight, like an excited schoolgirl promised a heady treat. ‘No, I rather thought not,’ she condemned herself roundly, then wondered what anyone hearing her would think of her sanity. That she didn’t actually have any, of course, but any lady who let herself be kissed and caressed and almost seduced by Sir

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