The Seducers 7 - Lady of Sin by Madeline Hunter

Author:Madeline Hunter
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780440335825
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2006-02-27T23:00:00+00:00

He paced, waiting for her to come down from her chamber. There was nothing casual about the way he moved. He trod a distinct path in the drawing room, back and forth, his strides determined and clear.

He resented his impatience and the agitation it caused. Images assaulted him, of Charlotte in his arms, of her warmth, her skin, her passion . . .

He kept insanity at bay by contemplating their recent conversations. She had alluded to blackmail hurting her family. Not her husband’s family. Her oldest brother had died young. There were whispers even now that it had been suicide.

He strode out the calculations. Charlotte would have been a girl. Fifteen, perhaps. His jaw tightened as he imagined the grief such a loss would have caused her. If she knew the reasons—he remembered Harry’s misery as the boy described seeing his mother’s body dragged from the river. Not only sorrow twisted the boy’s face, but also pain from the abandonment. Questions of why. Doubts about love.

Small wonder Charlotte had found Mardenford’s quiet lake so appealing. Of course she would despise Finley. She would hate any suggestion his blackmail had been based on fact, and that there might be secrets hidden in her adopted family as well, waiting to ruin her peace.

It was astonishing she had spoken to him again after he revealed his suspicions. He realized that she had only in an attempt to defeat and divert him, and to protect those she loved.

That was not the only conversation that kept returning to his brain as he paced. The other, out on the road, repeated again and again. I should not have to choose whether to risk those memories here. He did not think she only meant memories about their prior passion.

It was all tied together. Much still divided them, she had said. The chasm had actually deepened these last weeks, even as little indiscretions temporarily built bridges. Bridges made of air, perhaps. Maybe they could find common ground only if they met as strangers.

He found himself thinking that he did not want to know after all.

A sound penetrated his focused thoughts. He pivoted in mid-stride. Charlotte stood near the door.

“You are making a valley in the carpet,” she said. “Are you practicing a defense that is imminent?”

“Yes.” No. I am thinking about you, and all that I don’t know and the little I do, and trying not to want you too much.

She looked so beautiful that he ached. The ivory and ecru of her dress enhanced her pale skin. Her shawl did not cover that skin well, despite the way she kept it high. Her lips looked very red. Not paint. The color had gathered in them due to the way she kept nipping the lower one.

That was the only sign she was nervous. Her bearing was proud and straight, her gaze level and distant. This was Lady M., with whom he had so often engaged in a battle of wits. This was the baron’s widow, whose intelligence and

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