The Wild Lord (London Scandals Book 1) by Carrie Lomax

Author:Carrie Lomax [Lomax, Carrie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Romance, Women's Fiction, Regency & Victorian Romance, London Society, England & Britain, 19th Century, Forever Love, Bachelor, Single Woman, Love Possibility, Hearts Desire, Life-Changes, Second Chance Reunion, Honesty & Trust, Home & Family, Lifetime Love, Romantic Schemes, Beautiful & Feisty, Love-Family & Forever, Action & Adventure, Sensual Story Theme, London Scandals Series
Publisher: Carrie Lomax
Published: 2019-01-14T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

They settled into a routine quickly, a mark of the baroness’s haste to get them “trained up.” Each morning they were yanked into tighter, itchier, and heavier versions of their ordinary clothes, and made to sit, stand, and curtsy elegantly under the direction of the instructor their grandmother had engaged. Both the baroness and her butler occasionally weighed in, full of pointers on the minuscule actions that betokened a lady.

“I feel like a hound being brought to heel,” Viola had complained after one grueling day, but apart from that, she had taken to the lessons with alacrity.

Not so Harper. Harper struggled to care whether she trod on the dancing master’s toes, or if she slumped the fraction of an inch permitted by her new whalebone corset. Her figure required enhancement, or so the dressmaker had assured her. Simple, lightweight stays were insufficient to support the padding that pushed her admittedly unimpressive breasts up to her chin. Harper jabbed at her breakfast. If this was how Edward had felt upon returning to England, no wonder…

She must stop thinking about Edward.

After haranguing them for a few minutes, their grandmother would snap open a newspaper and glare at it while harrumphing over the misdeeds of the world. Viola and Harper twirled their way through the room until the baroness grew tired of insulting their efforts. When the lesson was over, Viola would reach over and take the crisply folded stack of newsprint.

“No doubt she thinks us illiterate,” she had laughed the first time.

But Viola’s habitual good cheer had vaporized while reading the morning news. Quietly she slid it across the luncheon table to Harper with a murmured, “Page two.”

Harper folded back the first page to see a lurid cartoon depicting a half‐naked man in a loincloth punching a dapperly‐dressed man in evening wear while a scantily‐clad woman looked on. Savage Attack on The Beastly Earl’s Own Brother read the headline. Can no one tame the wild man?

Harper’s heart raced as she read the one‐sided account of last night’s fight at a gambling club.

“This is Richard’s doing,” Harper hissed fiercely.

“How can you be sure, Harper?” asked Viola. “It says Edward severely beat his own brother in a common brothel, over a prostitute...what if he is not the man you believe he is? What if he is violent?”

Harper stared at her sister across the table. She read in the crook of her sister’s brow the reaction surely expressed at every breakfast table in London. Viola’s dark hair curled gently around her oval face, her eyes wide with concern beneath the dark sweep of her brows. Thanks to their lady training, Viola had perfected the precise expression of mixed concern and censure that high society ladies used when discussing subjects they disapproved of with people they cared about.

“You haven’t met Richard,” Harper replied flatly.

An uneasy guilt settled into Harper’s chest. She had left Edward because she had been afraid of jeopardizing his future. Now she wondered if clutching at a future with him might have been the right thing after all.

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