It Takes a Scandal by Caroline Linden

Author:Caroline Linden [Linden, Caroline]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Historical Romance, Regency
ISBN: 9780062244918
Google: pN1zAgAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00FJ350FS
Barnesnoble: B00FJ350FS
Goodreads: 18599725
Publisher: Avon
Published: 2014-04-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Sebastian wasn’t entirely sure what his visit to Hart House had gained him, but he was glad he’d gone—and that astonished him.

The last seven years had been about endurance, as everything he’d once counted on had been stripped away. He’d learned to cope with a lame leg, a meager income, the solitude of being a pariah. The whispered charges of patricide and thieving stung, though there was nothing he could do about them, and eventually he grew a hard shell of indifference. It was lonely, but it enabled him to survive.

But now there was Abigail. Not only was she undaunted by his attempts to warn her away, she persisted in trying to know him. She asked what his father had been like, before, rather than focusing on the scandal surrounding his disappearance. Sebastian hadn’t thought of those long-ago happy days with his brilliant, eccentric, exciting father in years. She felt the same irresistible attraction he felt. She was kind and patient enough to forgive his cruel parting the first time at the grotto. And Sebastian began to feel that he would be a very great idiot if he ignored this chance.

But he had treated her badly, and there was only so much he could do to atone. A book wasn’t enough, even though there was no one to whom he’d rather give one of his few remaining mementos of his mother, and he thought—hoped—Abigail would appreciate it. Fifty Ways to Sin had been a last-minute addition, and one he worried about, but that, too, had pleased her. Clearing the grotto had yielded greater benefits than he’d expected, thanks to the mural. She’d likened it to buried treasure, but to his mind, the real treasure had been the way she held his hand and professed her faith in him.

Abigail had split a crack right through the hard shell around his heart. Just seeing her made his heart lurch, and touching her set his blood roaring through his veins. But kissing her . . . Kissing her stripped away every notion that he should—or could—avoid her, and left him only with the insatiable desire to see her again.

And that meant he had to force himself out of his hermetical ways and call on her. London ladies expected gentlemen to call on them. Abigail had invited him herself, more than once. Calling on her would be another chance to see her—and another chance to please her. Although his first visit to Hart House hadn’t gone well, he acknowledged with some reluctance that it might have been his fault. He’d acted on instinct when Anne Huntley, a notorious gossip, arrived, but perhaps his abrupt departure had only served to make him look as reclusive and guilty as the townspeople called him.

So he went to Hart House, not entirely certain that he would be welcome. It would have been far easier to remain as he was and not risk exposing himself to further disdain. But if he wanted any chance at all of more than a few furtive kisses in the grotto, he would have to win Abigail’s father’s approval.

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