Ruined & Redeemed--The Earl's Fallen Wife (#5 Love's Second Chance Series) by Bree Wolf

Author:Bree Wolf
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: historical romance, regency romance, second chance, british literature, strong heroine, marriage of convenience, tortured heroine, victorian romance novel
Publisher: Bree Wolf

Chapter Twenty-Six – A Victim No Longer

The moment she saw him, time stopped.

Staring over her husband’s shoulder, his hands holding her so tightly that a little voice in the back of her mind urged her to object, Charlotte once more found herself drawn back to the past.

There had been a ball, too, that night.

And he had been there, just returned from the war, downing one drink after the other to escape the memories that haunted him.

The memory of Kenneth’s death.

Then, she hadn’t been able to feel compassion, to pity him for the turmoil he’d lived through. Then, her heart had been numb, unfeeling, unable to see that his pain had been as real as her own.

Seeking him out, she had spoken to him that night, unwilling to end her misery without knowing how Kenneth had died, without knowing his final moments.

Only then something had changed.

Seeing the guilt on his face, a new thought had claimed her heart, filling the wasteland it had become with a new purpose.

A life for a life.

That thought had echoed in her mind, urging her on, preventing her from seeing the truth.

The poison she’d managed to procure for herself, the poison she’d intended to use on herself that night, had somehow found its way into his glass.

To this day, Charlotte couldn’t quite remember how it had happened. She couldn’t remember her hand slipping into her reticule to retrieve it. She couldn’t remember pouring it into a glass and ordering a waiter to offer it to him. She couldn’t remember any of it, and yet, she knew it to be true.

And then something had gone horribly wrong.

For it hadn’t been Frederick who’d downed the glass with the poison, but his brother Leopold instead. A man who’d had a wife and a little daughter.

He had died that night in his wife’s arms.

And Charlotte had lost all hold on reality.

Driven by vengeance, she had gone after Frederick again and again, almost killing his new wife and unborn child in the process. Until he had stopped her and sent her to Winham Institute.

And now, he was here.

And so was his wife.

With her arm linked through his, the marchioness stood by her husband’s side, a gentle smile on her scarred face as she gazed up at him. In answer, his lips curled up as well, and he leaned over to whisper something in her ear.

Lost in each other, they didn’t notice her, didn’t see the enemy that had once sought to destroy them.

Frederick.

His name echoed in Charlotte’s mind, and her heart twisted and turned in agony as the memories of her atrocities returned.

He had committed her to Winham Institute−in agreement with her family−because he believed her to be a danger to him, to his family, to society in general.

He hadn’t been wrong.

And yet, Charlotte knew that she would have deserved far worse, and a part of her had hoped that she would be allowed to pay the ultimate price. For only then, could she ever have considered her debt repaid.

Instead, she

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