The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor: Justine and the Noble Viscount \ Annalise and the Scandalous Rake \ Charlotte and the Wicked Lord (The Fitzmanning Miscellany) by Diane Gaston & Deb Marlowe & Amanda McCabe

Author:Diane Gaston & Deb Marlowe & Amanda McCabe [Gaston, Diane & Marlowe, Deb & Mccabe, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, Anthologies
ISBN: 9780373295432
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2009-05-01T00:00:00+00:00

‘I don’t believe Stephen will mind this one at all,’ Annalise predicted. She tilted her head. ‘Although he might wish the money bag had been depicted a little larger.’

‘Annalise!’ Justine scolded. She glanced over towards the river where a few stragglers still lingered before her worried gaze returned to her husband and brother.

‘Stephen!’ Brenner’s voice rang out, suddenly loud.

‘No, Brenner,’ Stephen shot back over his shoulder. His angry response rang out as he stalked their way. ‘This family’s respectability is a heavy burden—and I won’t let you lay it all on my shoulders. Or Nicky’s or Leo’s either.’ He gestured back towards the villa. ‘Not when Prinny spent so much time here dangling us on his knee and dallying with his latest mistress, not when Mama and Papa’s antics made us all a subject of gossip and ridicule from the cradle.’

‘Stephen, please.’ They were all on their feet now and Justine was moving towards him.

Stephen looked up and realised that their argument had become public. It didn’t slow him down. He gestured. ‘Nicky and I may be legitimate Mannings, but we are painted with the same brush. We are part and parcel of the Fitzmanning Miscellany.’ He looked back again at Brenner. ‘And that is no bad thing. Society is just going to have to accept us as we are.’

Brenner closed his eyes. ‘A few months’ quiet. Is it too much to ask? Long enough for your sisters to become established. Then you can open your damned race course or get up to any other half-cocked scheme you care to.’

Stephen let loose an ugly laugh. ‘A few months? Not likely! Do you think that’s all it will take to erase a lifetime of scandal? It’s going to take a damned sight more than that!’ He shook his head. ‘Why are you worrying about this now, Brenner? Charlotte is too young to do more than giggle at a man. And Annalise?’

She flinched at the wealth of scorn in his voice.

‘She’s got more brains and courage than that fool you’ve selected for her. She’s not likely to take him, Brenner. And then what? Will you thrust her headlong into the ton?’

Brenner had drawn closer. He looked over Stephen’s shoulder and met her stricken gaze. ‘Why not?’ He spoke to her now. ‘Shall I let her hide away here and waste her life?’

‘Leave her be! Do you think to dress her in white and make a débutante of her? You’d just as soon shove a naked babe into a pit of vipers. She lives in her head, man! And in her fingers and her oil pots. She’ll be cut, mocked, laughed at. Hell, she can barely manage life here at Welbourne. They’ll break her. They’ll shred her to ribbons and then she’ll go to ground in her studio and never poke her nose out again.’

Annalise could not move. Each word pierced her, each an arrow destroying her newly expanding feelings of happiness and promise and security. Bad enough that they were shot by

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