The Viscount's Unconventional Lady--A Regency Historical Romance by Virginia Heath

Author:Virginia Heath
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-11-10T14:38:35+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

The theatre was packed. The stuffy auditorium filled with the excited buzz of patrons waiting expectantly for the lights to finally dim, the heavy velvet curtains to part, the orchestra to play the first notes of the second half of Così fan Tutte and for her brilliant mother to step back on to the stage.

Few sopranos could ever hope to attempt the difficult vocal range required to play Fiordiligi, fewer still could ever hope to do it justice, but Roberta Brookes’s powerful voice was unique and had left everyone dumbfounded by the end of the first half. Faith too had come to the theatre excited, immensely proud of her dear Mama’s achievement and eager to hear her sing the role she had been born to play, and excited too for Charity, who was making her stage debut in the chorus. But thanks to the snake Lord Rayne and his snide and inappropriate comments during the interval, she now felt queasy.

Dangerously so.

At every society function they had collided at in the five years since their short-lived romance ended, although he never directly referenced it he always gave her a knowing look, making sure she was constantly reminded of her own youthful stupidity at her willingness to offer herself to him lock, stock and barrel. With no more than a mere few weeks of heady flirtation, no firm promises and her own wanton, untutored passion, she had assumed her overwhelming love had been reciprocated and she had dived head first into a physical affair. It was, to her most intensely private mortification, the biggest mistake of her life and the snake had never allowed her to forget their brief and shameful dalliance. Even without the smug looks, his presence in the same room always made the bile rise in her, but tonight he decided to take it a step further.

Tonight, he had renewed his offer to rent them a little love nest in Bloomsbury. A place where he could sate his apparently enduring passion for her well away from the prying eyes of his wife or the gossip of the ton. And he had proposed it as if he was doing her a huge favour. Even after she had spat that he could go to hell, he had smiled and asked her to at least think upon it. He even named an allowance, as if she could be bought in pounds, shillings and pence, treating her like a common prostitute and making her feel more wretched about her own youthful stupidity than she ever had before.

Which Faith hadn’t thought was possible—yet apparently, once again, she was wrong.

Even now, she could still feel him staring at her from his box above, so intense and blatantly lustful that she felt thoroughly violated and dirty by the scrutiny. And hideously nineteen all over again.

To cover it, she stared at her programme rather than attempt to converse normally with her sister sat beside her. Hope would realise something wasn’t right and Faith didn’t want to have to invent another pack of lies to cover her discomfort whenever Viscount Rayne was close by.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.