Wedded Deceit (The Sedleys Book 1) by Antonia Falk

Author:Antonia Falk [Falk, Antonia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Make Your Beds
Published: 2023-06-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

The name hit her like a bucket of icy water, and she wrenched free. She turned about to see Francis there, alone in the dark hallway, watching them with a hateful smirk on his face.

“Francis?” Her head was still muddled from the thrill of pleasure, and when she spoke the earl’s name it came out much more tentative than she’d meant. The fire in her veins had turned into a cool burn of alarm. Here it was, the confrontation she’d been dreading, agonizing over, doing her best to run from. But it was a fool’s errand to try to escape one’s own ill-thought-out schemes; she knew that now. They’d appear on your doorstep a decade and a half later, morose and miserable, with you the only soul in the world that belonged to them. Of course she was thinking of Uncle Ajax, but her reality was much the same. And somehow not. Uncle Ajax had survived worse. Her future was much more tenuous.

She’d pursued this; she’d wanted so desperately to have a powerful man like Clifton desire her and pursue her with dogged determination. Even though her legs felt like jelly, even though her skin pricked with the heat of shame, she owed him the truth.

She owed herself the truth: The person who had wanted that from Clifton was not the real her. Harmonia Sedley was not a social climber after all.

Francis sauntered forward, closing the gap between them.

At nearly the same moment, Mr. Rickard moved to shield her, attempting to herd her behind him with a gentle, outstretched arm. As always, his face was as immobile as a statue’s, but his eyes seemed lit from within with a burning passion. Bloodlust? Or, she thought with a stab of envy, mourning a lost love?

She was not a social climber; she now knew this for certain. Harmonia wanted a love like that. Placing a reassuring hand on Mr. Rickard’s arm, she moved past him. Francis stared at that touch, his face twisted in fury. How much had he seen?

“Well, I have to say, that was quite the little production. Thought I was in a bawdhouse for a moment, paying to watch.” Francis paused, checking over his shoulder to confirm that he was still the only member of the audience.

Once more Rickard reached forward, trying to get in front of Harmonia again, to shield her from Francis’s line of sight. A wave of nausea hit her, and she desperately wanted to be home, safe in her own room. But no. She could do this. Taking a deep breath, she brushed his hand aside again, even as her cheeks flamed.

“Francis,” she started, steel in her voice, only to be cut off as he sauntered closer.

“But then I realized, I’m not in St. James.” He stopped a couple feet from them and looked squarely at Harmonia. “And that’s my fiancée being brutalized.”

His eyes hardened, their blue so cold and pale, even in the dark hallway. So different from Mr. Rickard’s. They brimmed with self-righteousness and a barely restrained fury.

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.