How To Rescue A Rake (Book Club Belles Society 3) Read Online Free Page B

How To Rescue A Rake (Book Club Belles Society 3)
Book: How To Rescue A Rake (Book Club Belles Society 3) Read Online Free
Author: Jayne Fresina
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Historical, Adult, Travel, Regency, England, 19th century, Novel, Bachelor, Victorian, Britain, reading, bride, escape, Rejection, Book Club, rescue, heartbreak, Forever Love, Single Woman, Charade, London Society, Belles Society, Five Young Ladies, Meetings, Comments, Discussion Group, Hawcombe Prior, Reckless Rake, Marriage Proposal, Three Years, Propose, New Wealth, Rumor Mill, Age Of 25, Suitable Girl, Cousin In Bath, Avoiding, Heart On The Line, Follow
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“Sherringham. That dreadful, brazen fellow from whom no innocent young woman was ever safe. Gambling debts up his backside. No responsibility. No discipline or willpower. Terrible habit of drinking too much and swearing in polite society. Never out of bed on the right side of noon, countless women left ruined in his wake when he runs off .”
    She blinked rapidly. “Well, I—”
    “Never met him before in my life.”
    “But you—”
    “And frankly, madam, I am shocked and offended that you would mistake me for that reprobate.”
    Turning swiftly on his heel, he walked away. Whoever she was, let her swallow that with her cheesecake.
    He knew what they all thought of him, but they were about to be surprised.
    Captain Nathaniel Sherringham was no longer the rudderless, jolly rake everybody loved to mock. He was a man of determination, purpose, and considerable means.
    He was also a man who had learned not to lead his life as if it were an open book.
    Yes, he was back. And in control.
    Things were going to be different this time.

Three
    The air in her mother’s parlor seemed excessively warm and stale the next morning. Diana thought perhaps she was still suffering the effects of last night’s debacle, but glancing around at her friends and fellow book society members, she saw them all in some state of similar discomfort.
    Lucy Bridges had requisitioned an old copy of La Belle Assemblée to fan herself so violently that she’d wafted half the dried petals out of a dish of potpourri beside her. Meanwhile Justina Wainwright dabbed her perspiring forehead with a jam-stained napkin, subsequently leaving a few sticky crimson blobs above her eyebrow. And her sister-in-law, Rebecca, resorted to loudly puffing out unladylike breaths, while popping open the buttons of her lace chemisette. Since there were no men present, Diana supposed it was safe to allow some exposure of skin, but really she ought to do something to cool the air before the unveiling went too far. Where Rebecca was concerned, one could never be sure what she might do next, and a petticoat lifted to the knee may soon occur if this heat was not alleviated.
    It was good cause to open the window, she decided hastily. Her mother did not care much for an open window this early in the year, but she cared even less for too much bosom and ankle on display.
    Having opened the parlor window, Diana returned to her chair and reached over to pour the tea, just as Sarah Wainwright—the society’s youngest and newest member—bounced with sudden excitement and exclaimed, “You will never guess who I saw at the Manderson Assembly Rooms yesterday.”
    Diana temporarily lost control of the teapot’s spout, splashing tea into her saucer and across her mother’s second-best tablecloth.
    “A notorious”—Sarah lowered her voice and glanced nervously at the parlor door—“ adulteress !”
    Rebecca Wainwright passed Diana a napkin to help mop up the spilled tea. “An adulteress? Good Lord, and in Manderson of all places.”
    “It is quite true,” Sarah insisted. “She was pointed out to me. A Mrs. Caroline Sayles.”
    Diana dabbed at the tea stain and gave a small sigh of relief, for she had expected another name to fly out of Sarah’s mouth. Until she remembered that Sarah Wainwright would not know Captain Sherringham by sight. He had left the village shortly before she came to live there.
    “They say Mrs. Sayles has run off from her husband five times,” added Sarah, eyes popping.
    “Goodness,” Rebecca exclaimed wryly. “If I were her husband, I would have changed the locks.”
    “Well, it seems he has now done so. It was a most scandalous divorce and all over the London papers.”
    “You shouldn’t listen to gossip,” said Justina Wainwright primly, but then she leaned forward. “What did the adulteress look like?” Always eager for lurid details, she was probably looking to use them in whatever story she was currently writing.
    “Nothing very special, I

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