Too Hot For A Rake Read Online Free Page A

“Circumstances? What were they?”
    “He thought I behaved in an…unladylike fashion.” She lifted her tear-stained eyes and said bitterly, “I can’t tell you what passed between us. But I wouldn’t have him as a husband now under any terms. Not after the terrible things he said to me tonight.”
    The duke stroked his chin. “You must explain this to me, Helena. I have no idea what you mean.”
    “Don’t ask me to repeat this ugly tale, I beg of you. It will do you no good to hear it and only pain me the more. As it is, I haven’t a shred of dignity left. I was full of joy at my beloved’s homecoming just a few hours ago, when I knew who I was and what I was meant to be. My life is meaningless now. I feel so…empty. Help me, Father, for I’ve lost my way.”
     
    Having witnessed Lady Helena’s departure from his window, Waverley made his way to the library. There he found Darlington draining a large glass of brandy. “Are you all right?”
    “Allow me to apologize for Lady Helena’s shocking behavior, Waverley.”
    “No need, Darlington. She thought she found you in my bed.”
    “And what did you think when you found a nude woman in your bed? Did you think I had provided you with the gift of a doxy to welcome you home to England? She had no right to do what she did, but neither did you.”
    “I won’t deign to answer such a rude remark, Darlington. I had nothing to do with tonight’s fiasco and you know it. Your anger is misplaced.”
    Waverley ignored the seething fury in his host’s countenance and poured himself a brandy. Perhaps I should have remained in Paris. Is this what I’ve come home to? Would a Frenchman rake me down like this? No, he’d be more likely to challenge me to a duel and join me for breakfast after the first harmless hit.
    He resisted the temptation to throttle his host. “The lady in question is in love with you, Darlington. Apparently, she appeared to be under the impression that you love her as well.”
    “Love her? Ha! Not anymore. A man needs a wife who comports herself respectably. Not some wanton hoyden filled with lust.”
    “You are mistaken. Lust is a part of love. That was clear, at least to me. Does that count for nothing to you?”
    “If she really loved me, she would have remembered after all these years that I require a wife who behaves with decorum. Enough said, Waverley. I’m off to bed. I want some rest before I see his grace to tell him our betrothal has been terminated.”
    “What reason shall you give?”
    “Oh, I’ll tell him she’s changed her mind. I’m too much of a gentleman to be the one to cry off.”
    Too much of a stiff-neck, I think. The lady’s better off without your smug sense of morality. Let’s hope she knows it. “Goodnight, then,” Waverley said and returned to his room. He climbed into bed, only to toss and turn. When it became clear to him that sleep was out of the question, he got up and began to dress. What was needed was a walk, he decided. It would take his mind off the trials ahead of him. He held his shoes in hand and stole quietly down the stairs.
    The fog had lifted and the sun was beginning to light the treetops when he caught sight of a suspicious figure emerging from a side window of the mansion next door. The figure reached back inside the window and pulled out some sort of bundle. A thief. No doubt about it, he thought, as the culprit dropped the bundle to the ground and sprang nimbly after it.
    Waverley stepped quietly behind a tree. With the patience born of years of caution, caution that had kept him alive through countless exploits, he slowed his breathing, readied his body, and waited. The thief peered from left to right, then hoisted the bag and lumbered toward the street. As soon as he passed the tree, Waverley grabbed him in a choke hold.
    “What the…?”
    Stunned into surprise, Waverley pulled off the thief’s cap.
    A woman? He let her go and she fell. “Lady Fairchild? I recognized you by the