Free Mischief by Amanda Quick

Vanneck was a sly, dissipated, unprincipled rake who had an unpleasant reputation in the brothels and hells, but he did not strike Matthias as a killer. The ruthless seduction of an innocent, naive young lady such as Imogen was more Vanneck’s style. Matthias’s hand flexed into a tight fist at his side.
    He closed his eyes and thought about the way Imogen had responded to him when he had taken her into his arms. A wave of sweet, searing heat went through him, stoking the fire that had been smoldering in his loins since he had left Upper Stickleford. He could not remember the last time a woman’s kiss had produced such a lingering effect on his senses. He tried to will away the desire that had flared within him. When that failed, he pictured Imogen with Vanneck in the bedchamber above the Sandowns’ ballroom. His gut turned to ice.
    Matthias knew what was happening, and it worried him as nothing else had for a long while. He wanted Imogen for himself. The vision of her in Vanneck’s debauched embrace was almost enough to make him contemplate murder.
    He took a deep breath, gazed into the heart of the fire, and searched for the ghosts. They were there, as they always were, reaching out for him as though to draw him down into the flames to join them. So damn many of them.
    Matthias had been ten years old when his father, Thomas, had raged through the house for the last time, shouting at Elizabeth, who was, as usual, in tears.
    Matthias had witnessed the final battle through the posts of the upstairs balustrade. The awareness of his own inability to stop the dreadful words or stem the flood of his mother’s tears had made his hands shake. He wanted to run and hide. Instead, he had made himself watch as the father he had never been able to please did battle with the mother he could never comfort.
    He had heard the same terrible accusations hurled back and forth between his parents many times, but this was the first occasion on which he had actually understood them.
    After all these years the words still burned in his brain.
    “You trapped me, you conniving, coldhearted bitch,” Thomas had shouted as he faced his wife in the front hall. “You used your body to seduce me and then you deliberately got yourself pregnant.”
    “You told me that you loved me,” Elizabeth had flung back. “I was an innocent, but you had no scruples about bedding me, did you?”
    “You lied to me. You told me that you knew how to keep from getting yourself with child. Damn you, I never intended to marry you. I never felt anything but a fleeting lust for you. No more than I would feel for a whore.”
    “You talked of love,” Elizabeth wailed.
    “Bah. I have had enough of this loveless marriage. You wanted the title, well, you have it, but, by God, Elizabeth, that is all you shall have from me.”
    “You cannot leave me, Thomas.”
    “I cannot rid myself of you by any legal means. Divorce is out of the question. But I refuse to condemn myself to a lifetime of unhappiness. Enjoy the title you used your body to obtain. You shall have this house and an allowance, but I shall never step foot in this hall again. I shall take up residence in London. If you must communicate with me about any matter of grave importance, you will do so through my solicitors.”
    “What of Matthias?” Elizabeth asked desperately. “He is your son and heir.”
    “I have only your word for that,” Thomas said harshly. “For all I know, you slept with half the members of my club.”
    “He’s your son, you bloody bastard. The law will not allow you to deny it.”
    “I am well aware of that, madam,” Thomas said. “But one day I shall learn the truth concerning just how badly I was deceived. Every man in my family develops a streak in his hair by the age of twenty.”
    “So will Matthias. You’ll see. In the meantime, you cannot ignore him.”
    “I shall do my duty by him,” Thomas vowed. “It is past time that Matthias was sent away to school. If he