Free An Unexpected Gentleman by Alissa Johnson

you as well,” Lord Gideon told his wife and Lady Engsly.
    “We shall leave that for Miss Ward to decide,” Lady Engsly said.
    Adelaide’s immediate inclination was to make as many people as possible go away. She changed her mind, however, after looking over who would be left if the ladies were sent away—Lord Engsly, Lord Gideon, Connor, and Sir Robert. A marquess, the marquess’s brother, the man who’d compromised her, and the man she’d betrayed.
    “Oh, please, do stay.”

Chapter 6

    T he study’s dark paneling, slivered windows, and oversized mahogany furniture gave Adelaide the impression she was walking into a crowded cave. Uncertain of what to do with herself, she stood in the middle of the room while Lady Engsly and Lady Winnefred took seats on a small settee, Lord Engsly and Lord Gideon positioned themselves in front of the desk, and Connor leaned a shoulder against a bookshelf.
    Sir Robert stopped three feet inside the door.
    “I would have a word with Miss Ward before we begin,” he announced suddenly. “And I would have that word alone.”
    “No.” The sharp refusal came from Connor.
    “Miss Ward?” Lady Engsly prompted.
    Adelaide considered it. She’d faced his censure in public; there was nothing to be gained by facing it in private as well.
    “I would prefer we speak here.”
    Sir Robert sighed the sigh of an eternally beleaguered man, but he didn’t argue. He walked to the middle of the room, took her hand, and held it between his own.
    “Miss Ward,” he began, “you have my most sincere and abject apology.”
    “I beg your pardon?”
    He nodded thoughtfully and patted her hand. “I have told you some of my family’s story, but much of it . . . most of it, I kept hidden from you out of fear of disgrace. And now, my selfish reticence has put you in grave danger. This man”—he flicked an accusing glance at Connor—“is indeed, and to my family’s eternal shame, an offspring of my father’s.”
    “He’s not cattle,” Lady Winnefred muttered just loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.
    Connor flashed a brief smile. “Thank you, Freddie.”
    “Don’t talk to my wife,” Lord Gideon ordered.
    Sir Robert squeezed her hand. “Connor Brice is a most depraved individual. Until recently, however, he was safely removed from society.”
    “He had me tossed into prison for a crime I did not commit,” Connor translated.
    “His imprisonment was of his own doing,” Sir Robert insisted. “He is a violent man, Miss Ward. And consumed with jealousy of me. His lowborn mother poisoned his mind with—”
    “Mention my mother again,” Connor said darkly, “and we’ll be getting round to that duel after all.”
    Sir Robert cleared his throat but didn’t respond to Connor. “He nurtures a bitter hatred of me. Nothing would give him more pleasure than to destroy all I hold dear.”
    “That’s true,” Connor agreed easily.
    Sir Robert pretended to ignore him, but the new burgeoning flush of red on his neck betrayed the lie. “Knowing his nature and his capacity for cruelty, I kept watch over him during his incarceration. But his whereabouts were lost to me after his recent release. I—”
    “What he means to say,” Connor broke in, “is that he had half the prison guards in his pocket.” He answered Sir Robert’s glare with a mocking curl of the lip. “Pity for you it wasn’t the clever half.”
    The red expanded to Sir Robert’s face. He spun on Connor. “You have no proof of such a—”
    “You have no idea what I have proof of.”
    “I will see you—!”
    “You were apologizing, Sir Robert?” Adelaide punctuated the quick interruption with a firm tug on Sir Robert’s hand.
    He looked to her, to Connor, and back again. “Right. Yes, of course. I beg your pardon.” He took a deep breath, held it, and released. Adelaide was surprised to smell brandy. “I was apologizing because it is on my head that this . . . this libertine , this cad, this—”
    Lady