Free The Love Affair of an English Lord by Jillian Hunter Page A

interference. “I’m agreeing to yours.”
    The young lord in the garden below took a few steps back in alarm. “Is there another man in your room with you, Chloe?”
    â€œTell him there is,” Dominic said. “Tell him your lover is an extremely jealous foreigner who fights duels for a living.”
    â€œWould you leave me alone?” she whispered angrily.
    Justin stared up at her in suspicion. “What did you say? Did I just hear a man’s voice?”
    Chloe could just see all her hopes for a beautiful romance dissolving before her eyes. In the past she had been drawn to the wrong type of suitor; this seemed to be a trait that her sister-in-law, Jane, had gently pointed out might need to be tempered with a streak of common sense. Chloe secretly suspected that she had fallen into a depressive state since the deaths of her father and younger brother, Brandon. Sometimes she barely felt like living herself. She did not understand why she could not be satisfied as easily as her friends.
    She did not mean to hurt her family or to ruin her name. But there were times when she didn’t care. Brandon had been killed early last year, and her father had died of a heart seizure barely five months later, when the news of his son’s death had reached his country house where he and Chloe had been entertaining. She had been the only other family member present. It had been a brutal shock, learning of Brandon’s murder and witnessing her father’s death in the same day.
    Chloe had not completely recovered. She did not think she would ever recover. She could not say that she and her father had been close. He’d been a distant, hard man who’d withdrawn from his children after his wife’s death eight years ago when Chloe was twelve.
    Chloe’s world had gradually turned gray, and getting into trouble had a strange way of making her feel alive. In a peculiar way she was a ghost, like the man holding her captive.
    Both she and Dominic Breckland might be alive in the physical sense, but a vital part of their essence had been damaged, if not destroyed. Chloe could not explain why she felt even the slightest sympathy for a man who could ruin her entire life when any other young lady in her place would react with panic. But then perhaps she was accustomed to being shocked by her brothers. Chloe’s family had always flaunted convention.
    Which was why tonight she had been so proud of herself for attracting the interest of the lighthearted Justin at the country dance. He wasn’t her sort at all. He came from a solid family, didn’t drink or gamble, and, as far as she could tell, there did not appear to be a dangerous bone in his body, aside from his lack of judgment in coming here tonight. But passion, controlled, was not always a bad thing, was it?
    Her brothers had sworn to see her settled down with an acceptable husband before the end of the year. There might be a chance for a serious match between her and Justin, if he turned out to be all that he appeared.
    And if the sarcastic devil practically perched on her shoulder like a gargoyle did not ruin everything.
    â€œIt isn’t a man, Justin,” she explained in a soft voice. “It’s only my Uncle Humphrey.”
    The mention of the stalwart baronet was apparently enough to dim Justin’s hopes for a successful midnight seduction. He blew Chloe a string of kisses and promptly vanished into the mist, leaving Dominic to glare after him in satisfaction.
    â€œWhat a preposterous fool.”
    Chloe swung around to regard him. “I should have given him the chance to rescue me. I—”
    She realized all of a sudden that he was no longer listening to her. He was staring out the window at his estate with an intensity that filled her with apprehension. He looked determined, dangerous again.
    â€œWhat is it?” she whispered. “Do you see the man who followed you here?”
    â€œDon’t