Free Scandal by Carolyn Jewel Page A

column at her back.
    â€œI owe you an apology. It’s not to my credit that it’s taken me until now to make the attempt. That day at Rider Hall, you know the day I mean, I betrayed us both.” He fought for control himself as the emotions of that day came back. “No matter the cause, no matter my state of mind, I should not have behaved as I did.”
    â€œBanallt,” she said.
    But he lifted a hand to stop her. “I’ve not lived an exemplary life.” He glanced down the hall, but no one was there. “No one knows that better than you, but that day—that night of all the nights of my life, that is the only one on which I sincerely regret my behavior. I’ve since lain awake at night and ... I imagine I behaved differently.” He glanced down. “How different our lives might be if I had not treated you so abysmally. I dishonored us both. You most of all. For all that and more, for every insult and offense, and I am aware there are many, I apologize.”
    She chewed on her lower lip. Her hands, he noticed, were no longer fisted but flat to the column behind her. “Thank you,” she said. And, God help him, something in her softened toward him.
    He nodded. “If I could take it all back, I would.” He hadn’t righted the wrong he’d done her. Nothing would do that. “I ought to have apologized much sooner.”
    â€œIt’s all right.”
    â€œAnd now, on to tonight.” A selfless act from the Earl of Banallt? Could it be true? He was actually willing to stay out of her life. Had he ever done anything so much against his nature? “Is it my presence that upset you? If it is, you needn’t worry.”
    â€œThat ... No. Not you.” She drew in a breath. “I don’t belong here.”
    â€œNonsense.”
    â€œNow I’m the one who is not being honest.” She chewed on her lip again. “It’s Mrs. Peters,” she said on an exhale that rattled the words. She caught herself, as she did whenever strong emotion challenged her control.
    Conversation from the parlor came faintly down the hall, but here they stood in private, or very nearly so. The servants weren’t likely to head this way, and the retiring rooms were in the other direction. He doubted anyone would see them here, alone and in such dim and intimate lighting. “Did she say something unkind?”
    â€œUnkind.” She sniffled, a sign of how close she’d been to tears. “How could she have been unkind? Deliberately, I mean. She did not know who I was.”
    â€œShould she have?”
    Her mouth worked, going from pressed thin, to parted, and back to closed. He did his best not to stare at her mouth, her full and perfect lips, the lower one just that much fuller than the upper. “Not long after you left Rider Hall the last time...” Another stuttering breath came from her, but softer than before. She tucked her hands behind her back, leaning on them, refusing to meet his gaze. So be it. Did he expect to be forgiven so easily? “Tommy came home.”
    He said nothing. She wore white muslin trimmed with dark blue satin. A row of tiny blue satin bows lined the neckline, some touching the pale skin of her bosom. Shadows gathered at the tucks that pulled her bodice to a tiny vee. In all the time he’d known her he’d never seen her in an evening gown. Never once with bare shoulders or with the upper curves of her breasts exposed. She was exquisite. And he would never hold her in his arms, with her body soft and pliant against him.
    â€œHe said he’d come home to stay.” At last, she stopped staring at the ceiling and looked at him. His body reacted with a jolt of sexual anticipation. Misguided, hopeless, but there it was, coursing through him as if he were once more on the prowl. “He was tired of his life, he said, and he wanted me. He wanted to make a life with me.” She smiled, but the