Free A Matter of Sin by Jess Michaels

squeeze, but she shook the comforting gesture away. She didn’t want to be appeased, she just wanted these feelings, these odd desires, to go away! They were most inopportune.
    Serena’s laughter faded and she dropped her gaze to her plate. “Of course I realize that,” she said softly. “If I was glib, I apologize.”
    Isabel shut her eyes briefly. Now she had hurt Serena’s feelings, which was the last thing in the world she ever intended.
    This had to stop! She was not in control of herself. In fact, she was not herself at all.
    She opened her eyes and found that the marchioness had opened up a conversation with the girls. Serena now smiled softly as she spoke to their two companions. Her upset of a moment ago seemed forgotten, although Isabel doubted her sensitive sister had completely overcome Isabel’s uncharacteristic sharpness.
    She turned in her chair toward Grace and whispered, “Oh, this is all that blasted book’s fault.”
    “Don’t blame the book, Isabel,” she whispered back sharply. “It only put into focus exactly what your heart already desired.”
    “What are you talking about?” Isabel asked through clenched teeth.
    “In London you talked of this longing, and that was before you ever touched the book.”
    Isabel pursed her lips. There was no arguing with that logic.
    “Perhaps you are correct,” she admitted softly. “This is a struggle I’ve been having for some time and now it is all coming to a head.”
    “Feeling desire is not a crime,” Grace whispered.
    Isabel sighed. She looked at her sister again. At present, Serena was a well-liked and well-received young lady with a bright future, but Isabel had been in Society long enough to know how easily that could change. She had seen what Jacinda went through after her unfortunate fall, and Isabel didn’t want that for Serena.
    “Not a crime, perhaps,” she conceded. “But most definitely a scandal. A chaperone isn’t meant to…to do what I did. Especially with whom I did it.”
    Grace opened her mouth, but she shut it again when she could come up with no argument.
    “My only consolation is that I have not gone past the point of no return. I started myself on this inappropriate path, and that means one thing.”
    And what is that?” Grace asked.
    She folded her hands in her lap. “That I can stop it.”
    Isabel looked across the crowd. She found Seth at a table a few places over. He was sitting with his mother and a few other women, some chaperones and potential brides. Suddenly, he lifted his gaze to hers, as if he had felt her stare on him.
    For a moment, just a blissful moment, she allowed herself to look into those bright blue depths. But then she looked away.
    “There is no question. I must stop this,” she murmured.

Chapter Six
    “Secret rendezvous are so very thrilling. It is recommended to have them as often as possible.” —The Ladies Book of Pleasures
    For as long as Seth could recall, his mother had taken an hour alone every afternoon in the sitting room of her vast chamber. Even with a house full of guests, that was her way.
    It wasn’t because she didn’t wish to spend that time with others. In fact, she had always said it was so that he and his siblings or his father could find her alone at least once a day. Her habit offered anyone in the family a chance to discuss their problems or triumphs with her for an hour if they had need for her always-wise counsel.
    There had been many an afternoon he had come here to discuss a thorny problem. Or had slipped past her door to see one of his two sisters or his late brother or father at her side sharing a scone and deep conversation.
    Today, though, he’d been invited into her chamber for her daily ritual and now he sat watching her prepare a cup of tea exactly as he liked it. He smiled as she handed the beverage over and settled back to examine him with unguarded interest.
    “I’ve seen that expression before.” Seth chuckled as he sipped the brew. “You have