Free Lady Em's Indiscretion by Elena Greene Page A

slipped away
to the conservatory at Sandhurst and locked the door, to make love
among the potted orange trees. How tenderly he had caressed her,
preparing her for her first time, then brought her sweet pain and
more pleasure than she’d ever imagined.
    She lifted her chin. Indiscretions,
indeed.
    A knowing smile hovered on Georgie’s lips.
“And you do not miss those . . . indiscretions ?”
    “No!”
    Swept up in passion, she’d thought she and
Mark were merely anticipating their vows. She’d thought him as mad
with love as she. She knew better now. It was his plan to secure
her in spite of her brother’s disapproval. Fortunately, her woman’s
courses had come the very morning William had revealed Mark’s
treachery. It had made her decision simpler, though not less
painful. Dear Will! Ever since their parents’ untimely death, he’d
tried to be a father as well as an older brother to her. She had
him to thank for saving her in the end.
    “I think you do still think of
Denby,” Georgie said pointedly.
    “It does not matter. There can be nothing
more between us.”
    Not after that final, stormy scene, after
Mark had practically broken down the doors at Sandhurst and come
close to blows with her brother. William had wanted to shield her,
but in the end, she’d delivered the rejection in person. The memory
of Mark’s distraught face had haunted her for months
afterwards.
    The look of a fortune-hunter as the prize
slipped from his hands, she reminded herself.
    “I am sorry, dearest,” Georgie said. “I
don’t wish to give you pain. But I wonder if there is a chance you
were mistaken. Perhaps you should have asked Denby about that
letter?”
    “There was no need to ask. The evidence was
too damning. Besides, William warned me that Denby would have some
glib explanation. Pray, let us not talk of this any more. I would
rather have a pleasant evening together. I don’t—”
    She broke off as a footman approached.
Georgie conferred briefly with him in a low voice, then said,
“Little Rob will not go to sleep. Nurse can usually manage him, but
tonight of all nights, he decides to fuss! I must go, but you may
as well continue your stroll. I shall rejoin you in a bit. Why
don’t you wait for me at the folly? Just take the path through
those trees and you will see it.”
    Georgie waved toward a stand of trees
growing on a point on the lake and then hurried back to the house
after the footman.
    Em was glad to be alone. She needed some
peace before speaking to Georgie again. She hated being at outs
with her friend. Georgie must have meant well; it was unlike her to
inflict needless pain. Yet she’d thrown Em right into a morass of
doubt. What if she was compounding one mistake with another, more
permanent one?
    What if she and William had been wrong about
Mark? But they hadn’t been wrong. That was the devil of
it.
    She must put him out of her mind again and
enjoy the evening, she thought as she strode across the
short-cropped turf, studded with daisies. She had been looking
forward to exploring the folly. Georgie said it had begun its life
as an ornamental temple, a mere empty shell, but she and her new
husband had extended the design to create an elegant room behind
the classical facade.
    Yet thoughts of Mark kept intruding. Denby
Hall was close by, not thirty miles away. Perhaps he, too, was
strolling out of doors and watching the same slanting golden light
paint the landscape in shadows and bursts of vivid color. But no,
at this season he’d be at some fashionable resort, perhaps
Brighton. Looking for a new heiress to pursue, no doubt.
    “Damn you, Mark!” she muttered as she passed
under the shade of the first tree.
    Her heart skipped a beat when she heard a
familiar voice.
    “Too late, Em. You already sent me to
perdition, two years ago.”
     

 
     
    Chapter
Two
     
    Em halted. That voice, deep and compelling,
took her back those two years in a heartbeat. Then she saw him,
straightening from the tree