Free Improper Gentlemen by Mia Marlowe, Diane Whiteside, Maggie Robinson Page A

would irredeemably stain his soul.
    But Charlotte had brought joy and light into his life. He couldn’t risk losing her now.
    She hesitated, then nodded.
    “I don’t want anybody else to die on my behalf—and I don’t want to destroy your friendship with him.”
    “It’s already gone on his side.”
    “Are you sure? What about you? Can you forget ten years that quickly?”
    He hesitated, then shook his head.
    Her quick look of sympathy pierced his heart.
    He cuddled her close, letting her pulse sing to his. More than anything else, he needed to know she was safe. Would he ever forget how helpless she’d looked crumpled on the floor at her kidnappers’ feet? And then how neatly she’d hurled that missile to knock one off balance?
    Where could he send her?
    “You should go back to Boston, not stay on the poker circuit.”
    “That’s impossible!”
    “Why? Were you convicted of a crime?”
    “No, but—”
    “Then there’s still a place for you there. You’d be safer beside the Atlantic Ocean than here in the Rockies, with Simmons offering a price on your head.”
    “My father said I was a slut.”
    “What the hell?” How could her parent be that deluded? Justin didn’t know whether to plot a lecture or a drowning.
    “My stepmother said all the time I spent at the Soldiers’ Home, tending the war veterans, was actually loose conduct.” Charlotte flushed.
    The darling probably didn’t know how to act immoral with a multitude of men. Her stepmother needed to be strangled.
    “The jealous bitch! And he believed her?”
    Charlotte nodded. “We had a dreadful fight and I stormed out. I haven’t been back in three years.”
    “Did you ever offer an explanation?” He caught her hands.
    “No, I was too angry.”
    Sounded like all the times he and his father had fought when he was eighteen.
    “Since then, I’ve concentrated on making money.” She looked up at him from under gold-tipped eyelashes, the same color as all the success she’d enjoyed. “I plan to return to Boston as a wealthy woman and make my stepmother and stepsisters jealous.”
    “Ah.” Now that definitely sounded like the relationship between him and his half-brothers—nothing but vicious competition every inch of the way. Regrets for what could never be regained stirred within him.
    “Honey, is your father still alive?” He kissed Charlotte’s hands.
    “Yes. I’d have seen his obituary if not.”
    Ah, the unconscious arrogance of class and fortune which expected to see their important announcements widely distributed.
    Justin closed his eyes for a moment to push away ancient grief. The old days were gone. Like wintertime, they’d passed by to be replaced by the new ways. No man could stand in the path of change.
    “Charlotte, you should make peace with him while you’re both still alive. You need to make the most of the time you have together.”
    “No! Do you know what he said? Do you know how he insulted the brave soldiers who fought for this country?”
    Justin’s mouth twisted wryly. Was he about to defend blue bellies, the long-hated Union troopers who’d destroyed his world? Or could he finally live in peace with them, the way Lee had surrendered his sword at Appomattox?
    “Darling, I’m sure if you speak gently to him, you can make him see reason, even about that.” Good, he hadn’t actually defended any blue bellies.
    “But . . .” Her chin still jutted defiantly.
    “Family is worth fighting for, at all costs, even if it means swallowing a little pride.”
    She tapped her fingers as if seeking a new argument.
    “You know I lost my mother to The War. I lost everyone else, too—including my father, my two elder brothers and their families, even my cousins.” His voice had turned soft, his drawl thicker than if he stood once again in Charleston. “I’d give anything to go back and have one more day with my father or brothers. Or sail down the Ashley River again and see Northwick Plantation rising fresh