A Scandalous Secret Read Online Free PDF Page B

too many years since her honeysuckle scent had enveloped him. Hannah’s pretty eyes rounded in surprise as though she was experiencing the same rush of remembrance that he was. “Why?” he breathed out before he could stop himself.
    Damn it! They did have an audience. What the devil was wrong with him?
    “Perhaps,” Caroline nearly sang, “the rest of us should head in to dinner, after all.”
    But Chet barely heard her. All he could do was stare into Hannah’s cornflower eyes and wonder what had happened to make her flee him all those years ago. He itched to draw her into his arms and kiss her the way he once had, but he stood rooted in his spot like a marble statue.
    “You won’t mind escorting Lady Hannah in to dinner when the two of you finish your conversation, will you, darling?” Caroline asked.
    Chet waived one hand in the air, signaling he would do as she bade. “Aye, we’ll see all of you soon.”
    And then everyone bustled into the corridor as fast as their legs would carry them, except for Carteret. Chet could sense him still standing sentry in the doorway.
    Hannah’s eyes flickered in that direction and she nodded once. “I’ll be fine, Jaime. Please.”
    And then they were truly alone. Hannah extricated her hand from Chet’s grasp and turned away from him. “Ye wanted ta speak with me?”
    Chet wanted to close the gap between them, as though he was pulled in her direction by a force he couldn’t see. But she had turned away from him, just as she’d run from him all those years ago. So he held his ground and cleared his throat. “You look well.”
    She shrugged a bit. “Caroline picked out the gown.”
    Why was he not surprised? Caroline had her fingers in everything. Chet couldn’t help but chuckle. “She picked out my waistcoat, too.”
    “She is very talented, our friend.”
    And though Chet agreed, he didn’t want to discuss Caroline. He needed to know what had happened. Why Hannah had abandoned him. “Were you frightened?”
    She spun back around to stare at him. “Frightened?”
    He nodded and took a step towards her. “All those years ago. Did you run because you were frightened? Or did you just not care for me as much as I believed?”
    Hannah’s eyes flashed with something he couldn’t quite understand. “I beg yer pardon?”
    What was she playing at? Certainly she understood the question. Chet rose to his full height, hoping to convey a strength he didn’t feel. “I asked if you ever cared for me.”
    Hannah’s mouth fell open in either surprise or outrage, he couldn’t tell. “I canna believe ye can even ask me such a question.”
    “No?” He scoffed. “Seems a very valid question, considering the fact that you agreed to marry me then fled the country as another man’s wife.”
    ***
    Hannah could only stare at Chet. She was certain she resembled the biggest fool ever born, her mouth hanging open like a simpleton. Finally she found her voice. “What should I have done considerin’ yer duplicity?”
    “Duplicity?”
    “Aye, should I have stayed in Town, waitin’ for word of my ruination to spread like the Great Fire?” Indignation rose up inside her, and Hannah took a step towards Chet. “Is that what ye wanted? Ta see me ridiculed before the ton ? Ta see yer so—” Havers ! What on Earth was wrong with her? How could she have nearly blurted out her most guarded secret? “Ta see me lowered before all of them like the fool that I was?” She tried to cover up her near blunder.
    “I would have seen you as my wife, Hannah. I loved you more than my next breath.”
    “Ha!” she spat at him. “I’m no’ the same foolish lass, Chet. Yer lies will need ta be better than that.”
    “Lies!” he roared, showing more fire than she’d ever seen in him. “You speak to me of lies? You told me you loved me. You promised to marry me. You sent me on a merry chase—which wasn’t all that merry, by the way—across England into Dumfries-shire, only to discover you