A Tale of Two Lovers Read Online Free PDF Page A

reason, his heart was pounding.
    “I sent you a letter prior to publication offering to withhold the information in exchange for a sum. You ignored it,” she said.
    Newspapers earned a fortune in suppression fees. He would have paid ten fortunes for this item to never see the light of day. But he never had the chance.
    She must have sent it to his home, a place he rarely frequented. It was probably still there, unopened, with all the invitations and summons from his father and bills. For a meager sum, this could have never happened.
    If the phrase “to see red” indicated anger, then at this moment he was seeing a violent explosion of crimson, vermillion, and burnt sienna.
    “You’ve been out in society for quite some time now, Roxbury. You know these things just blow over in time,” Lady Somerset said breezily, stepping away from him. Without a second thought he moved closer to her.
    “I don’t have time,” he said through gritted teeth. Scarlet. Ruby. Wine. Blood.
    “Oh? Why is that?” She tilted her head and peered up at him curiously. There was a touch of innocence to her, too, but he assumed it was feigned, given that she was a widow and a gossip and in a man’s office.
    “You mistake me for a fool, among other things,” he told her.
    “As much as I am enjoying this display of—God only knows what—I do have work to attend to,” Knightly said, bored, from the other side of the room where he remained behind his desk.
    Roxbury turned his back on the she-devil and addressed Knightly.
    “I came here for satisfaction. My honor has been grossly insulted. I will not duel with a woman. That leaves you.”
    “A duel! You cannot fight a duel over this!” Lady Somerset exclaimed.
    Knightly sat forward in his chair, his expression now intensely serious.
    “I accept,” he said gravely.
    “I would almost respect you, Knightly, if we met under different circumstances. As for you,” Roxbury continued, turning back to the buxom villainess, “you will print a retraction, and an apology.”
    “Oh will I?” she challenged, with a lift of her brow and arms akimbo.
    Oh, yes, he definitely knew her type: The female know-it-all. Most often found amongst the married, mothers, and widows, though some females seemed to be born bossy. This variety of female was mostly just irritating, but when combined with wit and beauty—admittedly Lady Somerset possessed both, in spades—she could be incredibly dangerous.
    From his limited experience with this type—he tended to the pleasure-seeking, carefree, fun-loving sorts—he knew that to tame this sort of female was a tremendous trial, though it could be well worth it.
    In the case of Lady Somerset, he would not bother. That did not mean, however, that he would let her run roughshod over him—any more than she already had, that is.
    “You will,” Roxbury told her.
    “Or what will happen?” she taunted. She stood with her hands on her hips now, drawing his eyes to her hourglass figure. His mouth went dry. Her head was tilted slightly to the side, tempting him to feather kisses along her neck and shoulders, down to the full, generous swells of her breasts.
    Tempting. So damned tempting.
    But this was war, and he would be victorious.
    “You will print an apology and a retraction, or your secret will be out, and I shall wish you the best of luck filling a column about the happenings of high society when you are no longer received.”
    Then he was treated to the rare experience of Lady Somerset speechless.
    E ven after Lord Roxbury slammed the door behind him on the way out, Julianna Somerset was still openmouthed and silent, and that was a rare thing indeed. She crossed her arms over her chest and turned to look out the window, as if pondering the view of Fleet Street it afforded. But she couldn’t focus because her nerves were humming, her heart racing, and her thoughts were a tangled mess.
    Roxbury’s behavior to her was appalling, insulting, and deliberately