A Tale of Two Lovers Read Online Free PDF

provoking. She had never met him before, but she knew his sort, intimately, and did not care for it. He was a known rake, with a preference for other men’s wives, merry widows, and the occasional actress and opera singer to liven things up.
    There was, too, the possibility that he enjoyed other more unusual inclinations when women bored him.
    She had expected Roxbury to come storming into the offices after he saw the item. Irate readers and embarrassed subjects of “Fashionable Intelligence” frequently came huffing and puffing to plead their cases and make demands of Knightly. But Roxbury had been one of the few to get past Mehitable Loud and the first to demand a duel.
    Yet, Julianna had not been prepared for the tall, arrogant, tyrannical, strikingly handsome man that had stormed in. Oh, they had mingled at parties and she’d followed his exploits, but she’d never been in such close proximity to him.
    Julianna now had an inkling of what legions of women felt around him: racing pulse, breath caught. He was a formidable presence with his height and his obviously muscled physique. His features were those of a peer—all noble and strong, though she had to admit he was particularly handsome. His eyes were dark, velvety brown—and the intensity of his gaze was practically palpable.
    And Roxbury had spoken to her as no one ever dared. He made demands upon her, when she was the mistress of her own self. Julianna answered to no man—except for Knightly, some of the time, when it suited her.
    Roxbury gave her orders, but she was under no obligation to him and delighted in pointing that out to him. It was oddly thrilling to be told what to do, and even more so to flagrantly disobey.
    She turned from looking out the window at Fleet Street below to speak to her employer.
    “I shall not write the apology or retraction,” she told Knightly. He looked up from his work, editing articles for the next issue.
    “You will,” Knightly said, and then he returned to his work.
    She scowled at him.
    “I’d rather see your pride wounded than my person,” Knightly added, setting his pencil down and giving her his attention.
    “You cannot possibly mean to attend the duel. Over a little thing in the newspaper!”
    “For the reputation of this newspaper and of myself, I will fight.” Everyone knew that this newspaper was everything to Mr. Knightly. He had his mother, Delilah, but no other family and certainly no wife. More often than not, he slept in his office. He would fight for The Weekly , to the death, without a second thought or shadow of doubt.
    “He’s awful, isn’t he? So very rude, storming in here like that and—”
    Mr. Knightly laughed.
    “Might I remind you, Lady Somerset, that is exactly how you made your entrance?”
    A little over a year ago, Julianna had indeed dropped in uninvited and announced that she knew he was hiring women (for he had hired her dearest friend Sophie to write about weddings the day before) and that he ought to hire her as a gossip columnist.
    Though she was not a shy, retiring person, to say the least, she had been quaking in her boots for that interview. It just wasn’t done, she was unsure of the outcome, and she was desperate.
    Most men left the bulk of their fortune to their wives, with small annuities to a favorite mistress or by-blows. The late, great Harry, Lord Somerset had little left over for his wife after providing for his numerous mistresses and bastards.
    However, he had left her with a name so scandalous that it discouraged all but the worst suitors, which didn’t quite matter since Julianna had no intention of marrying again. Her heart, mind, body, and livelihood were too precious to trust to another.
    Thus she, a lady, needed to work. The opportunity to write a gossip column was a rare one indeed—it would allow her to supplement her meager annuity, while maintaining and improving her place in society. So Julianna brazened out the terrifying interview.
    To her shock and