Going Rogue Read Online Free PDF

always makes me feel better.”
    “I’d like that,” she lied, wanting nothing more than to curl up in a ball and cry some more.
    “Wonderful! I’ll start getting ready.” Cynthia left her room, a blur of teased hair and taffeta, the overpowering scent of rosewater wafting behind her.
    Meredith waited until she could no longer hear her aunt’s footsteps to remove the ring, tucking it safely inside her pocket, keeping it there until she could hide it properly, under the loose floorboard at the end of her bed.
    The same place she kept all of Derek’s letters.

 
    Chapter 5
    London, 1817, Five years later . . .
    Sunlight managed to find its way into Meredith’s room through the small opening between the heavy curtains. Determined to block out the light completely, she pulled the covers over her head.
    “Good day, Miss Castle,” the chipper voice of her lady’s maid rang out.
    “Come back later, Lizzie,” Meredith muttered.
    “I can’t do that—your room is filthy. Besides, Lady Browning would like you to join her on the veranda as soon as you can make yourself ready.”
    She listened as Lizzie flitted about. “The room can wait,” she said, peeking out from the blankets. “And you can tell Lady Browning that I’m sleeping. I’ll join her at my earliest convenience.” She hid again, nestled deep within the confines of her comfortable bed.
    “But the Lady insists . . .”
    There was no use arguing with the girl—her loyalty first and foremost with her employer. “Fine. But I’ll need a warm bath and a pot of chocolate before I can even consider leaving my room.”
    “But Lady Browning—”
    Meredith hit the mattress with her fist. “Lady Browning will just have to wait until I’ve had my pot of chocolate, now won’t she?”
    “Won’t I what?” Aunt Cynthia appeared, her presence sending the maid scurrying.
    Meredith quickly shot up. “I was just telling Lizzie that I’d prefer to visit with you after I’ve freshened up a bit.”
    Cynthia set her hands on her hips. “I would have preferred that, too, but I’ve already wasted half my day waiting for you to make an appearance.”
    Meredith yawned, stretching her arms above her head. “My night lasted a bit longer than I expected.”
    “Don’t they always?” Cynthia drawled, making her way toward the vanity at the far end of the room.
    “Not always,” she defended, noting the censure in her aunt’s voice.
    Cynthia sat on the bench in front of the vanity and adjusted one of the artfully placed feathers within her elaborate hair arrangement. “You’ve been out late nearly every night this week.”
    “Your bath is ready, Miss,” Lizzie announced.
    “What about my chocolate?” Meredith pouted.
    Her aunt turned from the mirror, rebuking her with a glance. “Just get in the bath and never mind the chocolate.”
    Meredith tossed her blankets aside and quickly shed her night clothes. She padded over to the tub and submerged herself, sighing as the warm water enveloped her.
    “Comfortable?” Cynthia asked.
    “Very,” she answered. The water instantly soothed the sore muscles she’d earned from all the dancing she’d enjoyed the night before.
    Cynthia signaled the maid. “Leave us, Lizzie. I’ll assist Miss Castle if she should need anything.”
    The maid nodded, backing her way out of the room.
    “But my hair?” Meredith whined. “Lizzie always washes it for me.”
    “Perhaps you can wash your own hair today?”
    Meredith sunk further into the water. “I suppose it can wait until tomorrow. I’m too tired anyway.”
    Her aunt crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m sure you are, after the night you had.”
    “How would you know?”
    “Because your name was splashed all over the gossip rags this morning.”
    “Better to be talked about than not thought of at all,” she sang.
    Cynthia shook her head. “Notoriety is far different from being of note. You simply can’t keep gallivanting around London as if it were your own