His Dark Enchantress (Books We Love Regency Romance) Read Online Free PDF

your grandpapa are.”
    Their images were re flected in the glass. Her great-aunt’s eyes shone with happiness and Emmaline wished with all her heart she could feel the same way.
    Instead, the guilt that lodged in her breast and threatened to choke her turned into slow burning anger. Anger at the unfairness of having to attract a husband she did not want. Anger at the prospect of not being forgotten by anyone she met. She had so much to hide, so much to lose.
    Her great-aunt slipped a velvet cloak around Emmaline’s nearly bare shoulders.
    “Come on, my girl. His Lordship will be here soon. He won’t keep you waiting, he’s too much of a gentleman, he is.”
    “I am sure you are right, but I do so wish I did not have to go.”
    “What nonsense!” Mrs. Babbidge came around in front of her and secured the ties of the cloak. “There you are, my love and, if I’m not mistaken, that’s a carriage pulling up outside now.”
    She went to the window, drew back the curtain and peered out. She turned to Emmaline with a smile.
    “ Come along now and don’t you worry. All will be well.”
    She held out her hand and Emmaline took it, whispering a fervent prayer as she did so to get through the evening without mishap. She followed her aunt out of the bedroom and on down the stairs. Giles was already at the door and opened it for her, just as Lucius reached for the knocker.
    “May I compliment you on your promptness, Miss Devereux?” He removed his top hat and swept her a bow.
    “Why, thank you ,” Emmaline replied, “but knowing your Lordship does not like to keep his horses standing, I dared not be late.”
    Lucius replaced his hat as he walked her across the pavement to the waiting carriage.
    “Saucy minx.”
    His voice , soft and very low, more like a purr deep in his throat, reached Emmaline’s ears and she knew only she heard him as he handed her into the carriage. Had he meant her to hear? She peeped quickly at his face, but his expression gave her no hint he had spoken.
    She took her seat beside Juliana and greeted both her and Beamish whose features, soft with early signs of dissipation in his rounded cheeks and jaws, looked like a schoolboy about to receive an unexpected treat. His wide smile brightened the carriage’s dim interior.
    “I say, Miss Devereux, this is going to be a splendid evening.” His gloved hands gripped his cane. “Having you and Juliana to dance with will be wonderful. You do dance, do you not?”
    “It is an accomplishment insisted upon by my papa and grandpapa. I think you will find, Mr. Beamish that I am unlikely to tread upon your toes.”
    “As if he’d care.” Juliana laughed lightly. “As lon g as he has a female on his arm he’s happy, are you not, William?”
    “I’m happi er when that female is you.” Beamish bowed his head to her.
    “Oh, very gallant, sir!” Juliana looked towards her brother as she clapped her hands but Lucius, looking out of the carriage window, appeared not to have heard their repartee.
    What, Emmaline wondered, kept him so quiet? What thoughts were running through his head? Was he perhaps thinking it a mistake to have invited a young, unknown, country-bred girl to accompany him and his party to Almack’s?
    Lucius was thinking none of these things. His mind reeled with recollections of his first love and supposed Emmaline’s dark beauty prompted a comparison to that fair face which still from time to time haunted him. All the love and respect he held for that love, all the hope he harboured for their future, was torn to shreds on discovering her perfidy. His unwary heart had unravelled into black splinters of delusion.
    Well, no more. His heart was now his own. Dark-haired beauties came and went each Season and he would not allow the one now sitting beside his sister in his carriage to affect him. He would encourage Juliana to take up the reins of her old friendship for no other reason than to satisfy himself of the girl’s suitability to be