Keepsake (The Distinguished Rogues Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

greatest wish. Emily was pale, almost stricken in appearance.
    He swallowed quickly. “Given the circumstances, I feel it best to retire for the evening.”
    Emily’s eyes closed. “Yes. I expect you should. Don’t worry about me. I am sure I can find my brother to drive me home.”
    “I knew I could count on you to understand.” Kit drew in a shuddering breath. Miranda lived. His wife lived. His wife had been at his side and then promptly disappeared again. He stared across the theater at Daventry’s box. There she sat, greeting Lady Daventry as if she hadn’t a care in the world and was an old friend. But Miranda owed Kit an explanation for her ten-year absence from his life. And Kit would have his answers tonight.
    He stormed after her, skirting the malingerers in the corridor between his and Daventry’s box in order to confront his wife. He cursed under his breath when he found the box now empty of Miranda, Lord Louth, and even the Daventrys. He charged for the theater entrance, determined to catch his wife before she got away. Outside, carriages clattered past but none stopped to take passengers or pull away with new ones. He raked his fingers through his hair when further investigation didn’t reveal her anywhere in sight.
    Where the bloody hell had his damn wife gone now?

CHAPTER TWO

    Crisis averted. Husband prevented from an act of utter foolishness. Miranda Reed, reluctant Marchioness of Taverham, hurried to the back entrance of the Theater Royal and collected her cloak from the waiting theater maid. Her heart beat a wild rhythm, which she knew would take a quiet room and considerable time to calm, perhaps even requiring a dose of the potion her physician had insisted was necessary to calm her heart and maintain her proper health. She grimaced and snapped open her fan to beat a cooling breeze across her hot cheeks and neck.
    The distasteful business of proving she was very much alive was behind her, and now all she had to do was collect her son from the tutor she’d chosen for his instruction during her long illness. Then they would take up a suitable residence in Town and be together once more. She had no intention of living with her husband even a single day, though it was high time he became acquainted with Christopher.
    To her regret, the theater’s production of The Beggar’s Opera resumed with no thought to her heart, a cacophony of sound that stirred Miranda’s happiest memories to the front of her mind and turned those remembrances to ashes.
    And yet Miranda was pleased with her return to society tonight. She’d succeeded in seeing her husband on her terms without losing control of the situation. How nice to have had the upper hand. It was a rare day when one could control a situation that involved the Marquess of Taverham and his simpering lover, Lady Brighthurst.
    She wasn’t unduly surprised they were as close now as the day Miranda had married Taverham. Society might speculate on the true state of that friendship, but Miranda had seen the truth with her own eyes. Being betrayed on her wedding day was not something Miranda was ever likely to forget.
    Her only servant, a burly man with a face scarred enough to frighten the masses, stepped from the shadows to reveal himself. “The carriage will be but a moment, my lady,” Peter Landry informed her in his deep, rumbling voice that had once sent a chill through her soul.
    As a child visiting her grandfather’s warehouse on the docks of the London shipping yards, Landry’s large body and voice had terrified her. As an adult no longer prone to hysterics, she’d learned to place her faith in him when she wanted something done. He’d dogged her shadow ever since their paths had crossed by chance during the first year she’d left Taverham’s home, and a more faithful and protective servant a lady in hiding could never find.
    She smiled. “Excellent.”
    There was not much that distressed Miranda now. She’d seen the best of life and the