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

worst. She’d even recovered from an illness that might have claimed her life, although that convalescence had taken over two years. Time wasted and time stolen from her son. She would make it up to Christopher somehow.
    The theater maid lingering a few feet away helped her slip beneath the cloak’s protection so she wouldn’t be recognized as she left. A stab of pity gripped her that no one else would see the stunning gown she’d commissioned from a backstreet dressmaker working in the north of London. The gown was the loveliest she’d owned in years, and Miranda regretted that the seamstress would never garner notice for her work. Under normal circumstances, Miranda had no need for frippery and nonsense. When in hiding from a man and a marriage you’d come to resent and plagued by a title one didn’t respect, it did no good to draw attention. She lived modestly. Every secret she’d learned to snare a husband during her first season she’d reversed so as not to bring unwanted notice to herself.
    Miranda spared a smile for the girl when the hood fell over her head. “Thank you and do convey my appreciation to your mistress for her help in setting the scene I wanted. Apologize if her audience is distracted for the rest of the night’s performance and do assure her I had the outcome I’d hoped for.”
    The girl nodded quickly and departed. Landry retreated to the lane, looking for the conveyance that would take Miranda away from the theatre and from her no doubt now furious husband. She counted his stunned welcome a blessing, for he’d been quite slow to react.
    Miranda pulled the cloak closer around her, wishing she could forget she was married at all. Yet she couldn’t place her needs before her son’s interests. A public and very dramatic return was absolutely essential to prove to the world that she lived and ruin Lady Brighthurst’s scheming to have Taverham declare her dead.
    Embarrassing her husband in the process mattered little.
    Lord Louth’s heavy tread hurried toward her; he puffed slightly in his haste to catch up with her before she left the theater.
    “Your timing was impeccable, Martin. Thank you.”
    “Your servant. Always.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Will I see you tomorrow?”
    “Yes. We will leave early in the unmarked carriage if you agree.” She thanked the stars that she could rely upon Martin so heavily. “You did not need to follow me. Landry is here and I would not have you at odds with Taverham.”
    “That is inevitable.” Martin scowled. “I told you before that I disapproved of your course of action, but I will see this through to the end, no matter the cost.”
    She gazed up at him fondly, her heart swelling with gratitude at his unwavering friendship over the years even in the face of possible scandal. Martin had become the brother she’d never had, protective and kind, yet disapproving just the same. “What would I do without you?”
    He scowled. “I have everything ready. I can come the moment you want me at your side.”
    Martin’s help was essential to set things right. Afterward, she might just need his aid and friendship once more. There was no telling how Taverham would take her deception, or those whose aid had been forced upon her under threat of revealing all too soon.
    She opened her mouth to thank him again, but a shape appeared from the shadows, striding from the hallway. Miranda snapped her mouth shut.
    Miranda faced Lord Daventry with a heavy heart. So much for making a clean escape into the dark night.
    “Disappearing so soon?” Daventry said cheerfully.
    In his day, they said Daventry had more than indulged in his share of fast escapes from a lover or two’s bedchamber. Surely he’d be sympathetic.
    “Have you forgotten how to let a lady make a discreet escape?”
    Daventry grinned. “You’ve been discreet enough. Where are you bound?”
    “Home.”
    “And where is that now?” He cast a curious glance at Martin. His brow furrowed. “I