Maverick Heart Read Online Free PDF

Seeing Miles again, finding him hale and hearty, arrogant and unforgiving—oh, that was much, much worse.
    He had abandoned her to Chester and gone on with his life. It was a hard truth to accept. Easier, of course, when it was staring her in the face. Maybe now she would be able to let go of the past. Maybe now she would be able to forget Miles Broderick, Viscount Linden, second son of the Earl of Vare, and go on with her life, without the regret, without the painful memories that had plagued her.
    She wanted to ask, needed to ask, why he had stayed away from England for so long. But she couldn’t. Because he was liable to start asking questions of his own. Her secret had been too deeply buried for too long to be exhumed now.
    Pique and pride had kept her from telling Miles the truth about Chester the one time, years ago, when the opportunity had presented itself. Now she was afraid of what he would do if he knew.
    “It’s not over,” he said in a voice too soft to be heard except by her.
    “What?”
    “Between us,” he said.
    She met his eyes and felt a shiver roll through her. “What do you want from me, Miles?” she asked in a voice equally soft, equally urgent.
    “Revenge, Verity. I want revenge.”

2

    “Hang on, Rand! Oh, please, hang on!” Freddy pulled Rand’s horse after her as she spurred her mount to greater speed. But she was losing the race for freedom. The savages were gaining and would soon capture them—if they were lucky enough to be captured rather than killed outright. Except, when she remembered the sorry state of Rufus’s head, she thought perhaps she would rather be dead when the Indians performed their surgery. If she weren’t so close to tears, she would be laughing, the whole situation was so ridiculous. She had only come to this godforsaken land on a dare. A dare!
    Of course she liked Randal Talbot a great deal. Of all her suitors, the young Earl of Rushland was the one most willing to join in some outrageous escapade she forwarded. And he was handsome,with aristocratic features, a lean body that showed to advantage in the latest fashions, unruly black hair, and devilish gray eyes.
    But he hadn’t any money, not a jot. Which made him totally unsuitable in her parents’ eyes. Naturally, that unsuitability made him all the more attractive to her. If her mother hadn’t objected so strenuously to Lord Talbot, maybe she would not have felt the need to rebel in the way she had. “I absolutely forbid it!” her mother, the Duchess of Worth, had said when Freddy casually mentioned Lord Talbot’s marriage proposal over breakfast one morning.
    She hadn’t intended to say yes to Rushland, she was just making polite conversation. After all, he was only twenty-one, and besides, when he kissed her—which she had let him do twice—it was very pleasant, but that was all. Her married friend, Isobel, Lady Osborne, had assured her that she would know the right man when she found him, because when she kissed him, he would make her toes curl.
    Lord Talbot was not the right man.
    But her mother’s response had set up her hackles, and she had risen to Rushland’s defense. “Is it because he didn’t come to you and Father first?” she demanded. “That’s old-fashioned, Mother. Young men seek permission from a lady for her hand these days. I’m sure Rushland will be around to visit Father soon.”
    “The duke will not see him,” her mother snapped.
    “Father wouldn’t dare deny him!”
    “Wouldn’t deny whom?” her father asked as he took his place at the head of the breakfast table.
    She waited for the footman, Frith, to pour her father’s coffee, and for him to take the first sip before she answered. The duke was a bear before he had his first drink of coffee in the morning. “Wouldn’t deny Randal Talbot an audience. You see, Father, Lord Talbot has proposed.”
    “Proposed what?”
    “Marriage, Father,” she replied, barely keeping the exasperation from her voice. Really,