Midnight Mistress Read Online Free PDF Page A

half. If I see him again I shall give him a piece of my mind. No
English
servant would have taken such liberties.”
    “I am hardly ruined,” Meg replied dryly. “The man did me a kindness. Honestly, sometimes I think you are growing as stuffy as old Mrs. Jolly.”
    Was she?
The commodore’s bedridden mother had once been a high stickler of the first stare. Iron was less rigid than her opinions on class and social custom. Juliana had originally scoffed at her absurdly proper notions of how a lady did and did not behave, but she had to own that it was largely Mrs. Jolly’s tutelage that had made her the darling of the
haute ton
. By following the older woman’s instructions, Juliana had gained a place in the politest of polite circles, a position ofprominence that had made her father proud and would no doubt secure her a satisfactory alliance. But in her heart, Juliana knew that her prominence was a sham. No matter how hard she tried to become the poised and elegant creature whom so many worshiped and admired, there was a secret part of her that longed to strip off her expensive silks and run barefoot on a stretch of sun-washed beach. Sometimes she felt as if two entirely different people lived inside her, each pulling in an opposite direction. Sometimes she wondered if she would ever find a place where she truly belonged.
    Meg gasped. “Look, there he is!”
    Two men had stepped out from behind the curtain—the portly earl of Morrow and a taller, younger man. He wore a dark coat and a plain white shirt bereft of the lace and jewels that normally accented a gentleman’s clothing. Yet he seemed more suited to the role of command than any at the privileged gathering. He stood with his feet apart and his hands clasped behind him, his lean, powerful form as out of place in this fashionable assembly as a fox in a henhouse. No wig adorned his ragged, sun-bleached hair, and no powder disguised the long scar that scored his cheek. He made no attempt to hide what he was, no attempt to apologize for his ruthless appearance. He surveyed the crowd with the disdain of a king for his lesser vassals, and his pale blue eyes were as cold and pitiless as the northern sea.
    Meg gave Juliana a nudge. “No eye patch. And there is not a peg leg in sight. I daresay he is one of the handsomest gentlemen I have ever seen. It appears you were quite wrong about his looks, my dear.”
    Juliana didn’t answer. She could hardly breathe. She had been wrong about the Archangel’s appearance, far more wrong than even Meg imagined. There was no mistaking the tall form, the bright hair, and the deep-set eyes that had once looked into hers with so much love. There was no mistaking the face that had turned her dreams to nightmares.
    Connor Reed.

“It cannot be. God in heaven, it cannot be.”
    Meg craned her neck to get a better view and glanced at Juliana in annoyance. “Stop whispering. I am trying to hear Morrow. I believe the earl just said that his name was—”
    “Reed,” Juliana supplied dully. “Connor Reed.”
    “Do you know him?”
    “I did. When I was younger. He—” Juliana bit her lip, barely able to stifle the unexpected sob that rose in her throat. She had put Connor and his betrayal behind her long ago. Until that moment she hadn’t known whether he was alive or dead, and she’d been certain that she didn’t care either way. Connor Reed was no longer a part of her life.
    So why did she feel as if someone had fired a rifle ball straight through her heart?
    Panicked, she grabbed Meg’s arm and started to pull her away from the crowd to the front vestibule. “We must leave. At once.”
    But Meg planted her slippered feet on the floor. “Don’t be silly. The only reason we came to this affair was to meet the Archangel, and now that we know he is your friend—”
    “He is
not
my friend. Years ago he worked for my family, until he proved to be the most deceitful, lying jack who ever lived. I have no intention of meeting