One Rogue Too Many Read Online Free PDF Page A

her brother and sister-in-law returned. Lana fussed over Gabby as she led her from the ballroom. Gabby looked back over her shoulder and found Anthony grinning. Her heart floundered in her chest. God help her for hoping he wasn’t teasing her about what he could teach her. Their last lesson in kissing had been amazing.
    As she and Lana walked outside into the cooler night air, Lana touched Gabby’s forehead. “You are flushed, but you don’t appear to have a fever.”
    Yet, Anthony was a sickness, and she had little hope of finding a cure.
    “I will survive.” At least she hoped she would.

Three
    As Gabby climbed into bed that night, memories of her first kiss with Anthony flooded her mind and senses, transporting her back to five months ago…
    She hadn’t known where she was going when she left the gardens. She’d only known she had to get away. Away from her thoughts, her crushing guilt. Away from the knowledge she had stolen her mother’s happiness.
    Papa had been gone a year, but Gabby’s remorse was unrelenting, especially at night. She hadn’t been able to shake it this morning among the autumn flowers, so she was seeking peace in the meadow.
    Sweat dampened her brow as she crested a hill. She paused to loosen her cape and push back the hood. The air had been cool when she’d stepped outside, but the late morning sun at her back and exertion heated her through. Her breath escaped in forceful exhales.
    Ellis Hall stood in the distance, solid and unchanged since she had last sat in this spot and sketched its stone walls and cathedral windows. Anthony had come to attend her father’s graveside service. Even through her haze, she’d noticed the deep lines of his face as he’d fought against tears. She hadn’t known if his sorrow was all for her father or the wife he’d buried the previous summer. Perhaps he’d been mourning for both.
    After the service, he’d returned to London immediately, and she had come to the hillside. Her heart had still ached from his rejection, but she missed him terribly. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to sketch Anthony, so she’d sketched his home, concentrating on drawing precise lines instead of acknowledging the hollowness inside her.
    When she’d crossed paths with Anthony again at her brother’s wedding, she fought the urge to fling herself into his arms. He had made his feelings known when he’d chosen Camilla over her. Gabby couldn’t make a fool of herself again. They had spoken of the beautiful day and their happiness for Gabby’s oldest brother. She had even partnered with him for a dance.
    Then he had done something that upset her tidy life and revived her hope. He had followed her family to the country. Perhaps he’d sensed the loneliness behind her smiles. She liked to think he possessed special insight when it came to her, but likely she was just being fanciful.
    With Luke on his honeymoon and her mother’s companion, Miss Truax, married and gone, Gabby had no one to talk to about her father. Her sisters were too young yet, and she worried that bringing Papa up to her mother might make her too sad. In the beginning, her mother’s crying had penetrated Gabby’s walls at night, ripping her heart to pieces. She had done that to her mother, taken the love of her life and left her shattered.
    Gabby closed her eyes to steel against the onslaught of guilt. She needed to see Anthony. He had become her confidant of late, visiting Foxhaven Manor daily, listening when she needed to pour out her heart, and distracting her when she needed a reprieve. But he hadn’t made an appearance yesterday, and she feared he might not come again today.
    Longing invaded her heart. Anthony had become as essential as breathing.
    An unseen force pulled her down the slope toward Ellis Hall. She didn’t stop to consider the logic or impropriety of calling on a gentleman. Nothing mattered except seeing him.
    Before she reached the bottom of the hill, she was running, heedless