Redemption of the Duke Read Online Free PDF Page A

do
     is one little piece of good.” He thought again of Miss Cooper, and knew that Sophia
     would understand his focus, his need to make amends for all he’d cost this one lonely
     woman.
    “Lord Shenstone left his card for you, Adam,” Marian called as if she’d just remembered.
     “You and he used to make quite the fools of yourself. He says you have avoided his
     invitations. But we all know it’s only a matter of time before you enjoy the pleasures
     of London again,” she added lightly, perhaps slyly.
    Adam thought of Shenstone, the scrapes they’d gotten into, the women they’d corrupted,
     the gaming hells where all of it had taken place. He didn’t want to go back to those
     places, but in some ways those were the innocent, exciting times of his life. Now
     he dutifully escorted his aunt and mother to balls and musicales, where even touching
     a woman’s bare hand was practically a proposal of marriage. Once he’d been ignored
     as a younger son; now he was the focus of the marriage-minded mamas and their eager
     daughters, even as others whispered behind his back. It almost made him long for the
     old days of excitement and temptation.
    But he wasn’t going to be that man again. The army had taught him honor—or at least
     he thought it had, until his terrible mistake. But he didn’t just have Society to
     focus on. He’d taken his place in the House of Lords, and soon he’d convince them
     all that he had knowledge of the world, that his experiences would be useful. He’d
     find something meaningful to do with his life, to fill the void of something . . .
     missing.
    “How concerned you are about others, Marian,” Aunt Theodosia said, not looking up
     from the letter she wrote in her slow, laborious hand. “Do you have so little to focus
     on that you can call your own? Perhaps your daughter would like more of your time.”
    “You know she’s in the schoolroom yet,” Marian said. “She and I walk the park when
     her governess has her afternoon off. We have lovely discussions about her future.”
    “Or rigid outlines of rules,” Sophia murmured for Adam’s ears alone.
    And that made Adam melancholy. He didn’t want his niece raised to emulate her mother,
     who was fixated on her own life and still full of self-pity. She was out of mourning,
     yes, but she was looking backward, and that couldn’t be good for her daughter.
    Then with a sigh, Sophia rested her head against his shoulder. “I hear others talking
     about you.”
    “Still eavesdropping?” he teased.
    “How can it be eavesdropping when they’re speaking in normal tones? But I am not the
     only one who noticed the change in my big brother when he returned home from India.
     They keep asking when the real Adam will return.”
    “Never,” he said simply.
    “I don’t know about that. I’m not sure you’ve quite found the real Adam.”
    He frowned and would have questioned her, but the first callers were introduced by
     the butler, and he had to don the face of the duke. His mother brought him forward,
     full of pride and delight, as if he could do no wrong.
    She didn’t want to hear the wrong he’d done—had never wanted to hear it, even in the
     old days. Then, she’d called him high spirited. What would she have said about his
     thoughtless confidence in India, where men had died because he was convinced he was
     right?

Chapter 3

    T wo days later, Adam was strolling Bond Street, waiting for his sister to emerge from
     the dressmaker’s shop, when he saw the familiar bonnet of Miss Faith Cooper. He found
     his boredom gone, his mind alert for how he could approach her. He watched her enter
     a bookshop, and while he knew she didn’t wish to be accosted by him again, he was
     convinced she was wrong to decline his help. It was up to him to change her mind.
    She emerged onto the street again at the side of a delicate young lady, who immediately
     loaded a package wrapped in string into Miss Cooper’s waiting