Regency 03 - Deception Read Online Free PDF Page A

raised brows of her new
companions.
    “ Our infamy, I mean, fame precedes
us,” Sir Adam remarked with a smirk. “What gossipmonger has been
filling your head with tales of our exploits?”
    “ I assure you, it was no such
thing, Sir Adam,” Aurora replied in all sincerity.
    Adam inhaled. “Egad, she does know me. What else
does she know, think you?” he directed at the group in general.
    Verena laughed and rapped the baronet over the
knuckles with her fan. “Leave her be, Adam. I’ll not have you
teasing poor Rory just so you can see her blushes.”
    But Aurora wasn’t blushing. She studied the
baronet’s wife with interest. It appeared that the lady was used to
her husband’s flirting and all her admonishments were merely show.
Intriguing.
    How different from Verena and her husband. Lord
Connor teased but didn’t flirt and he was clearly devoted to his
wife. Aurora was glad. She knew there was something in Verena’s
past that haunted her and it was obvious that her husband had
helped to put it behind her.
    The countess held out her hand. “I am Lady
Prestwich. But I insist you call me Bri or Brianna. We are going to
be friends, you see.”
    Aurora took the hand offered her and shook it,
shocked at the level of informality the countess demanded. “I do
hope so, my la—” she blushed. “I mean, Bri. I am Aurora, or Rory,
if you prefer. This is Miss Ellison, my friend and companion. She
keeps me out of trouble,” she explained with a charming grin that
revealed a dimple in her left cheek.
    “ We all need someone to do that,”
Lord Connor inserted with a playful look directed at his wife.
“That is why I’m married.”
    “ Aurora?” Bri said suddenly. She
didn’t wait for an answer. She looked at Verena. “Isn’t that little
Julie’s second name, my dear?” she asked.
    “ Oh, yes.”
    Aurora’s glanced from one woman to the other. “Who
is Julie?”
    “ Juliana is Con and Verena’s
daughter,” Sir Adam informed her.
    Aurora looked at her friend again. “Truly?” she
whispered.
    Verena nodded silently as tears pooled in her violet
eyes. Aurora felt answering tears form in her own eyes. “You
remembered.”
    The looks of surprise, shock, and curiosity were
genuine this time. A tear slipped down Verena’s cheek; one slipped
down Aurora’s.
    “ I think we need champagne,” Adam
commented quietly to Northwicke. They retreated from the emotional
females to seek out the refreshment room.
    “ We are drawing a crowd,” Bri
murmured to Miss Ellison. The older woman nodded. “Blast!” the
countess exclaimed suddenly. Miss Ellison looked at her in shock.
Bri apologized for her language. “My cousin, Greville,
approaches.”
    Miss Ellison understood immediately. She grasped
Aurora’s arm, the countess grasped Lady Connor’s, and the pair
hurried the weeping females out of the salon and into a blessedly
deserted antechamber where they could have some privacy.
    ~~~~~~
    Levi scowled so fiercely that the little débutante closest to him shrieked in fright and buried her
head in her mother’s ample bosom.
    Blast. He’d lost them. He wandered up and down the
corridor, around corners, through vast salons, and still found nary
a sign of the ladies. Just where the devil did they go?
    He heard a charming laugh somewhere to his left. He
turned toward the room and put his hand on the handle. Then he
heard a masculine laugh and an answering giggle. He backed away.
That was most definitely not them.
    He finally gave up and returned to the ballroom. And
there she was, standing on the other side of the room and laughing
at something Lord Delwyn Deverell said, blast him. Levi fought the
urge to march across the room and call Deverell out. It would make
him a laughingstock to do something so tottyheaded over a girl he
had only just met and with whom he had exchanged no more than three
or four sentences, if that.
    So he growled instead, taking no notice of the
charming widow at his side who suddenly backed