Regency 09 - Redemption Read Online Free PDF Page A

Dare. There is something I wish
to discuss with you.”
    They were soon strolling
amongst thorny roses and twisting vines of ivy. Both were silent
for a moment, just gazing about at the signs of an early
spring.
    “Did you meet Con?” asked
Bri suddenly, turning a blinding smile on her companion.
    Dare stiffened slightly.
“Lord Connor? I did. He was all that was… um,
protective.”
    Bri gave him a sympathetic
look. “That bad, huh?”
    “Something like
that.”
    Bri stopped, causing Dare
to stop right along with her. She turned to look him in the eye. “I
realize Connor means well, Dare, but please don’t take anything he
says personally. He is very protective of his sisters; they have
always been extremely close.”
    “That is a difficult
request, Bri,” he remarked dryly. Her answering look was eloquent
enough to make him laugh. “Why, you ask? Well, he referred to my
past and that is something I can’t help but take personally since
it is something I have that no one else does.”
    “Nonsense,” scoffed Bri.
“Everyone has a past.”
    Dare was very quiet for a
long moment. “Do you know anything about my past, Bri? Has Adam or
Miles told you anything?”
    “No,” she admitted. “But it
can’t possibly be as bad as mine, Dare. No one has a past as bad as
mine.” Her tone was sad with a touch of bitterness and Dare
wondered what she had hidden in her past to cause such an
emotion.
    “Not even Derringer?” he
asked facetiously, having heard by now all about the infamous Lord
Heartless.
    She grinned. “Well, maybe
Derringer,” she conceded.
    Dare sighed suddenly, a
sigh of pure, unadulterated weariness. “I appreciate your attempt
to cheer me, Bri, really I do. But it is unnecessary, as I had
never once considered courting Lady Genevieve. She is a duke’s
daughter and I am merely the son of a country gentleman, owning
nothing more than a scandalous past.”
    Bri gave
him an enigmatic look. “Somehow I don’t believe you are merely anything, Darius
Prestwich.”

    Jenny and Gwen flirted with
their visitors as they had been taught. A shy but inviting look
here, a whispered word or two there, blushes and hand squeezes for
good measure; these were the key ingredients for an experienced
flirt.
    The twins, however, had
been entertaining gentlemen for the past few hours and their rather
limited store of patience was wearing thin indeed. Jenny had
already threatened to pop one young man in the nose if he insisted
on treating her like she was without a brain, much to his
astonishment. He had been so surprised, in fact, that he had
convinced himself he had not heard her correctly and taken his
leave in a state of semi-unreality.
    Gwen, who actually
possessed a bit more patience than her sister, finally got to the
point that she was also ready to do someone serious bodily injury.
That was when Darius and Miles Prestwich were announced. She smiled
at Jenny, whose unpleasant scowl marred the perfection of her
lovely features.
    The new arrivals crossed
the room, bowing and saying all that was expected of them, offering
little clusters of flowers to each of the ladies. Gwen accepted
hers from Miles with a maidenly blush and invited him to sit with
her. Jenny accepted Dare’s offering with a distinct lack of
thankfulness and carelessly gestured at the chair next to
her.
    “Please sit, Mr.
Prestwich,” she said in a tone that indicated how clearly she did
not wish him to sit there.
    “Always willing to oblige a
lady,” murmured Dare, already amused by his rude
reception.
    Jenny snorted. “Indeed? You
shock me, sir.”
    “Not nearly so much as I
could,” Dare pronounced with a certain amount of wicked innuendo.
Her look informed him that his dart was well aimed.
    “How is your day
progressing, Lady Genevieve?” he asked politely.
    “Oh, you know, as usual,”
she replied with a ludicrous expression of boredom on her face. “I
flirt, I flatter, I charm, I choke.”
    Dare laughed, drawing the
attention of