Scandal of the Year Read Online Free PDF Page A

She didn’t try to defend herself. She said nothing, and her silence only fueled his anger.
    “I have to admire your talent for strategy,” he went on. “Yardley had overlooked your previous lovers, but how could he overlook it when he found you actually in bed with another man? And then, just to be doubly sure, you gave the whole sordid story to the gutter press, causing a scandal so blatant Yardley had no choice but to set you aside. You played me, and you played him, moving us around like pieces on a chessboard. You, madam, are a female Iago!”
    Hurt shimmered across her face, and his shame deepened. He looked away. “I’m sorry,” he apologized tightly, and worked to force his emotions back into governable order before he looked at her again. “That was uncalled for.”
    “No, it wasn’t.” She lifted her cigarette, then changed her mind and crushed it out on the step below the one where she sat. “Why apologize for telling the truth? I did and I am all of which you accused me.”
    “Why did you do it? I can appreciate that your marriage was unhappy, but breaking it caused pain and humiliation not only to you and me, but also to two innocent people. Doesn’t that bother you? Don’t you care?”
    She jerked, her chin lifting with the same defiance he’d seen her display that day in the divorce court. “My husband was a bastard,” she said, her pale violet eyes glittering like gray steel in the dim light, and her voice was so hard and cold it chilled him. “I loathed that man to the very core, and I cannot work up even a tiny pang of conscience over any pain or humiliation he suffered. I’m sorry about Lady Rosalind, though I know her well enough to know she’s probably not worth my regret, or yours, either. And she seems to have recovered nicely from the experience, for she’s engaged again, I hear. So, no, to answer your question, I don’t care. I would do it all over again.”
    He stared at her, shaking his head in disbelief at her icy disdain and lack of remorse. “What did your husband do to make you hate him so?”
    “What did he do?” she echoed, and with mercurial suddenness, her face changed. The cold glint in her eyes vanished as if it had never been, and her disdain gave way to amusement. “Fucked the chambermaids, of course,” she said lightly, laughing as if it was all a joke. “Don’t they all?”
    “Many do,” he was forced to agree, concluding that Yardley was one of them, but he didn’t see what was amusing about it. “But not all.”
    “Well, you won’t,” she said, and waved her hand toward the ballroom. “Go. Stop wasting your time with me. Go find your duchess.”
    He hesitated, feeling as if there was more to be said, but he decided they’d both said quite enough already. He turned away.
    “But promise me something,” she said as he started past her up the steps.
    He stopped, but he did not look at her. “What’s that?”
    “Why anyone would want to marry at all baffles me, I confess, and my advice would be not to bother. But if you must marry—and I can see you are quite determined to do so—promise me you’ll marry for love and no other reason, someone worthy of you who would make you happy. Believe it or not, I want you to be happy, for I do like you, you know. I always have.”
    He was inclined to doubt that, and her desire for his happiness seemed a bit late in the day to be genuine, but he didn’t argue the point. “I am sure that if I marry a woman whose background and interests match my own, and if we share fondness and affection, genuine love will surely follow.”
    “Either that,” she said dryly, “or you’ll bore each other to death. I wouldn’t call that love.”
    “Your view of love and mine are obviously different, Lady Yardley. Good night.”
    Once again he moved to leave, but to his astonishment, she reached out and actually put a hand on his leg to stop him. He froze and closed his eyes, arousal stirring inside him at her touch.