Silk and Scandal Read Online Free PDF Page A

delight. “Go after her, man, but this time I will win. Such a beauty,” he sighed with dramatic flair. “Our nursery will be filled with spirited children.”
    “We shall see.” Nicholas hardly believed he’d been gulled into this confrontation. It was, admittedly, quite childish of him.
    “Let’s see if the years in the Orient have taught you anything about survival,” his current nemesis demurred. “I’ll have her, Nicholas, I swear. Knowing you’ve set your sights on her will make the victory even more... umm... pleasant.”
    Nicholas merely nodded coolly and looked away. “I accept the wager.”
    * * * * * *
    Eliza listened carefully as she always did. Gossip, as usual, was most informative. Between her efforts and those of her quite helpful maid, she felt she had a fairly accurate link into the affairs of the Ton.
    “I swear, no one has seen Juliana since the wedding in June,” Marianne Hawthorne said. “She was always so happy and gay, never a complaint, but then she married. Suddenly she isn’t happy and gay anymore. I wonder why?” Her blue eyes were wide. “Why?”
    “Maybe she’s caught up in the notion of motherhood,” one man said. “’Tis her duty, you know. She probably is so happy being a wife that she’s concentrated all her efforts to the cause.”
    Wanting to scoff at the idea that a woman was less than complete if unwed, Eliza, instead, held her Tongue and murmured quietly, “What if she is not?”
    Eliza knew she was searching, but she wanted to be sure. It wasn’t the first time she’d heard this kind of talk and always it brought her back to Charlotte and the agonies she had endured. No other woman should have to suffer so.
    Under duress, Eliza had been cast back into Society this season. Mama and Papa refused to listen to her arguments and pitiful pleadings saying only that it was time to return to life. Eliza had eventually succumbed to her parents’ wishes, keeping to her own secret agenda. She hoped to exact retribution for other women who found themselves in a situation such as Charlotte’s.
    Since the Season’s beginning, she’d made many new friends, gossips and young women all. It troubled her to know that since Edward’s comeuppance, she still thirsted for revenge, surely a terrible flaw in her character.
    It had all been ridiculously easy. Everything. The more she learned about abuses, the more need there was for the Raven Rogue. She’d not given the name to herself, and to her way of thinking it was a testament to the bland thinking of the Ton that the name had stuck. It might have been amusing to be called the Black Widow or the Avenging Angel. Of course, no one dared admit the culprit might be female, so the Black Widow was definitely not the sobriquet of choice. The Raven Rogue, no doubt a silly name, had been granted her by an equally silly man who fancied himself clever indeed.
    Thinking back to that night with Edward, she wondered if she’d lay eyes upon the bastard again. He’d survived. Oh yes, as a cripple, but she’d yet to see him since that fateful night. To her everlasting pleasure, the society he’d once bowed to now shunned him. Her family’s good name and the ensuing accusations after Lottie’s death had done him in.
    Grace Bentley tugged at her elbow, and Eliza looked down at the sprite, very aware of the noise around her. She liked Grace, a vivacious young woman with blonde frizzled hair and a slight overbite but she had a smile that was sunshine bright and drew people to her. Eliza liked her tremendously.
    “Lady Eliza, I wish to introduce my brother, Lord Bentley, and his friend, Duke Weston.”
    Distracted, she smiled at the younger woman before lifting her gaze to the gentlemen. Instantly, her caught in her throat as she got her first up close look at the dark man she’d noticed  earlier Tonight. Her heartbeat sped. It was odd in the extreme to have such a physical reaction to a man. Men made her wary and left her feeling