When Marrying a Scoundrel Read Online Free PDF

of it, and shorter, but just as thick. The face that had been pretty was now heart-wrenchingly beautiful, so tanned and chiseled. Mary and Joseph, he even had a smattering of freckles across the bridge of that perfect nose! His tanned cheekbones were sharper, his jaw firmer, but his mouth was exactly as she remembered. Oh, perhaps his lips had a slightly harsher set to them, but they were still full and exquisitely formed—more so than any man should ever be allowed to own.
    It was his eyes that had truly pained her, though. Those eyes that she always remembered as laughing and bright—and sometimes dark with desire when they’d looked at her—had lines fanning out from the corners, and they hadn’t been laughing when she gazed into them tonight. They’d been surprised and angry and…disappointed. He’d looked at her across the stifling confines of her little tent and she’d felt the weight of his disapproval like an anvil on her shoulders.
    Disapproval of her livelihood. Disappointment that she was still reading leaves. What right had he to judge her when he had been the one to walk out and leave her to her own devices?
    Once, they’d been terribly and passionately in love, as only the young could be. He lived in the “big house” on the outskirts of her little village. And he’d seemed equally fascinated by her as she was by him. They met at a village fair, and though his grandfather didn’t often allow him to consort with those beneath him, Jack often found a way to sneak out to see her, and she to him. He’d introduced her to books and helped her better her reading. He taught her about the stars and told her about London and other grand places he’d been. She showed him how to make butter, and how to ride a horse without a saddle. He treated her like a queen and she thought him a prince. They became friends on their way to becoming lovers, but Sadie had never expected him to propose to her. She’d known his world would never accept her, and the romantic notion of it befuddled her mind. If she’d had any sense she would have refused him instead of eloping.
    But they’d had such a lovely life those first two years, despite being relatively poor. It had been easier for her, she supposed, than for Jack. He’d never been poor in his life. He seemed to think she was worth wearing mended socks and faded trousers. That was until Trystan Kane came round with his promises of fortune.
    She folded her hands over her bare belly and closed her eyes, remembering the emptiness that had consumedher in those dark months shortly after Jack had left. Tears leaked down her cheeks and she didn’t bother to brush them away.
    It had been around this time of year when melancholy gripped her in a suffocating embrace. She’d lost something of herself then, a part of him and what they’d had together. Ripped away from her like a toy snatched from a child’s hands. And she hadn’t cared what happened after that. Hadn’t cared at all. Jack wasn’t there.
    And then help had arrived from the least likely source, and she’d returned to Ireland for a brief time to heal and grow strong again. She liked to think she’d helped her benefactor do the same.
    She would have to send him a note in the morning, let him know that Jack was in London. Let him do with that information what he would. Sadie would make this small effort and then she would wipe her hands of it. It was obvious Jack wanted nothing to do with her—and of course she wanted nothing to do with him. Each of them had a new identity and a new life. And if adultery didn’t render their vows invalid, the fact that all record of it had been destroyed certainly did. There was no reason for either of them to fear the other. No reason for them to have any interaction whatsoever.
    The resolution strengthened her, and she told herself that this wasn’t disappointment but acceptance. She had seen Jack again and she hadn’t fallen apart. She was stronger than she ever could