A Scandalous Publication Read Free

willful, opinionated, bad-tempered creature who seemed almost totally devoid of drawing-room manners? He tossed down the quill. Damn Charlotte Wyndham for so provoking him that his own drawing-room manners were for once less than perfect.
    Mr. Robards and Mr. Bereson carefully sanded all the papers and gathered them together, Mr. Berenson looked shortsightedly through his spectacles. “You are now the new owner of Kimber Park, Sir Maxim. May I offer you my congratulations?”
    Max looked around the magnificent room, with its gilded plasterwork, shimmering chandeliers, French furniture, and tall, elegant windows. From the ceiling gods and goddesses gazed down from heavenly clouds, as if intent upon all that passed in the room below. It was a beautiful room, a brilliant jewel set in a perfect crown, and he had coveted it all for a very long time. There wasn’t a house in England that, in his opinion, could compare with this. He was tired of his exclusive gentleman’s apartment at the house in Piccadilly known as Albany, and his estates in north Wales were too remote to be enjoyed at a moment’s notice. Kimber Park, so very lovely and so conveniently close to London, was the ideal solution. “May you offer me your congratulations, Mr. Berenson? Yes, I rather think that you may.”
    Judith, who with considerable effort had remained silent during Charlotte’s outburst, now rose in a whisper of yellow silk to hurry across to him, slipping her slender arms about him as he sat at the table. “And you have my congratulations too,” she murmured, bending to kiss him.
    He got up quickly, pulling her into his arms and kissing her, ignoring the startled lawyers. But as he drew back, his glance moved thoughtfully toward the door where last he had seen Charlotte. He hadn’t done with that young lady yet, but for the moment at least, she must remain unfinished business.
    Charlotte was watching from the library window a little later as Max’s carriage departed, its team of perfectly matched bays stepping high down the rain-soaked drive. The coachman’s caped coat flapped in the gusts of wind that swept across the open park as he brought the horses up to a spanking pace, maneuvering them deftly around the curve at the foot of the knoll, where the lake wound its way through the wooded valley. The water was the color of lead as the carriage followed the drive along the shore, vanishing from sight for a while among the trees before reappearing on the open, rising land beyond. It climbed the long incline toward the lodge, driving out through the wrought-iron gates and turning west toward Taynton Castle, some two miles farther on. As the gates closed, she breathed out very slowly. It was nearly all over now; in a month’s time she and her mother would be gone and Kimber Park would be part of the past.
    She gazed out at the wet, windswept park she loved so very much. This summer of 1816 had been the worst she had ever known, with endless rain and low, scudding clouds. The house stood on a fine vantage point above the park, and usually it was possible to see right across the ten miles of rolling Surrey countryside to London, but today, as so often recently, it was all shrouded in mist and rain, like an afternoon in January, not July. Even the little white rotunda on the incline beyond the lake looked dismal and uninviting, when normally it was the prettiest of places, quite perfect for picnics on a sunny day….
    Her reflection stared back at her from the rain-washed glass. How pale and drawn recent events had made her. Her eyes seemed so very large and dark-shadowed, and her mouth more wide than ever. Oh, that mouth, it had been one of the banes of her life, robbing her of any real claim to beauty. Her father had fondly called it a generous mouth and had sworn that it gave her a wonderful smile, but she knew that it was simply another bad mark, for the fashion was for rosebud lips, like Judith’s. Charlotte lowered her eyes, pondering