Keepsake (The Distinguished Rogues Book 5) Read Free Page A

shook off Lord Applebee’s grip. “This is my home and I want to know everything that happens here.”
    She cut across the lawn, aware of their whispered pleas to wait. To stop. To not approach the rose garden. Their steps were soft behind her and when she paused, they did too.
    At this distance she could not see the pair clearly, but she could hear their words… and their gasps and moans of ecstasy.
    She would recognize her husband’s deep, rumbling voice anywhere.
    A few more steps and she could see him better, clutching the breast of a woman, the pair of them deep in the throes of a passionate tryst.
    She forced air into her lungs as he chuckled softly and urged the woman to go with him.
    “I don’t believe it,” Lord Louth whispered from where he’d paused at her side. “That bastard.”
    As Louth made to move toward the pair, Lord Watts restrained him. “It’s none of your business, lad.”
    She reached for Louth too, but only to keep him from blocking her view.
    The woman stood, and it was Emily. Miranda stifled a gasp as Emily curled her arms around Taverham’s broad shoulders. They kissed urgently and then Taverham swept her up into his arms and carried her away into the darkness.
    “Well,” Miranda’s father said as he studied Miranda in disappointment. “He’s taken a mistress a bit faster than I was led to believe he would, but there you have it. Can’t help where a man’s passion leads him if he doesn’t find it with his wife.”
    He turned away and left Miranda standing in shock among near strangers. Her father had expected this betrayal?
    Miranda certainly had not. She brushed away the tears that slipped over her cheeks, hoping for one last glimpse that proved her husband had not just run off with Emily on their wedding night.
    The hope that had filled her since Taverham had proposed began to burn, the trust and love she’d felt for him curling into ash within her heart.
    They were only just husband and wife!
    How dare he make such a fool of her.
    Lord Applebee moved to stand before her. “Surely you suspected?”
    Miranda shook her head, darting a glance at those standing around her. She had only been married for her money, and the heir she would carry, and everyone knew it. She covered her face, too humiliated to let anyone see how deep his betrayal went, hiding the depth of her hurt.
    What of the babe she carried? Taverham would never listen to her opinions on how children would be raised when he clearly cared so little for her.
    “Ah,” Watts said as he patted her shoulder awkwardly. “We should have prepared you better. He’s never going to give her up, I’m afraid. Couldn’t marry her in the first place because she’d not the funds to repair Twilit Hill, and now he has won you…”
    Miranda glanced swiftly at Lord Louth and saw her own astonishment reflected in his face. He hadn’t known either. At least here was one man who had never deceived her.
    When their eyes met, his expression was one of fury on her behalf. “I’ll call him out.”
    “You’ll do no such thing.” Miranda caught his clenched fist. She couldn’t allow him to risk his life or ruin his standing in society just for her. She wasn’t worth it. “You do not have the right to stand up for me, and I won’t risk seeing you hurt.”
    The young man glanced away, and she winced as his jaw firmed into a belligerent line. Maybe Louth had developed feelings for her, but Miranda did not care for him that way. She’d loved Taverham and only him until this moment, and she’d been utterly wrong that she’d had a hope of winning his love in return.
    She grew aware of a sharp pain in her chest and she backed away from Taverham’s guardians and Lord Louth.
    She had to get away. Miranda might have been beguiled into ruin, into a marriage she couldn’t escape, but she would not expose her innocent child to such a father. She wouldn’t stay at Twilit Hill.
    Applebee watched her with a keen eye. “Now, Miranda.