The Christmas Secret Read Free

generating some income for Ashwood to build his bigger and better mill upstream. Lily had lost three footmen to Tiber Park, as well as a groom.
    But Lily had not seen him again until today, at the hearing regarding the one hundred acres. And when the judge had handed her property to him, and the hearing had ended, Lily scarcely had been able to contain her loathing of him a moment longer. She’d been furious with the way in which she’d been dismissed, and before Mr. Fish had been able to stop her, she’d marched after Tobin, had stepped in front of him before he’d been able to walk out the door.
    Tobin had nodded politely and had tried to step around her, but Lily would not have it. “Are you content?” she’d demanded. “Do you now have what you want?”
    Tobin had looked at her then. “I don’t know,” he’d said, a hint of a smile on his lips. “Do you have something to offer me?”
    Lily’s face had burned. “You know very well what I mean.”
    “I couldn’t possibly know what you mean,” he’d said easily, and his gaze had drifted to her mouth in an alarmingly prurient way. “But in answer to your question, I rather doubt I shall ever have all that I want.” He’d lifted his gaze to hers again, a gaze burning with animosity, and tipped his hat. “Good day.” He’d brushed past her, striding out the door.
    Lily had expected as much from him. But she’d seen something she had not expected. In a flash of a moment, a single moment, she’d seen a hint of something oddly vulnerable in Tobin’s expression. She’d seen the edge of a wound.
    Not that it changed her opinion of him, not in the least. He was a ruthless, angry man, and he was pushing her into a corner with alarming ease. She reviled him, despised him, and she was determined to get out of the corner he’d put her in before she lost Ashwood completely.
    She would not remove herself from the corner today, however, for little Lucy Taft had music lessons to attend, and there was the matter of the mess she’d made with the wallpaper.

The Seduction
of Lady X
     

The hallway at Everdon Court that led to the Marquis of Carey’s private study was as long and as daunting as the choir aisle at Westminster Abbey, and with every step, Miranda sniffed a little louder and tried to suppress her gasping sobs a little harder.
    To her older sister Olivia—the Marchioness of Carey—it felt as if the two of them had slowly been proceeding toward the gallows, one leaden step at a time. “Buck up, Miranda,” Olivia murmured, pulling her younger sister closer into her side. “There is nothing to be done for it. You must face up to what you’ve done.”
    “Yes, I know I must,” Miranda said weakly. “But I do not understand why you cannot tell him for me.”
    Olivia sighed at that—Miranda knew very well why. Olivia had waited as long as she might before Miranda’s thickening waistline would draw attention, but she could wait no longer. If Olivia’s husband discovered her unmarried sister’s condition before Olivia told him, she and Miranda would both suffer for it. On that rain-soaked afternoon, Olivia thought it entirely possible that she dreaded telling his lordship even more than Miranda did.
    After what seemed a lifetime, they reached the polished oak doors to the study. As Olivia lifted her hand to rap, Miranda sagged against her. “I am so weary,” she uttered. “I do not feel well.”
    “Stand up,” Olivia softly commanded her, then jostled her a bit and rapped on the door.
    One of the twin paneled doors swung open immediately, and behind it, a footman bowed. “Is my lord husband within, Charles?” Olivia asked.
    “Come, Olivia.”
    It was the rumble of her husband’s voice. Olivia looked at Miranda and tried to smile, then entered, half pulling, half leading her sister with her. But as she crossed the threshold, she discovered her husband was not alone. Mr. Tolly, the Carey family’s steward, was present as well.
    Mr. Tolly