Read Online A Most Improper Rumor by Emma Wildes - Free Book Online Page A

Had the room not gone so silent, he would have thought it was for the sheer impact of her arrival—he was certainly tongue-tied—but then someone standing next to him murmured, “Ah, I see we get to spend the evening with the Dark Angel. I hope I am not sitting next to her during the soup course.”
    Dark Angel. He recognized the nickname, but only vaguely, because gossip bored him. He liked to imagine buildings standing tall or design ornate gardens, not listen to the ridiculous machinations of the idle and wealthy.
    But then again, he also had never believed it was possible to look at another human being and feel the sleight of hand fate might deal out.
    He fell in love. Before he’d even spoken to her. Before she’d glanced up as he handed her a glass of champagne and smiled at him with only a shy, almost cynical curve of her lips. Before he introduced himself because no one else seemed inclined to do the honors. It was not how it was politely done, but then again, he’d never cared for convention all that much and it meant no one else was part of the first moment.
    Perfect. He had her all to himself.
    And that was what he wished for the rest of his life.
    Christopher leveled a look at Lord Heathton. “You seem remarkably informed about my personal affairs. I can’t think why it might occupy your interest.” He glanced at the clock. “Especially at this hour of the day.”
    “Lady DeBrooke came to see me.”
    Angelina was in town? He’d thought she was gone to the country again. Too sharply, he asked, “When?”
    “A few days ago. Do not worry; she didn’t tell me who you were. That I discovered for myself. I thought that perhaps—”
    “I don’t care whether she told you,” Christopher informed him tersely. “She can scream it from the rooftops. She is the one who insists on all the secrecy.”
    “Yes, I gathered that,” Heathton replied, his hazel eyes veiled. “And she told me why. She’s trying to protect you. At first I thought it was possible that you orchestrated it all; the deaths of her husbands, her banishment from society in general, but the more I looked into it, the less I thought it likely. There has been mischief afoot, but you haven’t caused it.”
    Of course not. The very thought astonished him and he was not without imagination. The hotspur retort was heartfelt as he said heatedly, “We only met—”
    “I know. I must say I am suspicious by nature, so I needed to consider you.”
    They looked at each other and Christopher had to concede that if Angelina’s best interests were involved, he could not take umbrage. “Point taken.”
    “Think about it. A secret romance is not unheard of, especially when the young lady is so much in the public eye and so closely guarded by an ambitious father. Were you a frustrated suitor six years ago when she became affianced to her first husband, you would have been very young, and at the time, you had not made a name for yourself nor were you anything but the second son of a baron. Her father would never have considered you.”
    That was true enough. Christopher had no idea what to say.
    Conversationally, Heathton went on as if discussing the pleasant weather of the past week. “So she marries another man and he dies and she is free. How convenient, but yet again, she marries someone else, influenced by her father’s conviction she is still a desirable commodity on the marriage mart. Strangely enough, that husband also dies.”
    “I would never harm her by putting her through the hell she has endured, not even so I could finally have her.” He’d never known the carefree, flirtatious beauty that had captured the
ton
’s rapt attention. Angelina was guarded and cautious, and wounded . . . damn all, and if he knew who was responsible, he would personally put a bullet through his black heart.
    “I believe that also now,” Heathton said in his cool voice.
    “Thank you.” Still, the implied insult rankled.
    “That’s why I came