Read Online Beyond Rubies (Daughters of Sin Book 4) by Beverley Oakley - Free Book Online Page B

presented him with her side view, holding up her fan so that her outrage would not be observed by anyone who chanced to glance up from the stalls. Her whole body trembled, and she felt in that moment like bursting into tears. “What if you are overheard telling such lies?”
    “Lies?” He sounded aghast as he plunged forward, whisking up her hand and bringing it to his lips. His look was no longer censorious but tortured. “There you sit, like an exquisite Madonna, carrying my child whom you are now going to parade to all the world and to my hateful uncle as the new heir to his estate if it’s a boy. Do you know how it makes me feel every time I lay eyes upon you,” he choked on a sob, “and to know that you were nearly mine? That you could have been my duchess, making me the happiest, proudest man in the land, squiring you to every grand occasion you wished to attend while we awaited our happy event?”
    “You’re dreaming, Mr. Woking.”
    “Lord Myles, if you please.”
    “You will always be Mr. Woking to me, and what...happened that night did not result in this for your uncle kidnapped me, as you know, and did the very same thing you did to me.” She pushed up her chin, proudly. “Tell me, which of the two of you is the bigger, stronger man?”
    Mr. Woking seemed unable to speak for the surge of apoplexy that rendered him like a gesticulating lobster.
    “ Kidnapped you? That’s not what my eyes saw when I followed the sounds that drew me to the bedroom where my hateful uncle had enticed you, and where the pair of you were—” He broke off on a strangled hiss of rage. “What I beheld did not give the appearance of Miss Araminta Partington being kidnapped .”
    Sulkily, Araminta dropped her fan and fiddled with the tassel of her pelisse. “Your uncle blackmailed me. He needed my testimony to save him from the noose. He needed me to tell the world that I was with him at Vauxhall all night, when really he was having a meeting with two other men whom the Government believes are plotters. Radicals out to bring down Westminster, I understand. He said if I did not pretend to be enjoying his attentions, he would...he would...” She thought wildly for something that might elicit Mr. Woking’s finer feelings, or at least his sympathy.
    “He would what?” Mr. Woking didn’t sound too affected.
    “He would ruin Papa and destroy Hetty’s happiness.” Araminta looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. “You know how tenuous things are between Debenham and Sir Aubrey? I couldn’t let the worst happen to Hetty and Papa. The two people I love more dearly than any others in the world, except for Mama.”
    Mr. Woking was still. Thinking. “He really threatened you?”
    “Of course he threatened me,” Araminta snapped, her anger getting the better of the affected tragedy she’d striven so hard to achieve. “Do you think I wanted to marry your uncle when I was already betrothed to you, and knowing that you had such prospects? You know me sufficiently, I’d wager, Mr. Woking, to realize that I would have far preferred to have married you than Debenham had he not all but held a knife at my throat, ripped off my clothes, and told me to smile for the crowd that he intended to see witness his evil plan to have me ruined and thereby force me to marry him.” She dropped her fan and put her hands to her face, and the tears in her voice were real. “I am so unhappy, but what can I do?” She heaved in a breath and took her hands away. “What could I have done? You didn’t save me,” she added accusingly. “You believed I was as bad as everyone painted me.”
    When Mr. Woking took a step forward, she waved her hand dismissively. “Leave me, Lord Myles.” Her voice was quietly dignified now. “Whatever you might want to say, it’s too late. And I hear footsteps. I do not want Debenham to catch us together when he’s already so wildly jealous of you.”
    When she turned, there was no sign of Mr. Woking, but to her