Read Online Rogue Countess by Amy Sandas - Free Book Online

same night.”
    Jude’s scowl deepened as he watched the beautifully gowned woman participating in a lively debate with a group of older gentlemen. They were too far away for him to overhear the topic under discussion. Considering the men involved, it likely had something to do with horses and racing.
    Her business, he remembered with a sneer of irritation. When he had stopped at her estate in Suffolk before tracking her down in Newmarket, he had not missed the well-filled stables behind the main house. Were those old men her generous patrons? Did she trade her personal favors for their financial contributions?
    “What the hell have you got against the woman?” Rutherford asked with a curious little smile. “By the look on your face, one would think you have a problem with her personally. As I said, she doesn’t invade our refuge too often—” he shrugged, “—and to tell the truth, when she does, the conversation does tend to be more interesting.”
    Jude looked at his friend with narrowed eyes as a terrible suspicion formed in his mind. “Just how well do you know her?”
    Rutherford arched his aristocratic eyebrows. “Not as well as you are thinking, old chap. Not that I didn’t try. But it was years ago.” He took a sip of the warmed brandy and glanced across the room at the lady in question. “To be honest,” he continued in a lowered voice, “she set me down so thoroughly and bluntly, I didn’t even consider pursuing the matter further.” His lips curled with sexual interest and he added, “Maybe it’s time I approach her with a better offer.”
    “Like hell you will,” Jude growled.
    Rutherford looked back at him with lifted brows. “What’s gotten into you, Sinclair?”
    “Have you no idea who that woman is?” Jude asked.
    Rutherford glanced back across the room as he answered. “Of course. She is Mrs. Anna Locke. No one knows who her husband was since he apparently abandoned the woman, though I can’t imagine why. She showed up in the racing circles several years ago and has been around ever since. Wait a minute.” He looked back at Jude with a spark of some long-forgotten memory swimming up through a mind clouded by years of fine alcohol and disinterest in anything that did not involve him personally. “Weren’t you courting a Miss Locke before you left for the continent?” He tapped his fingers against his forehead. “I cannot recall the particulars, but there was something scandalous, I am certain.”
    Jude’s scowl grew deeper. Was it really possible that his friend could have no memory of the marriage that had driven him from England in the first place? He supposed he should be grateful for the ton’s short memory when it came to scandal. Likely his mother had taken swift action to curb the spread of vicious gossip. But in this case, he was just annoyed at having to explain his ugly history, especially to a man who had once been his best friend.
    “That woman’s name,” Jude said as he gestured with the cigar clamped tightly between his fingers, “is not Mrs. Locke. She is Anna Sinclair, the Countess of Blackbourne.”
    The look of confusion on Rutherford’s face would have been laughable if the subject wasn’t so pathetic. “But that would make her your—”
    “Wife,” Jude finished for him.
    “Bloody hell!” The other man looked at Anna again with widened eyes. “Lovely piece you bagged there, Sinclair. Why in God’s name did you run away from her?”
    “She didn’t look like that eight years ago, I assure you,” Jude answered stiffly. He wasn’t about to go into the more pertinent details of why he had left his wife hours after uttering the blasphemous vows to cherish and protect her. “Maybe you could be a fine chap and fill me in on what you know about my wife.”
    Rutherford shook his head, a stunned look still pasted to his strong aristocratic features. “Not much more than what I’ve said already. She has a thoroughbred farm in Suffolk. Fine horses,