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       Chapter One

      Circa 1816

      ‘Please put down the gun, Papa! This gentleman has not harmed me, but done me a great service.’ Miss Emma Waverley strove to keep her voice lowered. From a corner of an eye she’d noticed their neighbour’s curtain twitch in an upstairs window.

      ‘Done you a service!’ the elderly fellow roared. ‘That’s what he told you, is it!’ He descended another step towards the pavement. By fully stretching out his thin arm, he brought the duelling pistol to within an inch of an elegant waistcoat. ‘These infernal rakes have no shame in the matter.’ He shook the weapon to reinforce his intention to pull the trigger. ‘I can tell he is a villain just by looking at him.’ A pair of rheumy eyes took in the stranger’s slight air of inebriation and dishevelled attire. Even these drawbacks couldn’t disguise the fact he was abominably handsome...and rich. Such expensive tailoring would be cared for by a valet. As for the equipage parked at the kerb, only the wealthiest young bucks took to the road in one of those racy contraptions.

      If the individual under threat feared he might soon expire from a bullet, he gave no sign of it. The Earl of Houndsmere had upon his dark features a wearisome expression.

      ‘Should this business be conducted inside, perhaps?’ he suggested drily and jerked his head to indicate their audience.

      Across the road two kneeling servants had halted their yawning and scrubbing to turn on their steps and gawp at the spectacle of an ancient, garbed in flowing nightgown and tasselled cap, pointing a gun at his daughter’s supposed seducer. Soon the emerging dawn would give way to the glorious spring morning promised by the blush on the horizon. This busy square would begin to throng with people and carriages. How they’d appreciate starting their day viewing this tableau.

      ‘Please, Papa, give me the gun.’ Emma extended a determined hand to take the weapon, but her father stubbornly drew it back towards his chest with a warning growl.

      ‘I’ll not! First I’ll hear his good reason for bringing you back at this hour in the morning. I imagined you to be safe in your bed.’ Mr Waverley gazed fiercely at his daughter. ‘You’re really in trouble now, miss, I hope you realise it.’

      Emma did know that...more than her father yet understood. Worrying as it was, her conscience wouldn’t allow her to shift the blame to hide her culpability. She swept a glance at her saviour from under her lashes, wincing beneath the sardonic glitter in his blue-black eyes. But there was no recrimination. He didn’t regret having stopped to help her. They’d barely spoken to one another, yet she’d wager he wasn’t a man given to questioning his own behaviour. He’d not looked sorry when he’d battered two men for her either.

      With a muttered oath, the younger man sprang up two steps and, gripping the gun muzzle, wrested the weapon out of a set of bony fingers. Its owner looked affronted to have been so easily divested of it.

      The immediate danger past, Emma dashed forward to grip her father’s arm and usher him out of sight of prying eyes.

      Left alone on the pavement, the Earl planted a broad bronzed hand on the rusty railings and examined his torn knuckles. An irate old man shaking an empty duelling pistol at him was a novel experience, although he was no stranger to having a loaded gun pointed at his head by a jealous rival. He was sorely tempted to simply continue on home to find his bed. But with a sigh he took the steps two at a time, keen to get it over with. He entered a dim hallway and closed the door behind him. As all was quiet he stayed where he was, hoping she might have placated her father without his assistance. He wanted to get some sleep, not get drawn into defending his unwise heroics.

      Despite the fact he was suffering the effects of over-indulgence, his breeding had dictated he act properly and accompany the chit indoors to confirm that she was still as innocent as she said she was. How innocent that actually was, was up for debate. The Earl also had his suspicions as to why a genteel young woman would be out alone at such an hour. A black-haired, tawny-eyed beauty, past the first flush of youth, might have a history of slyly seeing her beau. It was possible her father wasn’t as shocked as he was making out at catching her returning to the house at an ungodly hour. But if the wily old cove believed he could act the outraged parent and turn this to his spinster daughter’s advantage he’d find he was much mistaken. The Earl of Houndsmere had been on the receiving end of many an engineered plot to get him to meet a debutante at the altar. All had failed.

      This one looked to have made her come out some time ago. Possibly at around the time his father had died and Lance had resigned his army position to take his birthright. His sister had nagged him into visiting Almack’s balls a couple of times during that Season, hoping he’d find a wife. He didn’t recall seeing his damsel in distress there. And he would have remembered her. He might even have made history by booking a dance instead of spending the evening with like-minded friends, champagne in one hand and Hunter in the other, as they waited for a reasonable time to elapse, allowing them to slip away and seek the company of less decorous ladies. A nostalgic smile tipped up a corner of his mouth as he dwelled on those distant days...

      Emma appeared on the threshold of the parlour to see her reluctant hero looking amused about something. Well, she was glad somebody could smile about it, she thought tetchily. He’d noticed her so she beckoned him, then untied her hat, letting loose an abundance of ebony locks.

      ‘Please join us in here, sir.’ Emma was attempting to apologise for everything with her tone of voice and the expression СКАЧАТЬ