Page 29 of A Scandalous Vow

Luke chuckled. “Iknowyou’re a black-hearted villain. But crushing someone like Bramley hardly sounds like something you’d waste yourtimeon.”

And he was right about that, of course. Bramley was hardly the sort of fellowanyonewould waste their time on, not even Lady Bramley, it turned out. Spineless. Insipid. Without note, really. “Poor dolt discovered his wife was less than virtuous and threw himself in the Thames,” Marc told him. “But since he’d lost a tidy sum to me a few nights before at Hazard…” He sighed. “Well, the countess was more than happy to letthattale be the one spunthroughTown.”

“Huh. That issurprising.”

Marc cast his friend a sidelong glance. “Itis?”

“ChristinaBramley, the one with the mustache, the limp, and the vacant look in her eyes?” Luke smirked. “Shefound someone other than Bramley to spread her legs? Must’ve been rather dark. Was a vat of whisky involved? Brandy perhaps? Blackmail! Was itblackmail?”

“You can see why casting me as the villain was a much easier sell,” Marc couldn’t help butlaugh.

“Oh, indeed,” Luke agreed. “I’m even questioning my earlier position on the matter,” heteased.

They neared that jackass Peasemore and a throng of young girls, all hanging on his every word as though he was the Messiah returned to Earth. “If you want someone to worry about,” Marc muttered, “hehas been an all too common visitor at Staveley House the last sennightorso.”

“There’s nothing to worry about with him,” Luke assured him as they rounded a corner. “He needs a bride. He thinks Caroline can help himgetone.”

That was the most ridiculous thing Marc had ever heard. He halted in his step and glanced back briefly at Peasemore only to find the man eyeing him as well. “Bollocks,” Marc said under his breath. But itwascomplete and utter bollocks, there wasn’t another word for it. Then he shook his head as he started walking once more. “Thatman needs help keeping women away from him, not helpfindingone.”

Luke glanced over his shoulder at the young earl, surrounded by fawning ladies, and the light dawned in his eyes. “That doesn’t make any sense,doesit?”

“I think it’s entirely more likely that he’s chasing Caroline’s skirts and using that asaruse.”

Luke snorted. “Hedidjust end things with LouisaRidgemont.”

His friend had only just returned to Town. “How could you possibly know that?” Had his former paramour cried on his shoulder or something ofthelike?

“Juliet is up to date on all Towngossip.”

That did make more sense than Lady Ridgemont seeking out Luke’scompany.

“Always making sure Felicity’s name isn’t being drug through the mud,” Luke added as though he needed to explain his wife’s reading habits. “And, actually, there was a little tidbit this morning about a certain malevolent marquess who escorted a certain widowed viscountess and her daughters to Astley’s lastnight.”

What a bunch of nonsense. Marc had done some truly awful things in his days, but none of that had ever landed in a gossip column. His truly wicked misdeeds had all been under the cloak of night and wrapped in his misguided allegiance to king and country. He wasn’t certain how many deaths could be laid at his feet. However there was one in particular that he could never forget, even now. But instead of reporting something worthy of merit, the London gossip columns were filled with drivel about him attending a public performance where nothing even slightly untoward had transpired? Society, as a whole, wasbroken.

“I didn’t escort them,” Marc said, annoyed that even that one bit of truth had escaped the writings of some talentless hack. “I was there on my own and Kelfield invited me to join their party. The whole thing was hardly worth anyone writingabout.”

They rounded the next corner and Caroline was just a few feet away. Even from there, the light in her pretty hazel eyes made his heart lift a bit. Then the warmest of smiles graced her lips, and he wanted to taste that smile more than he’d, perhaps, ever wanted anything in his life. She was all goodness and kindness and light and…well, everything he was decidedly not, but what he craved likenothingelse.

“I do believe Juliet has the right of it,” Luke muttered under his breath as they neared the ladies. “I never thought I would seetheday.”

“The right of what?” Marc asked, though his gaze never left Caroline, not even for asecond.

“That youare, very truly in love withCaroline.”

Chapter11

Caroline was fairlycertain she heard her name, even over the crowd and the musicians. She supposed she could have imagined it, but she didn’t think so. With the way Marc and Luke were looking in her direction, she would have wagered a tiny sum the two of them were saying something about her, but she was too far away to know forcertain.

A slow smile spread across Marc’s face as though he had some idea of the thoughts that had been darting in and out of her mind all evening, as though he knew she’d thought about that day in his bedchambers more often than she’d ever admit, that the memory of his remarkable bare form was one she could never forget and had dreamed about ever since. Her belly flipped at the memory once again, and she was too captivated by his gaze to do anything other than stand there, smiling back at him. He truly was devastatingly handsome. He always had been—hair as dark as midnight, the broadest of shoulders, an aristocratic nose, and a strong jaw. But it was those wicked, light blue eyes of his that always seemed to stare straight into her soul, like he was the only one who ever saw therealher.

Juliet’s scandalous suggestions still rang in Caroline’s ears, and she was so very tempted to go down that path. Why shouldn’t she? No one else would ever have to know what might happen between her and Marc, right? Shewasa widow. And there was a freedom inthat.But…

His light gaze held hers as he navigated the crowd, and whatever thought had been about to form in her mind dissipated into nothingness. She couldn’t think about anything when he looked at her like that. She barely knew herownname.

A moment later, Marc and Luke stood before her, and Caroline couldn’t help the sigh that escaped her. At her side, Juliet shookherhead.

“I thought,” her sister-in-law said to Luke, “you were on a quest to make somenewfriends thisevening.”

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