Chapter One
Julia Prior slipped from her bedchamber and crept to the top of the sweeping staircase. She paused at the banister, breath held, listening. No voices drifted up from the Great Room. Her brother and his houseguests must have gone to their assigned chambers.
It would take time for the servants to undo all the damage done to the room.
Chapter One
John Traylor, the Earl of Brett, seized the letter addressed to his sister from the silver tray in the entry hall. He was desperate to learn his sister's lover's name. The post might reveal the scoundrel’s name. Earlier that evening, while strolling through the back garden, he found Evelyn in a man's embrace—her gown askew, her hair unpinned. The scoundrel fled, clutching his clothes, before he could catch a proper look at his face.
Chapter One
Lady Kathleen Mary Emmett snapped her fan shut, strolled to the window, and gazed at the tombstones. She turned to the vicar's daughter. "Madelyn, your life is in danger. Ignore my advice and you'll end up in the graveyard."
Madelyn stopped mid-step. Her blue eyes were wide. "What you just told me cannot be true. My betrothed is a London baron—wealthy, of great consequence. Lord Cuthell would never harm me."
Chapter One
Lady Amelia Reade paused outside the study door and peered in.
How could her father look so ordinary?
The Earl of Fowle had no horns, no tail, no pitchfork—yet he was a devil. With his robust frame, flaxen hair edged faintly with silver, and spectacles perched on his straight nose, he looked more like a prosperous lord than a man capable of cruelty.