My Lady of Deception

by Christi Caldwell

  This was easier? Than what? Having his heart pulled from his living, breathing body? A muscle ticked at the corner of his mouth. “You’re wrong. It doesn’t matter to me who your father is. I thought it mattered, but it doesn’t.” And it didn’t. He’d only just fully realized that now.

  Tears filled her eyes. A fat, lone tear trailed down her cheek. It was followed by another, and another. She swatted at them as though embarrassed of the show of emotion. “Please go,” she begged.

  Adam’s jaw flexed. She thought he would leave and never look back. But then, he’d never given her much reason to believe in his constancy. He gave a curt nod and walked stiffly to the doorway.

  Georgina watched him go and wanted to plead with him to forget every foolish word she’d just uttered.

  He looked at her once more before he left. “This is not over, Georgina Markham.”

  Her legs gave out beneath her and she wilted to the floor like a dying flower. A spark of gold caught her eye and she reached for the signet Adam had left behind.

  She knew Adam leaving was for the best, but she could not keep herself from wanting him. She would always love him.

  Georgina buried her face in her hands and wept.

  Chapter 32

  Georgina went through her morning ablutions. The sun glared into the small chambers she kept here at the hospital. The rays bright and unforgiving. She stole a glance at her reflection in the bevel mirror. She barely recognized the wan creature with dark circles under her eyes in an uncharacteristically pale face. Following Adam’s swift exit the previous afternoon, she’d been unable to sleep or think. He occupied her every thought.

  In the dead of night, she’d lain awake staring up at the small crack across the ceiling. Fool, fool, fool. She’d sent him away. How many hours of how many days had she dreamed of Adam loving her, loving her even with knowing about her connection to Fox and Hunter? Her pride, her fear of being hurt again by Adam, had driven her motives.

  She pinched her cheeks hard, trying to send some blood flowing through her white skin. Her efforts proved futile.

  Georgina opened the door and stopped.

  A simple sketch hung on the wall. She walked up to it, studying—she squinted—what appeared to be a meal of roast chicken and potatoes.

  Georgina walked down the hall until she came upon another drawing. This one of Bristol Hospital’s front façade.

  She continued and found sketch after sketch: a woman’s hands, a songbird…a woman. Her breath caught. Georgina drew to a halt, her gaze riveted to her own image. It was a rendering of Adam’s cell, with her kneeling beside his chair, rubbing his wrists. She yanked it from the wall. Her heart raced as she studied the picture.

  Nurse Catherine appeared. She looked at the page clutched in Georgina’s fingers. “It is very odd, you know. There are these sketches throughout the hospital. Perhaps you should follow them and see where they lead.”

  Georgina angled her head.

  The kindly, older woman gestured down the long hall and Georgina continued walking. The sketches were everywhere. There was the moment Adam had twirled her around his prison cell, forever memorialized in charcoal. That scene gave way to his ballroom when he’d danced her around, with Tony laughing on the sidelines.

  The images led her all the way to the foyer.

  She stumbled to a halt. A vibrant rainbow had been painted on the white wall above the hospital’s entrance. Periwinkles, daisies, and pale peach and pink roses lay scattered on the floor, beneath the painting. Standing amidst the blooms, peppermint in hand, stood Adam.

  Her throat worked. “What are you—?”

  “I thought long and hard about what you said. I thought about when I fell in love with you and realized it was a collection of moments. From the moment I first met you, you began to work your way into my heart. Your place there grew and grew, and now…” He held his hands up. “Now you fill all of me. Heart, mind, and soul. I am nothing without you. A time long ago, Georgina, you went chasing rainbows. All these years, I was the one waiting at the other end. I know I’m not much of a treasure, but I love you. I know I’ve wronged you, but—”

  “Be quiet,” Georgina rasped. She buried her fist against her mouth, attempting to stifle a sob.

  Adam’s hand fell quivering to his side, the children’s treats tumbled to the floor.

  “I love you,” she choked out. She ran the remaining distance between them and launched herself into his arms. Adam wrapped his arms around her.

  He pressed his lips hard against her temple. “Marry me. I will spend the rest of my life making amends, Georgina.”

  Tears fell unchecked down her cheeks. She drew back slightly and, leaning up on tiptoe, passed her gaze over his face. “I don’t want you to spend the rest of your life making amends. I want you to spend it simply loving me.”

  A glimmer lit his moss-green eyes. Adam smiled; that gentle expression filled with hope, peace, and the happiness she’d searched for. “Forever, Georgina. I promise you, forever.”

  Epilogue

  Georgina caressed her swollen belly and reached for another peppermint.

  Adam glanced up from his sketchpad. A golden curl fell across his eye, lending him a boyish look, so very different from the dark, tortured man she’d first met. He grinned at her. “Are you well?”

  Georgina arched her back and continued to stroke the place beneath her heart, where her and Adam’s child rested. She smiled back at her husband. “Indeed.”

  Adam returned his attention to the drawing in front of him.

  Georgina leaned her head against the chair. Most of her life had been spent dreaming of a different life—a husband, a family. Of simple happiness.

  She closed her eyes. A smile played about her lips as she realized that this moment was what dreams were made of.

  The End

  Biography

  Christi Caldwell is a USA Today Bestselling author of historical romance novels set in the Regency era. Christi blames Judith McNaught’s “Whitney, My Love,” for luring her into the world of historical romance. While sitting in her graduate school apartment at the University of Connecticut, Christi decided to set aside her notes and try her hand at writing romance. She believes the most perfect heroes and heroines have imperfections and rather enjoys tormenting them before crafting a well-deserved happily ever after!

  When Christi isn’t writing the stories of flawed heroes and heroines, she can be found in her Southern Connecticut home chasing around her feisty six-year-old son, and caring for twin princesses-in-training!

  Visit www.christicaldwellauthor.com to learn more about what Christi is working on, or join her on Facebook at Christi Caldwell Author (for frequent updates, excerpts, and posts about her fun as a fulltime mom and writer) and Twitter @ChristiCaldwell (which she is still quite dreadful with).

  Other Books by Christi Caldwell

  “Winning a Lady’s Heart”

  A Danby Novella

  Author’s Note: This is a novella that was originally available in A Summons From The Castle (The Regency Christmas Summons Collection). It is being published as an individual novella.

  For Lady Alexandra, being the source of a cold, calculated wager is bad enough…but when it is waged by Nathaniel Michael Winters, 5th Earl of Pembroke, the man she’s in love with, it results in a broken heart, the scandal of the season, and a summons from her grandfather – the Duke of Danby.

  To escape Society’s gossip, she hurries to her meeting with the duke, determined to put memories of the earl far behind. Except the duke has other plans for Alexandra…plans which include the 5th Earl of Pembroke!

  “A Season of Hope”

  A Danby Novella

  Five years ago when her love, Marcus Wheatley, failed to return from fighting Napoleon’s forces, Lady Olivia Foster buried her heart. Unable to betray Marcus’s memory, Olivia has gone out of her way to run off prospective suitors. At three and twenty she considers herself firmly on the shelf. Her father, however, d
isagrees and accepts an offer for Olivia’s hand in marriage. Yet it’s Christmas, when anything can happen…

  Olivia receives a well-timed summons from her grandfather, the Duke of Danby, and eagerly embraces the reprieve from her betrothal.

  Only, when Olivia arrives at Danby Castle she realizes the Christmas season represents hope, second chances, and even miracles.

  “Forever Betrothed, Never the Bride”

  Book 1 in the Scandalous Seasons Series

  Hopeless romantic Lady Emmaline Fitzhugh is tired of sitting with the wallflowers, waiting for her betrothed to come to his senses and marry her. When Emmaline reads one too many reports of his scandalous liaisons in the gossip rags, she takes matters into her own hands.

  War-torn veteran Lord Drake devotes himself to forgetting his days on the Peninsula through an endless round of meaningless associations. He no longer wants to feel anything, but Lady Emmaline is making it hard to maintain a state of numbness. With her zest for life, she awakens his passion and desire for love.

  The one woman Drake has spent the better part of his life avoiding is now the only woman he needs, but he is no longer a man worthy of his Emmaline. It is up to her to show him the healing power of love.

  “Never Courted, Suddenly Wed”

  Book 2 in the Scandalous Seasons Series

  Christopher Ansley, Earl of Waxham, has constructed a perfect image for the ton–the ladies love him and his company is desired by all. Only two people know the truth about Waxham’s secret. Unfortunately, one of them is Miss Sophie Winters.

  Sophie Winters has known Christopher since she was in leading strings. As children, they delighted in tormenting each other. Now at two and twenty, she still has a tendency to find herself in scrapes, and her marital prospects are slim.

  When his father threatens to expose his shame to the ton, unless he weds Sophie for her dowry, Christopher concocts a plan to remain a bachelor. What he didn’t plan on was falling in love with the lively, impetuous Sophie. As secrets are exposed, will Christopher’s love be enough when she discovers his role in his father’s scheme?

  “Always Proper, Suddenly Scandalous”

  Book 3 in the Scandalous Seasons Series

  Geoffrey Winters, Viscount Redbrooke was not always the hard, unrelenting lord driven by propriety. After a tragic mistake, he resolved to honor his responsibility to the Redbrooke line and live a life, free of scandal. Knowing his duty is to wed a proper, respectable English miss, he selects Lady Beatrice Dennington, daughter of the Duke of Somerset, the perfect woman for him. Until he meets Miss Abigail Stone…

  To distance herself from a personal scandal, Abigail Stone flees America to visit her uncle, the Duke of Somerset. Determined to never trust a man again, she is helplessly intrigued by the hard, too-proper Geoffrey. With his strict appreciation for decorum and order, he is nothing like the man’ she’s always dreamed of.

  Abigail is everything Geoffrey does not need. She upends his carefully ordered world at every encounter. As they begin to care for one another, Abigail carefully guards the secret that resulted in her journey to England.

  Only, if Geoffrey learns the truth about Abigail, he must decide which he holds most dear: his place in Society or Abigail’s place in his heart.

  “Always a Rogue, Forever Her Love”

  Book 4 in the Scandalous Seasons Series

  Miss Juliet Marshville is spitting mad. With one guardian missing, and the other singularly uninterested in her fate, she is at the mercy of her wastrel brother who loses her beloved childhood home to a man known as Sin. Determined to reclaim control of Rosecliff Cottage and her own fate, Juliet arranges a meeting with the notorious rogue and demands the return of her property.

  Jonathan Tidemore, 5th Earl of Sinclair, known to the ton as Sin, is exceptionally lucky in life and at the gaming tables. He has just one problem. Well…four, really. His incorrigible sisters have driven off yet another governess. This time, however, his mother demands he find an appropriate replacement.

  When Miss Juliet Marshville boldly demands the return of her precious cottage, he takes advantage of his sudden good fortune and puts an offer to her; turn his sisters into proper English ladies, and he’ll return Rosecliff Cottage to Juliet’s possession.

  Jonathan comes to appreciate Juliet’s spirit, courage, and clever wit, and decides to claim the fiery beauty as his mistress. Juliet, however, will be mistress for no man. Nor could she ever love a man who callously stole her home in a game of cards. As Jonathan begins to see Juliet as more than a spirited beauty to warm his bed, he realizes she could be a lady he could love the rest of his life, if only he can convince the proud Juliet that he’s worthy of her hand and heart.

  “A Marquess For Christmas”

  Book 5 in the Scandalous Seasons Series

  Lady Patrina Tidemore gave up on the ridiculous notion of true love after having her heart shattered and her trust destroyed by a black-hearted cad. Used as a pawn in a game of revenge against her brother, Patrina returns to London from a failed elopement with a tattered reputation and little hope for a respectable match. The only peace she finds is in her solitude on the cold winter days at Hyde Park. And even that is yanked from her by two little hellions who just happen to have a devastatingly handsome, but coldly aloof father, the Marquess of Beaufort. Something about the lord stirs the dreams she’d once carried for an honorable gentleman’s love.

  Weston Aldridge, the 4th Marquess of Beaufort was deceived and betrayed by his late wife. In her faithlessness, he’s come to view women as self-serving, indulgent creatures. Except, after a series of chance encounters with Patrina, he comes to appreciate how uniquely different she is than all women he’s ever known.

  At the Christmastide season, a time of hope and new beginnings, Patrina and Weston, unexpectedly learn true love in one another. However, as Patrina’s scandalous past threatens their future and the happiness of his children, they are both left to determine if love is enough.

  “Once a Wallflower, At Last His Love”

  Book 6 in the Scandalous Seasons Series

  Responsible, practical Miss Hermione Rogers, has been crafting stories as the notorious Mr. Michael Michaelmas and selling them for a meager wage to support her siblings. The only real way to ensure her family’s ruinous debts are paid, however, is to marry. Tall, thin, and plain, she has no expectation of success. In London for her first Season she seizes the chance to write the tale of a brooding duke. In her research, she finds Sebastian Fitzhugh, the 5th Duke of Mallen, who unfortunately is perfectly affable, charming, and so nicely… configured… he takes her breath away. He lacks all the character traits she needs for her story, but alas, any duke will have to do.

  Sebastian Fitzhugh, the 5th Duke of Mallen has been deceived so many times during the high-stakes game of courtship, he’s lost faith in Society women. Yet, after a chance encounter with Hermione, he finds himself intrigued. Not a woman he’d normally consider beautiful, the young lady’s practical bent, her forthright nature and her tendency to turn up in the oddest places has his interests… roused. He’d like to trust her, he’d like to do a whole lot more with her too, but should he?

  “In Need of a Duke”

  A Prequel Novella to “The Heart of a Duke” Series by Christi Caldwell

  In Need of a Duke: (Author’s Note: This is a prequel novella to “The Heart of a Duke” series by Christi Caldwell. It was originally available in “The Heart of a Duke” Collection and is now being published as an individual novella.

  ~*~

  It features a new prologue and epilogue.

  Years earlier, a gypsy woman passed to Lady Aldora Adamson and her friends a heart pendant that promised them each the heart of a duke.

  Now, a young lady, with her family facing ruin and scandal, Lady Aldora doesn’t have time for mythical stories about cheap baubles. She needs to save her sisters and brother by marrying a titled gentleman with wealth and power to his name. She sets her bespectacled sights upon the
Marquess of St. James.

  Turned out by his father after a tragic scandal, Lord Michael Knightly has grown into a powerful, but self-made man. With the whispers and stares that still follow him, he would rather be anywhere but London…

  Until he meets Lady Aldora, a young woman who mistakes him for his brother, the Marquess of St. James. The connection between Aldora and Michael is immediate and as they come to know one another, Aldora’s feelings for Michael war with her sisterly responsibilities. With her family’s dire situation, a man of Michael’s scandalous past will never do.

  Ultimately, Aldora must choose between her responsibilities as a sister and her love for Michael.

  “For Love of the Duke”

  First Full-Length Book in the “Heart of a Duke” Series by Christi Caldwell

  After the tragic death of his wife, Jasper, the 8th Duke of Bainbridge buried himself away in the dark cold walls of his home, Castle Blackwood. When he’s coaxed out of his self-imposed exile to attend the amusements of the Frost Fair, his life is irrevocably changed by his fateful meeting with Lady Katherine Adamson.

  With her tight brown ringlets and silly white-ruffled gowns, Lady Katherine Adamson has found her dance card empty for two Seasons. After her father’s passing, Katherine learned the unreliability of men, and is determined to depend on no one, except herself. Until she meets Jasper…