Page 104 of One Night with an Earl

The woman’s cruel comment caused his fingers to fist at his sides rather than ease the tension in his stomach. He was truly a fool.

“Oliver.”

He turned his attention to his grandmother, and he asked the first question that came to mind. “Did you know who she was before? Today is not the first time you saw her.”

“No,” the dowager said. “Like I said, I didn’t recognize her at my needlepoint gathering. She looked different just now. So did you.”

His eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”

“I was foolish to think someone as young as Lady Penelope was the reason behind your recent happiness.”

He ran his fingers through his hair and glared at her. “It had nothing to do with the girl. As for my recent ‘happiness,’ it was all based on lies.”

She walked forward until she was within arm’s-length distance and met his hard gaze. “I suppose. From what I recall, you searched for Miss Gardner after your father lured her father to the gaming tables. It was easy for him to fleece Lord Woodbridge.”

“I did search for her, but she made it difficult to find her, didn’t she?” Christ, the more he thought about it, the more he realized how Ana had duped him. She had plenty of opportunities to tell him the truth. Their nights together seared his mind, his thoughts, his very being.

Tell me about your family.

She whispered the request as seductively as a siren after they’d made passionate love. Oh, he’d told her all right, told her all about his lonely childhood, a little boy desperate for his mother’s affection and his father’s approval. She’d stiffened in his arms when he’d first mentioned his father and even his brother, and he’d sensed an unease about her, but he’d thought her reaction was simply sympathy for him.

I want to learn every inch of you.

Oh, how he’d craved her exploration of his body. She was eager and focused, a quick learner. The trail of her luxurious hair across his chest, her teasing lips searing a path down on his abdomen, then lower and lower until he burned with desire.

And more. So much more. He admired her bravery, her courage, and had cared deeply for her. Meanwhile, she’d never uttered a word.

Was it all an act?

“She is the worst kind of liar, one who manipulates for the sole purpose of revenge.” His voice sounded cold to his own ears.

The dowager let out a huff. “I’m not so certain that’s true. I caution you not to act rashly.”

“It no longer matters.”

“Of course it does. What will you do?”

“What I should have already done. Choose a bride based on pedigree. Produce an heir. Live separate lives, precisely like my own parents. What else is there?”

…

There was only one place Ana could think to go. She knocked on the door of the respectable-looking building and prayed the proprietress would be home.

A young woman opened the door. From her demure blue dress and hair bandeau and a smudge of dirt on her cheek, Ana suspected she was cleaning.

“Yes, Miss?”

“I need to see the madame. Please tell her Miss Ana Gardner is here.”

“Are you in trouble, Miss?”

Trouble? More than the girl standing in front of her could ever understand. Her life had been upended in a flash. Her employment. Her security. Her brother’s future at school.

Her heart.

“Yes. I’m in trouble.”

She was led into a parlor and settled on a striped sofa. Once she was alone, she bent over, clutching her stomach, as pure misery settled into her heart, her head, her very bones. Her mind was sluggish, and she still could not comprehend everything that had transpired. She could not even go to Queenie since the dear lady had passed away.