Chapter One
"'Tis sorry I am to be the bearer of ill tidings, Miss Gabby."
More than sorry, Jem Downes sounded positively miserable over the news that he
had crossed an ocean and parts of two land masses to bring her, Lady Gabriella
Banning thought. His rheumy brown eyes met her widening gray ones sadly. Behind
him, the aged butler, Stivers, bowed himself out, closing the door with a
muffled click. The smell of damp from Jem's clothes overrode the faint scent of
sulfur from the coal fire and tallow from the candle sputtering at her elbow.
Jem's hat was in his hands; his travel-stained clothes were splotched with
moisture and dotted with shiny-wet raindrops from the unrelenting downpour
outside. His boots and trousers were flecked with mud. In the ordinary way of
things, the family's lifelong servant would never have dreamed of presenting
himself to her in such a state. The fact that he had not waited for the morrow,
or even to put off his soiled apparel, spoke volumes about his state of mind.
Almost unconsciously, Gabby braced to receive the blow. Her lips compressed and
her spine stiffened until she was sitting regally erect behind the massive desk
tucked into the corner of the estate office, to which she had retired a ... read full excerpt from: Scandalous ebook
