The Art of Ruining a Rake Read Online Free Page A

parents out of the room. Lucy and Roman were still joined. What felt like years was only the blink of seconds. Oh, this was a disaster. She’d known not to trust herself with him. She could never resist him. She was too much like her mother, intoxicated by the allure of a handsome man.
    Lucy squeezed her eyes shut. One discomforting tear leaked anyway. She held her breath, willed herself not to tremble, and tried to convince herself it wasn’t as bad as all that. Why, she and Roman might have been doing anything. There were perfectly valid reasons for her legs to be wrapped around his hips, weren’t there?
    Mrs. Strickett’s voice faded as she followed her husband into the hall. “I will say. I’ll tell everyone I see. This school is a disgrace. Wilhelmina! Willie! You, there—Mowry, is it? Come away from that horrid room and find my daughter. No, I’ll find her myself. Wilhelmina!”
    A man’s footsteps hurried away from Lucy’s office. Then the door closed.
    Roman withdrew.
    Lucy began to laugh. The guffaws burst from her, absurd and uncontrollable. She laughed hard at first, then harder still as Roman went to the door and slid the bolt home. Far, far too late. Everything she’d worked for, everything she’d planned was destroyed. She laughed until she had tears streaming down her face.
    “What the devil is so funny?” he asked sharply.
    Her hand covered her mouth, but it was no help. She couldn’t stop laughing. “I’m ruined .” Her throat closed around a sob. “I’ll never be welcome in Society again. And my school—it’s ruined as well. Mrs. Strickett is highly placed. Word will reach the uppermost circles, and then no one will send their daughter to the School for Accomplished Young Ladies.”
    Lucy choked back another sob. Her hands were shaking. Just a small vibration at first, but then her shoulders quaked. She pushed her skirts over her knees and buried her face in her hands, the situation made all the worse because Roman was witnessing her humiliating display of hysterics. “I shall be forced b-back to Worston in d-disgrace. Everyone will know I allowed my passions to lead me. Trestin will n-never let me out of his s-sight again.”
    The threat of her brother’s hawk-eyed supervision was worst of all. She yearned for adventure in the city. He demanded her docility in the country. She’d dreamed up her School for Accomplished Young Ladies precisely because living as a spinster in his household had become intolerable.
    She wiped away her tears and drew several shaky breaths. If only she hadn’t lost her head! That glorious night last spring when she’d given herself to Roman had gone nothing like this. She’d disappeared from his life and her lovely little school had opened precisely as planned, all because the door to Mrs. Galbraith’s spare bedchamber had been perfectly locked .
    Her cheeks heated as her temper flared. Her first assignation with Roman hadn’t escaped Trestin’s attention. Her brother had demanded marriage before. She’d barely convinced him of the hazard in chaining her to a reprobate like their father.
    Trestin wouldn’tbe as understanding when he learned of her mistake this time. After he discovered she’d returned to Roman’s arms, he’d insist upon a wedding. When she refused, he’d become even more insufferable. And what was to become of her school? Her teachers, her students? The women who depended on her for wages and board, and the charity girls who had nowhere else to go?
    And what of Celeste, her sister-by-law and friend? She’d generously donated thousands of pounds to found the school. What would she think? She’d made Lucy promise to guard her reputation; it had been a stipulation of their joint venture. Surely, she’d be saddened when she learned Lucy had ruined everything, even after Celeste had warned her not to let this happen.
    Lucy sat straighter, forcing herself to consider her options rationally. If only things could be kept quiet! But