A Scandalous Lady Read online

  Faith could hardly breathe for the pounding of her heart.

  Eyes like mist on stone lifted to stare solemnly into hers. “He hadn’t lost his faith, and I hadn’t yet found mine. Until you. Faith, you gave me hope, and somewhere in it, I learned what it is to love—and how it felt to be loved.”

  She pressed her fingers to her mouth, and a sob caught in her throat.

  And then, there in the midst of the hotel lobby, he dropped to one knee, took her free hand, and brought it to his lips, then pressed it against his rapidly thudding heart. “I can’t make you the princess you always wanted to be. But I can make you a baroness, and one day, perhaps, a viscountess. It’s less than you deserve, but it’s all I’ve got. Do you think it might be enough?”

  “I don’t want your bloody title, Baron,” Faith answered, so choked up she could hardly form the words. “All I’ve ever wanted was you.”

  “And all I will ever want, is you.”

  Epilogue

  A salty breeze blew in from the English Channel, where forgotten memories of waves crashing against jagged rocks became reality. Faith Jervais, soon to be Lady Westborough, stood upon the stern of La Tentatrice, waiting for the music to begin. The warmth of a September sunset caressed her face, and the promise of a new beginning lifted her soul.

  She closed her eyes and marveled at how drastically her life had changed in such a short time. Had it only been three months since she’d been digging in rubbish barrels for scraps of food? Scrounging the streets of London for her next mark?

  Who would have ever guessed she’d have bagged the most priceless prize of all?

  “Are you ready?”

  At the sound of her sister’s voice, Faith looked over at Honesty, glorious in a blue silk gown that barely disguised her pending motherhood. Sixteen years had passed since they’d last stood together. Sixteen years since they’d been stolen from each other by a man with greed in his heart and vengeance in his soul.

  “To be truthful, I’m a bit nervous,” Faith confessed, clutching the bouquet of silk roses tighter in her fist.

  Honesty laughed and linked her arm within the crook of Faith’s elbow. “What have you to be nervous about, sister mine? In only a few moments, you will be joined with the love of your life and spend the rest of eternity being blissfully happy.”

  Maybe that was it, Faith speculated. Maybe, despite every lecture she’d given to herself, there was a frightened little girl afraid to trust her own heart.

  Honesty gave her arm a brief squeeze. “He’s a remarkable man, your baron is.”

  “Aye, he is,” Faith agreed, her gaze seeking Troyce’s lean and powerful figure at the bow of the ship. He looked resplendent in his tailored coattails and creased trousers, the breadth of his shoulders defined, the strength of his body barely contained. “I don’t know many who would refuse a million-dollar reward.”

  “Men do strange things when they are in love.”

  That, Faith could not argue. The most handsome nobleman in Christendom was about to marry a pickpocket—former pickpocket, she corrected herself. “At least he was wise enough to accept Papa’s offer to invest in La Tentatrice,” she said.

  “It was a good investment,” her father chimed in as he came to stand between his daughters. “Even had it not paid off so well, it was the least I could do for the man who saved my daughter and won her heart.”

  The first chords of the “Wedding March” cued the beginning of the ceremony, forestalling any reply she might have made and making her heart leap. “It’s time,” she whispered.

  Anton Jervais adjusted the tiara of orange blossoms crowning her curls, then brushed her cheek with his fingers. “It seems hardly fair, my darling Faith.” His eyes went damp. “I’ve only just gotten you back, and now I must give you away.”

  “I shall never be far away, Papa,” she promised, growing misty-eyed herself. “Only as far as your arms will reach.” In the next moment, her father’s arms reached around her to envelop her in his secure embrace.

  The small orchestra paused, then resumed with a crescendo of flutes and harps and violins that beckoned Faith toward the bow of the ship that would soon be sailing toward its new home in Spain.

  Pulling back from her father, she drew in a deep breath, then, with a smile, allowed him to lead her along the deck of the ship where a night not so long ago, she and Troyce de Meir, Baron of Westborough, had bound their hearts and souls together for eternity. And as their gazes met over the gathering of their families and closest friends, Faith saw her future in the silvery mists of his eyes, one of unfailing devotion to each other, unwavering faith, and a passionate kind of love that would never, ever be torn asunder. She knew without a single doubt that princes really did come to life and that dreams, no matter how high, really did come true.

  Author’s Note

  Dear Readers,

  My earliest memory is of finding a set of baby rabbits orphaned when their mother was hit by a car. I was four years old at the time, and I remember my own mother and me rescuing these tiny, helpless creatures. We’d even taken them to my kindergarten class for show-and-tell once they were old enough to be shown. What is your earliest memory?

  For Honesty and Faith, twin sisters separated at a very young age, one had no recollection of the event that irrevocably changed her life while the other remembered it with startling clarity as seen through the eyes of a four-year-old child. Could the special bond between these girls, the liar and the thief, survive the years and miles that had torn them apart?

  In A Scandalous Lady, I not only had the wonderful opportunity of reuniting these very special women, but of giving Faith a second chance for hope and love. From the moment I “met” Troyce de Meir, I knew he was the perfect man to “rescue” Faith, win her tender heart, and make all of her forgotten dreams come true.

  I hope you’ve enjoyed my sojourn into Victorian England and the world between the underground and the upper class, because like Troyce, I firmly believe that every woman should feel like a princess at least once in her life.

  Best wishes,

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  AVON BOOKS

  An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

  10 East 53rd Street

  New York, New York 10022-5299

  Copyright © 2003 by Rachelle Nelson

  ISBN: 0-06-008470-7

  EPUB Edition AUGUST 2014 ISBN 9780062381484

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  First Avon Books paperback printing: April 2003

  Avon Trademark Reg. U.S. Pat. Off. and in Other Countries, Marca Registrada, Hecho en U.S.A.

  HarperCollins® is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  About the Publisher

  Australia

  HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

  Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street

  Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

  http://www.harpercollins.com.au

  Canada

  HarperCollins Canada

  2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor

  Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada

  http://www.harpercollins.ca

  New Zealand

  HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand

&n
bsp; Unit D, 63 Apollo Drive

  Rosedale 0632

  Auckland, New Zealand

  http://www.harpercollins.co.nz

  United Kingdom

  HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

  77-85 Fulham Palace Road

  London, W6 8JB, UK

  http://www.harpercollins.co.uk

  United States

  HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

  195 Broadway

  New York, NY 10007

  http://www.harpercollins.com