Page 150 of Pride: The Rogue
Bile climbed his throat, and he attempted to forcibly thrust the imagery parading in his mind; of the bloody nobleman or some other man who exerted his influence and force over her. Forced her against a wall, yanked her skirts up…
A tortured moan gurgled in his throat and spilled from his lips, like the last gasping breaths of a dying man.
And I am.
For surely there could be no greater anguish than the waking hell he found himself trapped within. He, who’d been stone cold and incapable of loving or feeling, now found himself crumbling.
Latimer dragged his hands through his hair and tugged at the ends.
“Mr. Latimer?”
Crazed, he looked frantically at the duchess.
“Icanoffer you some assurances about Miss Lovelace,” she said.
The slow, dull thought of his heart picked up in tempo and hammered hard at his chest.
“Yes?” Latimer rasped.
“You are most likely concerned about the young lady’s well-being. However, you may rely on Miss Lovelace being in very capable hands. The Earl of Wakefield provided the lady with a personal escort.” She paused and flashed another taunting smile. “Last evening.”
“Last evening?” he choked out.
With that, hate-filled, knife-like jibe, the duchess took her leave, and Latimer found himself thrust deeper into hell.
Chapter 24
“No sooner met but they looked;
No sooner looked but they loved;”
Tucked away in the reading nook which overlooked her brother-in-law’s sprawling gardens below, Livian continued to stare at the same inked quote written in her hand and read by the Duchess of Argyll nearly one week earlier.
“…No sooner loved but they sighed…
As a small girl, she’d dreamed of the ideal home. There’d be a devoted father—one who didn’t leave. There’d be a doting and equally loving mother. And of course, in this dream world she’d imagined, both she and Verity lived within it.
“…No sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy…
With the sounds of her sister’s laughter filling the parlor awash in sunlight, and the echoing joy-tinged mirth of Verity’s husband, Malcom, Livian finally dwelled under a roof like the one she’d always imagined for them.
“…Love has no limits, no color…no time.”
As a girl, the part she’d failed to recognize was that she wanted such a future for herself. One in which she had a man who loved her.
“And in these degrees have they made a pair of stairs to marr—”
And who not only loved her but respected her enough to give her and their children his name and protection.
“What you looking at, Aunt Livvie?”
Livian’s book tumbled to the floor.
Her chubby-cheeked, dark-haired nephew rescued the little volume in his even littler fingers.
“This?” Livian took the copy from him. “This is only myfavoritebook in the entire world.” She tickled him in the ribs until he giggled and squirmed. “I made it myself.”
James’s eyes rounded in cherubic, childlike innocence. “You made book?”
