Read How to Romance a Rake for Free Online Page A

prominence in the fashionable set. One with such looks and charm would find it easy to win the favor of those who crossed his path.
    “She is your music teacher?” he asked, finally looking up. If he noted that her gaze had lingered on him for overlong, he gave no sign of it.
    “Yes,” she replied, looking down at her hands, as if searching out spots of dust on her gloves. “She is also a dear friend.”
    She did not say that Anna was also the closest thing to a mother she had ever had. Without her, Juliet would never have found the strength to recover from the injuries she sustained to both her body and her spirit on that long-ago spring day.
    “What are the circumstances she speaks of? Your worries the other night seemed to hinge on her melancholia. But this sounds as if she is running away from something. Or someone. And why does your mother disapprove of her?”
    Juliet wondered how much to tell him. And gave herself a mental shake for telling him anything of Anna’s note at all. He could care nothing for the plight of an impoverished clergyman’s daughter. And yet, there was something about him that told her he did care. He was interested. And having kept Anna’s secret for so long, she found herself wishing to unburden herself of the whole sordid story. A story she had kept even from Cecily and Madeline.
    “After my … accident,” she said, looking up from her hands to find his blue eyes fixed upon her face, his gaze unnerving but at the same time exhilarating. “After my accident, my father hired Anna to instruct me on the pianoforte. I had played as a small child, and upon our return to England, I found myself restless. Needing some activity to fill the endless days, and sometimes nights. I could not ride. I could not walk about the countryside, which had once been my greatest joy. And with music, I could find some…” She struggled to find the right word. “Some release for the emotions that haunted me.”
    She looked up to find him still watching her. “It was very bad, you see. The accident. And Anna was a godsend. She was kind, and what I needed more, a taskmaster. She insisted I give all my attention to my music. And it worked. Before long, I was playing constantly. Day and night.”
    “Which kept you from brooding,” he said quietly. “A smart woman, your Mrs. Turner.”
    “The cleverest,” Juliet agreed. “She lived with us and even came to London with us when I was to make my come-out. But the month before I was to make my debut, my mama announced that Anna had been dismissed and that I was to have no more contact with her.”
    Deveril leaned forward in his chair. “Why?”
    “Mama had accused Anna of casting out lures to Papa. Which was ridiculous. Only later did I learn that one of his friends had importuned her. And…” She blushed. “Anna was in a delicate condition. I was not surprised that Mama would put the entire blame on Anna. And with no family to turn to, and no reference, she was at her wit’s end. I had enough pin money saved up that I was able to care for her until the child was born. Mama didn’t know about that of course. And though Anna objected, she acquiesced for the sake of the child.”
    “These are very complicated issues for a young lady to handle on her own,” Deveril said, a frown wrinkling his brow. “What happened to the child?”
    “Oh, Anna kept her,” Juliet said, her remembered joy at her ability to help her friend denting her earlier sorrow. “She was able to rent a small house in Hans Town where she teaches the pianoforte to the daughters of tradesmen who wish them to marry into the upper classes. We put it about that she was a widow, whose husband had died in the war.”
    “What of the child’s father?” Deveril demanded, standing to lean one shoulder against the fireplace, his fists clenching in anger. “If he importuned her against her will, he deserves to be thrashed.”
    “I could not agree with you more,” Juliet returned. “But