She had just found a comfortable position in her chair when the sound of laughter reached her through the window. She frowned. That high-pitched giggle belonged to Mabel, fellow suffragist and tenant of the adjacent half of the house she rented. And knowing Mabel, there was only one reason why the widow would be tittering like a maiden. Sure enough, there followed the low, seductive hum of a male baritone.
Lucie’s fountain pen began scratching over the paper. What Mabel did should not concern her. If brazen enough, a wealthy widow could take liberties with men that no unwed woman would dare, and from what she had had to overhear through the shared bedroom wall, Mabel dared it once in a while. And why should she not? After all, most gentlemen took their pleasure whenever an opportunity presented itself . . .
An excited feminine squeak rang through the curtains. She put down her pen. Wealthy widow or not, Mabel was not beyond scandal. Unlike her, Mabel was a student at Oxford, and anything that besmirched her reputation besmirched her fellow female students. The flirtatious pair might be shielded by the large rhododendron bush before her window, but still . . . She rose, rounded her desk, and yanked back the curtains, and movement exploded before her.
She leveled a cool stare at the two shadowy figures that had sprung apart. Faces turned toward her.
Oh. By Hades, no.
The light from her room revealed, unsurprisingly, a disheveled Lady Mabel. But the man . . . there was only one man in England with such masterfully high-cut cheekbones.
Without thinking, she pushed up the window.
“You,” she ground out.
Photograph by the author
Debut author Evie Dunmore wrote Bringing Down the Duke, inspired by the magical scenery of Oxford and her passion for romance, women pioneers, and all things Victorian. In her civilian life, she is a consultant with a M.Sc. in Diplomacy from Oxford. She is a member of the British Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA). Evie lives in Berlin and pours her fascination with nineteenth-century Britain into her writing.
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