Debra Mullins Read online

  Debra Mullins

  Scandal of the Black Rose

  For Jay

  Contents

  Prologue

  Sunlight shone in multicolored hues through the stained-glass windows of…

  Chapter 1

  She had never felt so naked in her life.

  Chapter 2

  Anna awoke the next morning not knowing where she was.

  Chapter 3

  Rome had always enjoyed the food prepared by the Haverford…

  Chapter 4

  At precisely half past nine the next morning, Rome strode…

  Chapter 5

  Rome closed the door behind Rose—Miss Rosewood—and resisted the urge…

  Chapter 6

  “Miss Rosewood, please, do let us go home. This place…

  Chapter 7

  Haverford’s theater box had an excellent view of the theater…

  Chapter 8

  “Are you mad?” Anna clasped a hand over her bosom…

  Chapter 9

  On Friday at three o’clock, Rome arrived at the office…

  Chapter 10

  Anna stepped into Lavinia’s parlor, her focus on Rome. She…

  Chapter 11

  “I do not understand his hesitation,” Henrietta Rosewood said as…

  Chapter 12

  “What did you say?”

  Chapter 13

  Days later, Anna stood with her mother at the Severley…

  Chapter 14

  Alone with the night, Rome puffed on a slender cheroot…

  Chapter 15

  The day after the Severley ball saw Anna burning with…

  Chapter 16

  “This is your chance, Anna,” Henrietta whispered.

  Chapter 17

  Her mother would have considered the riding outing a disaster.

  Chapter 18

  Haverford closed the door to the study and locked it,…

  Chapter 19

  Her quiet whisper ripped through him like a pistol ball.

  Chapter 20

  Rome slept late into the day. When he finally rose,…

  Chapter 21

  There was no reason for him to stay.

  Chapter 22

  The news left everyone reeling in shock.

  About the Author

  Other Books by Debra Mullins

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Prologue

  Sunlight shone in multicolored hues through the stained-glass windows of the church. The glow warmed the golden brown wood of the pews lining either side of the aisle before her, and dust motes danced like faeries in the sweep of light. From the front pew, her mother smiled at her, and standing before the altar, Lord Haverford awaited with the vicar.

  “You look lovely,” her cousin Melanie whispered, brushing a hand over her arm.

  Anna frowned at Melanie, who was dressed elegantly in pink with roses in her hair. “What are you doing here?”

  Melanie giggled. “I’m your bridesmaid, silly.”

  “Bridesmaid…?” Anna glanced down. She was clad in a lovely white-and-silver dress and held a posy of orchids and roses in her hands. “I’m getting married?”

  “Of course you are. You’ve always known that.”

  Anna glanced at Lord Haverford again. Yes, she had always known she would marry this man, ever since childhood. But so soon? Wasn’t she supposed to be doing something—?

  “Come, Anna.” Her father, Admiral Quentin Rosewood, appeared beside her, clad in his naval uniform. He offered an arm. “Time to do your duty.”

  “Yes.” Her frown clearing, she slowly lifted her hand and placed it on his arm. “My duty.”

  He patted her hand. “You were always a good daughter.”

  They started down the aisle.

  Anna looked straight ahead at her groom, at the vicar, at—

  “Papa?” She stopped walking. “Papa, where is Anthony?”

  “Come, Anna.” He tugged her along.

  She dug in her heels. “Papa, Anthony was to be Lord Haverford’s groomsman.”

  “Anna, come. You have a duty.”

  “But where is Anthony? I can’t get married without my brother here!” She pulled her hand away, frantically scanning the pews.

  Melanie stepped in front of her, blocking her view. “Anna, do what your father tells you.”

  “No, not without Anthony.” Growing more and more panicked, Anna spun around, ignoring Melanie. “Anthony! Anthony!”

  Her mother grabbed her arm. “Stop that, Anna! You’re causing a scene.”

  Anna shook off her mother and turned again, coming face-to-face with her father. He gripped her upper arms, his eyes fierce. “You must not do anything to jeopardize your future! Your betrothed is waiting.”

  Anna looked at her fiancé, who had not moved from his place before the altar. “Lord Haverford, where is my brother?”

  Lord Haverford just pulled out his pocket watch, glanced at the time, and shook his head sadly.

  “Anthony!” Anna jerked away from her father, pushed past Melanie, raced down the aisle toward the doors of the church. “Anthony, where are you?”

  Then he was there, standing beside the last pew. He wore his favorite coat, filthy and bloody and torn. His eyes were dark and mournful as he reached out and took her hand. “Anna, don’t let it lie.”

  “Anthony, what happened?”

  He faded, growing translucent. “Don’t let it lie,” he said again. Then he was gone, leaving her with nothing but the smear of his blood on her hand.

  “Anthony!” Her scream echoed throughout the church. It grew louder and louder…

  And woke her.

  Anna sat straight up in bed, her heart pounding, her breathing little more than desperate gasps for air. Tears slipped down her cheeks, her throat tight with more to come. She buried her face in her trembling hands, rubbing her palms against her skin as if to erase the horrible dream from her memory. But she knew it would change nothing.

  Anthony was dead.

  With a soft sob, she wrapped her arms around her knees and rocked back and forth in a motion that should have brought comfort. But nothing could comfort her—not with her brother dead this past year. Murdered, they said, by footpads.

  She didn’t believe it. There was more to the story than a simple robbery. Anthony had been her twin, and more than once she had known when things were not right with him. And she had always been correct. Always.

  She knew in her bones that he had not been killed by brigands. But he had been murdered, and she was determined to discover by whom.

  With a last, hiccuping sniff, she lifted her head and focused on steadying her breathing. As her racing heart slowed, she slowly unfurled her body, stretching out her legs and running her hands through her sleep-tangled hair. When her limbs stopped shaking, she pushed aside the covers and slipped from the bed.

  The letter was right where she had left it, secure between the pages of her journal. She unfolded the page, spreading a hand across the crumpled paper to flatten it against the surface of her writing desk.

  There were no words, just the drawing of a sword and black rose crossed within a circle.

  This was the key. She sat down, staring at the picture. The symbol had something to do with Anthony’s death, she was certain of it. She had found it in a pack of letters given to her after Anthony’s funeral. The letters had been written by her to her brother, bittersweet written memories that she had not the strength to look at until now, over a year after his death. The note with the mysterious symbol had been wedged between two of the envelopes.

  Had he known she would search for the truth? Her parents had thought her still mad with grief and pushed aside her suspicion
s with a well-meaning caress of condescension. They loved her, but they had never understood her connection with Anthony. They couldn’t. Only her twin had comprehended the bond, for he had shared it, too.

  And now she was alone.

  The pain of his loss seized her about the throat. She squeezed her eyes shut, but a lone tear escaped and splashed her hand. She tossed the drawing on the desk and stood, glancing out the window at a sky rosy with imminent sunrise. Her vision blurred, but she blinked away the moisture, sucking in a fortifying breath and straightening her spine.

  “Don’t worry, Anthony. I won’t let it lie.”

  Chapter 1

  She had never felt so naked in her life.

  Glancing furtively at the masked revelers who swarmed Vauxhall Gardens, Anna gave a discreet tug at the scandalously low-cut bodice of her favorite green evening dress. She had never worn the garment without the lace fichu, but these circumstances called for boldness.

  I’m doing this for Anthony. The litany repeated in her head, playing harmony to her rising panic, as she trailed along behind the party ahead of her.

  The evening had begun innocuously enough. She and her parents had accompanied some friends of her father’s to the masquerade at Vauxhall Gardens. Everyone from the royal family to the poorest commoner wore a mask, adding an air of scandal to the otherwise mundane amusements. The entire park was lit with Chinese lanterns, the sounds of gaiety and music filling the air. She had been content to go along and simply observe the laughter, secure in the company of her family.

  And then she had seen the ring.

  Her gaze drifted to it again on the hand of one of the gentlemen she followed. A black rose crossed with a sword. It was this symbol that had given her the courage to slip away from the security of her party and follow these raucous youths down darkened paths to their lanternlit private dining area.

  Coarse laughter drifted back to her from the group of Cyprians who had caught the eyes of the rakish gentlemen she pursued. It had been an easy thing to attach herself to the crowd and pretend she was just another doxy. The masks they all wore would protect her identity. And if they unmasked at midnight, she would make certain to be gone before then.

  “Come in, ladies,” the young man in the lead invited, with a sweep of his arm. His ring glittered in the dim light.

  Sucking in a deep breath, Anna fell in line behind the gaudily dressed prostitutes. She tried not to goggle at the shocking décolletage of one woman’s gown, the bodice so low that her ample breasts looked to be in danger of popping out of her bodice. Another of the disreputable females had clearly dampened her skirts, outlining her limbs in a most shocking manner. All of them wore flamboyant masks, their faces enhanced by heavily applied powder and brightly rouged lips and cheeks.

  Next to the colorful lot of ladybirds, her unpainted lips and simple mask struck her as somewhat conspicuous. Part of her wanted to run away, back to the safety of well-lit paths and her father’s old friends. But she couldn’t leave. Not when she was so close to discovering the meaning of the symbol.

  Their host blocked the door with his arm when she would have entered the dining area. “What have we here?” His mouth curved in a predatory smile. Behind his mask, his eyes glittered as he swept his greedy gaze over her body. “Aren’t you a tasty-looking sweetmeat?”

  His audacity struck her mute. Then he traced his fingers down her bare arm. She flinched away, her gaze falling on his ring with a cold kind of terror.

  His smile became a scowl. “What’s the matter, sweetheart? I’m not good enough for you?”

  “Leave her be.” A scantily clad doxy with brassy blond curls pushed to the front of the line. She leaned against the host and rubbed her barely clad breasts against his arm. “Can’t ye see she’s a new girl? I’ve got what a man like you wants.” She held his gaze boldly, a knowing smile on her ruby red lips.

  Slowly the masked man grinned, then traced a finger down the bare slope of her breast. “That you do, my beauty.” He cast Anna a dismissive glance. “Go in, then.”

  Heart pounding with fear, she hurried into the lion’s den.

  Roman Devereaux lounged against one of the ornate Greek columns that framed the private dining area, pondering the madness that had possessed him to accompany his young friend to Vauxhall. In truth, he knew what had driven him to bypass Stumpleton’s card party in favor of attending this foolish bacchanal. He’d been concerned that Peter had fallen in with too fast a crowd.

  He needn’t have worried about the lad. The rowdy cubs that Peter called friends gathered around the table with the giggling doxies, pouring wine and offering culinary delicacies to the females. Peter joined in the merriment, popping a bit of sliced fruit into the open mouth of a fetching little strumpet. The wench smacked her rosy lips, then whispered something in the boy’s ear that made him blush to his widow’s peak.

  It seemed the only thing fast about this crowd was the speed with which Peter might be relieved of his trousers.

  One of the women approached, eyeing Roman’s tall form like a cat sizing up a bowl of rich cream. “Would you care for sommat to eat, my handsome friend?”

  “Not at the moment.”

  “Are you certain?” The painted blonde stroked teasing fingers down his arm. “I’ll be happy to get you anything you like.”

  “Perhaps later.” He held the tart’s gaze until she accepted his rejection. With a pout, she turned on her heel, sauntering back to the group around the table.

  Peter hurried over to him. “Rome, come eat with us.”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “Oh, don’t be such an old stick.” Peter glanced back at the dark-haired doxy, who licked her lips in blatant invitation. “There’s plenty to go around.”

  Rome merely shook his head. There was no mistaking the brightness in the boy’s eyes; lust would have its way with youth, and common sense drifted away like smoke on the breeze. At thirty-three, he felt ancient by comparison. “Have a care for your purse, Peter. Leave some of your inheritance for your children.”

  “I will.” The young man flashed him a grin and darted back to the table and the delights of the wench who awaited him.

  “And I gave up a night at the card tables for this,” Roman muttered. He could have been swapping battle stories with his old comrades in arms over a hand of faro, a glass of whiskey at his elbow, but instead he was spending his evening playing nursemaid to a twenty-two-year-old youth and his wild friends.

  A promise was a promise, after all.

  He just hadn’t known when his good friend Richard lay dying on the battlefield that the promise he made to watch out for Richard’s younger brother, Peter, would include chaperoning the lad to various orgies and drinking parties.

  Peter had seemed so excited about his newfound friends, a group of fencers who challenged each other to mock duels. The fascination with swords had raised Rome’s concerns. These days there were so many foolish pursuits that could land a reckless young man in trouble. He owed it to Richard to make sure Peter had not gotten involved in something dangerous.

  This evening he had been prepared to extricate Peter from the clutches of this set, if necessary. Instead, the deadly organization he had imagined appeared to be little more than a collection of wild bloods out to impress each other with showy exhibitions of swordsmanship, nothing more. His only concern was that the strumpet currently sitting in his young friend’s lap did not include picking pockets among her talents.

  Another half hour just to be certain there was truly nothing to be concerned about, and he would take his leave and claim his chair at Stumpleton’s.

  A movement caught his eye, and he looked away from the revelry to the young woman standing just to the side of the crowd at the table. At first glance, she appeared to be part of the merriment, but as he watched her he realized that wasn’t the case. Every few moments she took another step away from the table, edging toward the door.

  What was she up to?

  Rome straig
htened. She was a fetching thing, not hard-eyed and painted like the other bawds. Her dress looked to be of a decent-quality satin, though its plunging bodice revealed a delicious amount of swelling breasts. He forced his gaze upward to note that her honey brown hair curled in fashionable disarray around a fine-boned face that looked elegant even with the simple satin mask covering half of it. Only her mouth fit her surroundings, lush and sensual and begging for a man’s kiss.

  He’d never seen a prostitute who looked so much like a debutante. Curious, he made his way across the room.

  She saw him coming. For an instant, her eyes widened, then she glanced away and took another step toward the door.

  He blocked her escape.

  When she realized that he stood in her path, she took in his large form with a quick glance, then pursed her lips. He could nearly see her working out the options in her head.

  “You might as well say good evening,” he murmured. “I’m not going to move.”

  Surprise flashed across her face. In the flickering light, he could see that she was not beautiful. Sensual, yes. Striking. Erotic, even. Alluring. It was all he could do not to bend down and taste those soft-looking lips.

  “I do wish you would,” she whispered.

  Lust jolted the breath from his lungs, and he nearly hauled her into his arms before he realized she couldn’t possibly have read his mind.

  “I wish you would move,” she reiterated, her soft voice nearly inaudible beneath the riot of merriment around them. “I think perhaps I’ve made a mistake.”

  “Have you?” He peered at her, noting her nervous glances at the rest of the party, the way she startled every time someone roared with laughter. “This is your first time, isn’t it?”

  She jerked her gaze to his, her brown eyes wide with panic. “How did you know?”

  “I can tell.” He reached out and took her hand, suddenly glad he had come. Her fingers fluttered in his for a moment, then quieted. “You seem rather shy for a woman in your line of work.”