He had kept her garter all this time.
“I know what that is on your upper arm!” Madeleine hotly accused. Armand de Chevalier smiled, said nothing. “How dare you wear my garter for all the world to see!” she raged.
“Now, Maddie, no one but you and I know that it’s your garter.”
Unconvinced, she charged, “You are bent on ruining my life simply because I…because we…”
“Made memorable love in a summer’s storm?” He softly finished her sentence.
“Shhh!” she hissed. “Give that garter back to me!”
“Can’t do that,” he said, lifting then lowering his wide shoulders. “It’s my good luck charm. Besides, it’s all I have of you.”
“It’s all you’ll ever have of me, de Chevalier!”
“Ah, you’re wrong there, Maddie,” he said with irritating cockiness. “You know you are.” A sudden warmth radiated from his eyes when he added, “One day we’ll be together again.”
Countess Madeleine Cavendish swallowed with difficulty. Then she narrowed her eyes and promised him in a soft, acid-laced voice, “You’re the one who’s wrong, Creole. That day will never come!”
“Yes, it will, chérie.” He smiled seductively and predicted, “Perhaps sooner than you think.”
Nan Ryan “writes beautifully. Her style, plotting and characterizations are skillfully developed.”
—Wichita Falls Times Record
Also available from MIRA Books and NAN RYAN
WANTING YOU
The Countess Misbehaves
Nan Ryan
For
Katonna Smothermon
A super talented lady, a beautiful woman, an excellent mother and a treasured friend.
Contents
One
Liverpool, England
August 1856
She knew he was trouble the first time she saw him.
And the first time the Countess of Ballarat saw Armand de Chevalier, was as she boarded White Star’s luxury liner, the S. S. Starlight, for the long voyage to America.
The Countess, known to most as Lady Madeleine Cavendish, lifted her skirts, stepped onto the ship’s long gangway, and then paused to look up. She immediately spotted a tall, strikingly handsome, raven-haired man lounging against the ship’s railing and boldly giving her the once-over.