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  But she couldn’t let the absence of her dear cousins stop her. She looked up at Peter. “Are you ready?”

  “You don’t have to do this,” he said softly, putting his arm around her.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “I’m not certain I approve of such a public display,” her brother, the duke, said in a cool voice.

  He was so tall and handsome, his darker Spanish complexion always setting him apart from other Englishmen. His wife Abigail tried to hush him.

  Elizabeth smiled. “And why not? We’re engaged. And I love him.”

  She heard her mother sniffing back relieved tears, saw her other female relatives giving her soft, happy smiles.

  “But I didn’t know I loved him for a long time,” Elizabeth continued. “I’m so glad I forced him into an engagement, because then I learned the truth about our relationship.”

  Though many gasped, she could hear her mother’s cry of “What?” above it all.

  Peter held up a hand. “I hardly had to be forced. The details aren’t important. We’ve had our share of misunderstandings.”

  “But none of them matter,” Elizabeth said, smiling up into his eyes. “And yet they do. Because they opened my eyes to the kind of man my childhood friend has become. Thank God,” she added fervently.

  “Well, that’s mysterious,” her brother said, “I can only say that secrets don’t stay secret long in this family. If you want a marriage contract, Derby, I might need to know more.”

  “I don’t need anything, Your Grace, except Elizabeth,” Peter said. “Now before we leave, I do need a private moment with my future bride.”

  They went across the entrance hall—to the library, Elizabeth thought, trying not to laugh at how often she’d been in one library or another these past weeks.

  “Guess what?” she said before he could speak.

  He rolled his eyes. “Very well, your secret first.”

  “Remember how I told you that William had a big announcement he planned for tonight?”

  “And you didn’t know if it was about you or not.”

  “It’s not,” she said, grinning. “Finally, today, Lucy confessed the secret, the reason William wanted me to be near her tonight. Our families are about to be even more intertwined.”

  “Another marriage?” he said doubtfully.

  “It seems that during my preoccupation with you, Lucy found herself falling in love with—you’ll never guess.”

  “Just tell me.”

  “Your brother!”

  She laughed in delight at his shocked expression.

  “I know, I know, she didn’t breathe a word! She thought I had too much on my mind, was so worried about my problems that she didn’t want to ‘boast’—her word—about her good fortune. But our families have been inseparable lately. She and James spent time together and have formed an attachment. Isn’t that wonderful?”

  “My mother will certainly think so.” His smile turned devilish. “My news is far more intriguing.”

  “Tell me!”

  “It seems your painting has disappeared from the club. No one knows what happened to it.”

  “I can’t decide whether or not to be relieved, but since there’s nothing I can do, I won’t worry. I’m simply happy to know that it is no longer on public display.”

  “Perhaps we should tell Susanna and Rebecca?”

  “And interrupt their conquests of your friends? No, I think not. There’s still a wager going on, one we intend to win.” She paused and fluttered her lashes at him. “I did promise to tell you the truth about the painting when our engagement was broken.”

  He pulled her close. “I’m waiting.”

  “But our engagement was never broken, so I don’t have another word to say.”

  His groan dissolved into laughter as he held her against him. “I’m glad the painting is gone, because now I will have the model all to myself.”

  About the Author

  After a detour through fitness instructing and computer programming, GAYLE CALLEN found the life she’d always dreamed of as a romance writer. This USA Today bestselling author has written seventeen historical romances for Avon Books, and her novels have won the Holt Medallion and the Laurel Wreath Award.

  Gayle lives in Central New York with her three children; her dog, Apollo; and her husband, Jim, the Romance Hero. Visit her website at www.gaylecallen.com.

  Romances by Gayle Callen

  A Most Scandalous Engagement

  In Pursuit of a Scandalous Lady

  Never Marry a Stranger

  Never Dare a Duke

  Never Trust a Scoundrel

  The Viscount in Her Bedroom

  The Duke in Disguise

  The Lord Next Door

  A Woman’s Innocence

  The Beauty and the Spy

  No Ordinary Groom

  His Bride

  His Scandal

  His Betrothed

  My Lady’s Guardian

  A Knight’s Vow

  The Darkest Knight

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  A MOST SCANDALOUS ENGAGEMENT. Copyright © 2010 by Gayle Kloecker Callen. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  EPub Edition December 2010 ISBN: 9780062030566

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  About the Publisher

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  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Romances by Gayle Callen

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  />   Gayle Callen, A Most Scandalous Engagement