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      ‘My sister!’ said Rick, as though it must be obvious.

      ‘Your sister,’ he repeated, looking at her long and hard.

      Imogen bristled. What was he doing acting as though he was the host tonight, the arrogant pig! It was Monty who had invited them! And then, to her horror, Rick said, ‘She has been really looking forward to meeting you properly, at last.’

      Imogen felt heat flood to her cheeks. If that was not enough to destroy her reputation in this man’s eyes, she did not know what would. He had already accused her of pursuing him. Though nobody else seemed aware anything was wrong, she could tell from the way his eyes glittered he thought she was so brassy she had even roped her brother into her schemes.

      She lifted her chin and glared at him. ‘I was not in the least keen to meet you, Viscount Mildenhall. My brother told me he was to introduce me to an exofficer from his regiment.’ She scanned the other occupants of the box again, wondering which one of the young gentlemen it could be. Neither of them looked in the least like the Monty of her imagination.

      ‘You already know each other?’ Rick asked, glancing down at her in surprise.

      ‘We have crossed each other’s paths, once or twice. But we have never been formally introduced,’ said the viscount.

      ‘Well, then, Monty, let me do the honours. This is my sister, Midge. Well, my stepsister, Miss Imogen Hebden, I suppose I should say, to be perfectly accurate. And her maternal aunt, Lady Callandar.’

      ‘M-Monty?’ Imogen’s eyes swivelled back to Viscount Mildenhall and widened in horror. ‘You are Monty? B-but—’

      At exactly the same time, Lady Callandar rounded on her. ‘This is your brother’s friend Monty?’

      Finally, even Rick picked up on the fact there was something amiss.

      ‘Oh, ah, well, suppose I should have explained he’s Viscount Mildenhall, nowadays.’

      ‘The family name is Claremont, as I am sure you are aware, madam,’ he said to Lady Callandar, bowing stiffly from the waist. ‘My brother officers still tend to use the name by which they have always known me. I started off as Lieutenant Monty, then Captain Monty, and so on. In Captain Bredon’s defence, we have not seen each other since I took the title after my older brother died last year.’

      Lady Callandar began to talk to him. About what, Imogen did not know. There was a funny roaring sound in her ears.

      Rick led her to a chair at the front of the box, then helped her off with her cloak, while Viscount Mildenhall performed the same office for her aunt.

      She felt naked without her cloak. Even more so when the viscount’s eyes swept over the curves of her exposed bosom, reminding her of the way his hands had stroked there, to such devastating effect, only the night before. He looked up, then, and their eyes met.

      Imogen gasped at what she saw in them. He was remembering too!

      He had raised his hand to his jaw, and was fingering his lower lip, drawing her horrified attention to the raised scab, and the purplish bruise she had put there.

      She tore her eyes from his and gazed dizzily down into the stalls below. She had never been scared of heights before, but now she felt as though she was teetering right on the brink of an abyss.

      All the viscount had to do was give her one little push, and she would go plunging down into social ruin.

      Chapter Four

      Nothing on the stage could hold Imogen’s attention. There was far too much drama playing out right there in the darkened box.

      After the initial shock of meeting her, the viscount recovered his customary aplomb remarkably swiftly, introducing her to his other guests—the men she now had no hope of marrying—as though nothing was amiss.

      Only she noticed something odd in the way he did not give her full name, but instead presented her as ‘The sister of my good friend, Captain Alaric Bredon,’ before correctly introducing her aunt as Lady Callandar.

      He did it to prevent them knowing Rick was related to the scandalous Miss Hebden, no doubt. And she was, reluctantly, grateful to him.

      Though he was still furious with her. She could tell by the way the air between them seemed to positively thrum whenever she glanced his way.

      When the curtain fell for the interval and everyone rose and began to chat to each other, he took the opportunity to draw her aside.

      ‘You will not say one word to your brother about what has passed between us,’ he bit out. ‘He has introduced you to me, in all good faith, believing you to be the innocent young creature who grew up with him in Staffordshire. He has no idea how much you have changed, and I have no intention of being the man to disabuse him.’

      She felt an overwhelming sense of relief that he was going to put aside his desire for vengeance because of his friendship with Rick.

      ‘Thank you,’ she breathed. ‘I would not have Rick hurt for the world. Indeed, I would never have come tonight and put him in this situation, had I known that you were Monty.’ She took a good, long look at him then, riddled with confusion. She would never have guessed that Monty could be the same man as Viscount Mildenhall. The Monty Rick had written about had been dashing, courageous and honourable. Whatever could have happened, to turn him into this vain, rude, slimy…

      His eyes narrowed under her scrutiny. She wondered if he could tell what she was thinking about him. But then he nodded and said, ‘I believe you. For my part, I never connected the sister Rick described to me with the Miss Hebden I know. Why is your name Hebden—’ he frowned ‘—and not Bredon?’

      ‘Because Rick’s father did not care to adopt me and give me his name.’ She stared past him, to where Rick was chatting happily with one of the other young men. Out of the corner of her eye she could see her aunt quizzing the other. ‘Well,’ she added bitterly, ‘I should think you can understand that. You, above all people, know the kind of things that are said about my parents.’

      When they all took their seats again, after the interval was over, Imogen found to her dismay that she had been manoeuvred into a chair next to Viscount Mildenhall.

      He ignored her for the entire second act with magnificent disdain. Every time she glanced up at him, his face was turned towards the stage, his whole demeanour indicating that the actors were far more interesting than the presumptuous female who had inveigled her way into his box.

      While, to her growing annoyance, Imogen could think of nothing but him. Even though he was a despicable worm, being able to feel the heat of his body—so close to hers—and smell the indefinable scent of him made her whole being thrum with awareness. She could not stop thinking about the way his tongue had swept into her mouth, the way he had held her, dominated her. It made her stomach turn over and her heart speed up. When she knew a well-brought-up young lady would feel nothing but revulsion for a man who had treated her so insultingly, it was galling to admit that merely sitting next to him in the dark was making her hanker for more of the same.

      She squirmed in her chair, a seething mass of insecurity and thwarted longing, counting the minutes until she could escape from the arrogant, handsome brute lounging in the chair next to hers. As soon as the last curtain came down, she leapt to her feet and made for the sanctuary of Rick’s side.

      There was the inevitable hiatus before they could leave, during which Viscount Mildenhall came across to where she was standing clinging to Rick’s arm, and said, ‘I shall call to take you for a drive tomorrow, Miss Hebden.’

      Imogen’s heart sank. The expression on his face was so forbidding she could see that while he tooled his vehicle round the park he fully intended to give her a stern lecture upon her manners and morals, before warning her to forget any notion she might have of marrying any of his friends!

      But she would have to endure the scold, if that was

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