The Rake of Last Resort

THE RAKE OF LAST RESORT

CHAPTER ONE

Mr. Sidney West tore his eyes away from the astonishing beauty standing in his front hall and addressed his friend. “Loftus Dean, is that your sister in my hall?”

“Couldn’t be.”

“The family resemblance is uncanny, though she is far more lovely than you led me to believe,” Sidney complained to him, waiting for Dean’s merry expression to turn to one of recognition. He did not have to wait long for a reaction.

“No! It cannot be.”

Sidney studied the woman’s slender figure and his interest only increased. What he could see of her face under the cloak hood wasn’t enough, as he felt the pull of attraction from half a room away.

“Edith has no cause to be in London,” Dean complained.

“Well, she is here and could only be looking for you,” he noted.

Loftus Dean shrank back. “How the hell did she find me?”

“She has.” Sidney waited impatiently for his friend to act accordingly. To take charge of his relative and take her away from his scandalous party. But the fellow didn’t move. “You must deal with her.”

“She’s not my problem,” Loftus declared. “I know what she will ask for, and the answer is no.”

Then Dean opened the window he was standing beside, letting in a blast of frigid air, and disappeared. In his haste, he rudely left it open, too.

Sidney hurried to the window, calling after his friend, but it was no use. The rear courtyard was dark and already empty.

Sidney cursed roundly under his breath as he shut the window. Surely the man couldn’t avoid his responsibilities, now they were in London.

Miss Edith Dean looked like a woman on a mission to reform a rake, but it wasn’t Sidney. Her brother hadn’t shown his face in the countryside in over two years, and she’d been desperate enough to write to Sidney about the matter. He’d informed her that her brother was a regular visitor to Sidney’s home during the cold winter nights, when most other society had fled London.

Sidney squared his shoulders. He would have a chance to speak with the proper Miss Dean and then he must send her away, unsatisfied.