The Passionate Love of a Rake by Jane Lark

were, Barrington. You should know you are always welcome here. Have you met my daughter?”
    Robert was impatient to see Jane but pinned a smile on his face regardless, and greeted Coleford’s girl, an attractive brunette with a bright, wide smile and sparkling blue eyes, but far too shallow and light-headed for Robert’s tastes. He did not do young, and he did not do innocent.
    After several minutes of making polite conversation, he took the opportunity to ask Coleford if he’d seen Sparks.
    Coleford pointed him in the direction of the garden, and Robert excused himself.
    His heart kicked into a quicker beat as he stepped through the French door and felt a cool evening breeze.
    He saw Lady Rimes immediately. She was strolling with Sparks along a path leading away from the house, but Jane was not with them.
    Robert crossed the lawn in long, swift strides, a carefree feeling reminiscent of his youth rising inside him. He called out as he neared them, “Sparks!”
    The couple stopped and both looked back. Sparks gave Robert a slanting smile and turned fully, while Lady Rimes merely glared.
    “I did not expect to see you here, Robert?” Sparks stated.
    Robert’s feet were firmly rooted to the spot. He could not find any words to ask them about Jane without being bloody obvious. “I thought … ” He stopped.
Lord in heaven
, he felt like he had at nineteen when he’d first expressed his feelings to Jane. It was idiotic. The only thing to do was just ask. It was hardly out of character for him to chase a woman. “Where is the Dowager Duchess of Sutton? I’d presumed she would be in your company, Lady Rimes.” He gave her a swift, brief bow, then cast her one of his most charming smiles.
    She waved a hand at him in a dismissive gesture. “You need not seek to win me over, Barrington. She shall not heed my opinion, and besides, she is not here. She is not feeling well.”
    Confused, Robert merely stared.
    “She has the headache, my Lord,” Lady Rimes clarified. “Perhaps because you have been hounding her. You take advantage then flaunt yourself with another woman. Her Grace is … ” She stopped, offering him a flint-like stare which clearly judged and weighed him worthless. But then her voice dropped to a confidential tone, “She is not one of
us,
my Lord.” Her slim eyebrows lifted in arch punctuation of her words. “Do not toy with her. She is no flirt, Barrington, and she does not have the resources to fend off men like you. If you have any honour left in your soul, you will leave her be.”
    Her head spun to look up at Sparks. “Forgive me, my Lord. I find the company not to my liking. You may seek me in the card room later.” With that and a swish of lemon silk, the woman was gone.
    Robert looked at Sparks. “I take it Lady Rimes does not like me overmuch.”
    “Not if you upset her friend,” Sparks answered then held out his hand. “Good evening, Robert. Do you want to get a drink?”
    Robert nodded as they shook hands, then he fell into step beside Geoff, and together, they walked back across the lawn.
    “She’s right though.”
    “What?” Robert queried, his gaze drifting across the various couples spread about the lawn enjoying the first lukewarm night of the season.
    “Violet is right about the Dowager Duchess of Sutton. She is not your usual sort. I would back off if I were you.”
    Robert stopped, and Sparks stopped too, his eyes turning to Robert.
    “Has she been speaking of me? What has she said?”
    Sparks laughed.
    “What?” Robert felt suddenly irritated.
    “Calm down, old friend.” Sparks’s hand lay on Robert’s shoulder. “It is just she asked the same of you, in a roundabout way, and no, she has not spoken. Your little widow is a very private person from what I have seen. I doubt she would even share her secrets with Vi. But both Violet and I know because we saw you bring her home.”
    Robert felt heat rise on his skin. Why should he feel remorseful? She was not a