were crackers in the top drawer of her chest, secreted beneath her badly-embroidered handkerchiefs, and a slice of cheese wrapped in a linen napkin hidden underneath her pillow. Agnes, her companion, and lady’s maid once Victoria was old enough to need one, always kept water in the room, just in case.
Victoria hadn’t meant to ruin her father’s party. She’d approached Lady Dane-Hawkins because the woman had whispered a rude comment about her to Lady Markem as they strolled from the dining room to the salon. Victoria was odd; she knew that. But she’d worked hard to appear normal, or as normal as a child could when they were, in fact, not normal. To have that gray-haired snipe say something that made her parents turn and look at her—as if to determine what precisely about their daughter was so strange—when Victoria tried valiantly to evaporate like morning mist when she was around them, was too much. Lady Dane-Hawkins had placed another crack in the cup that held their love, and Victoria felt it leaking away even faster.
She would have told them about her talent long ago if she wanted her parent’s affection to wither like an aster bloom in the winter.
She’d only slipped her fingers around Lady Dane-Hawkins’ wrist for one moment, long enough to erase whatever Victoria had done to make the woman think badly of her. A few minutes of the lady’s memory obliterated. Maybe the entire night, but with a crowded social calendar, who needed another of those? Unfortunately, Lady Dane-Hawkins had fainted dead away, dropped right to the Aubusson carpet her mother loved, her glass of sherry going with her in a rosy-red spill.
Victoria’s parlor trick, the ability to steal time, was one she’d been employing since forever. Although it never worked out well for anyone.
A light knock sounded. A folded sheet of foolscap inched beneath the door.
Victoria opened the note, a tear rolling down her cheek and dropping to the parchment. She watched it bleed into the ink, fracturing the script into broken pieces. You’re not odd. You’re unique.
Charles.
Her brother, her protector. He and Agnes knew about her peculiarity when no one else did. No one else cared.
Her family was much smaller than it looked from the outside.
Dropping her head to her knees, she shivered. There would be no fire in the hearth tonight. No companion to read her a story. No food aside from the concealed cheese and crackers. No love, as expected.
She’d been told often enough that eccentric people usually grew to live solitary lives.
So often, she now believed it.
Read on!
Also by Tracy Sumner
Garrett Brothers Series
Tides of Love
Tides of Passion
Tides of Desire: A Christmas Romance
Southern Heat Series
To Seduce a Rogue
To Desire a Scoundrel: A Christmas Seduction
League of Lords Series
The Lady is Trouble
The Rake is Taken
The Duke is Wicked
The Hellion is Tamed (coming 2021)
Multi-Author Series
Tempting the Scoundrel
Chasing the Duke: Seventh Day of Christmas
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About Tracy Sumner
Tracy's story telling career began when she picked up a copy of LaVyrle Spencer's Vows on a college beach trip. A journalism degree and a thousand romance novels later, she decided to try her hand at writing a southern version of the perfect love story. With a great deal of luck and more than a bit of perseverance, she sold her first novel to Kensington Publishing.
When not writing sensual stories featuring complex characters and lush settings, Tracy can be found reading romance, snowboarding, watching college football and figuring out how she can get to 100 countries before she kicks. She lives in the south, but after spending a few years in NYC, considers herself a New Yorker at heart.
Tracy has been awarded the National Reader's Choice, the Write Touch and the Beacon—with finalist nominations in the HOLT Medallion, Heart of Romance, Rising Stars and Reader's Choice. Her books have been translated into German, Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish. She loves hearing from readers about why she tends to pit her hero and heroine against each other from the very first page or that great romance she simply must order in five seconds on her Kindle.
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