The Shadowed Heart. Nina Beaumont

      “I’m afraid.” Letter to Reader Title Page Dedication About the Author ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Epilogue Copyright

      “I’m afraid.”

      Even as Chiara spoke, she wondered that the words slipped off her tongue so easily. Never in her life had she opened herself this way to another. Never in her life had she confessed a weakness to another.

      

      “Of me?” Luca asked.

      

      “Of you. Of myself. Of the confusion in my mind.” She lowered her head into her hands. “Everything used to be so clear. I knew my path. I knew what I had to do.” She pulled in an unsteady breath. “Now nothing is clear. Nothing.”

      

      That wasn’t quite true, she thought. It was clear that there was something between them. Something deep and real, far beyond her fears, her visions.

      

      Something she was afraid to look at more closely....

      Dear Reader,

      

      Next month, Harlequin Historicals^® turns ten years old! But we have such a terrific lineup this month, we thought we’d start celebrating early. To begin, longtime historical author Nina Beaumont returns this month with The Shadowed Heart, set in eighteenth-century Europe. In this suspenseful story, our beautiful gypsy heroine seeks revenge against the man she believes harmed her sister. She finds him, only she senses that he can’t be the one, especially when she finds herself falling in love with him....

      

      Also out for revenge is Jesse Kincaid, of MONTANA MAVERICKS: RETURN TO WHITEHORN fame, when he kidnaps his enemy’s mail-order bride in Wild West Wife, by bestselling Silhouette^® author Susan Mallery. In A Warrior’s Honor, the next medieval in Margaret Moore’s popular WARRIOR SERIES, a knight is tricked by a fellow nobleman into abducting a beautiful lady, but, guided by honor—and love—vows to rescue her from his former friend.

      

      Laurie Grant, who is known for her stirring Medievals and gritty Westerns, returns with a delightful new story. The Duchess and the Desperado. Here, a rancher turned fugitive inadvertently becomes a bodyguard to the very visible Duchess of Malvern when her life is threatened during a goodwill tour of the American West.

      

      Whatever your tastes in reading, you’ll be sure to find a romantic journey back to the past between the covers of a Harlequin Historical^®.

      

      Sincerely,

      

      Tracy Farrell

      Senior Editor

      Please address questions and book requests to:

      Harlequin Reader Service U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269 Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

      The Shadowed Heart

      Nina Beaumont

      

www.millsandboon.co.uk

      To Kathy Ketonen Clark, my “Dearest Roommate.”

      Thanks for making life in Room 423 easy and for all the years of friendship since.

      NINA BEAUMONT

      

      is of Russian parentage and has a family tree that includes Count Stroganoff and a Mongolian Khan. A real cosmopolitan, she was born in Salzburg and grew up in Massachusetts before moving to Austria, where she lived for twenty-five years.

      

      Although she has relocated to the Seattle area, her European ties are still strong, so she plans to stick with the exotic settings she has had the opportunity to get to know firsthand.

      

      Books and music are her first loves, but she also enjoys painting watercolors and making pottery.

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      My thanks to Karen David of Cleveland, OH,

      Maria Lujan de Peralta and Phoenix of Seattle, WA, and Rita Louise of Everett, WA, for the information they shared with me regarding clairvoyance.

      Chapter One

      

      

      Venice, October 1767, the first day of Carnival

      

      Chiara’s hand stole toward the slim dagger concealed at her waist as the man who held her arm tightly turned her away from the brightly lit Piazza San Marco. Her breath quickened shghtly as he steered her down a shadowy passageway, which was just wide enough for three people to walk abreast, but the handle of the weapon dug comfortingly into the palm of her hand and kept panic at bay.

      If he noticed her apprehension, the man ignored it as he hurried her along. Finally he stopped in front of a door, the wood faded and cracked with age and moisture. Raising his hand, he knocked twice with his fist.

      “We’re here,” he announced, giving her a fleeing look.

      “You told me that you would take me to the house of