A Country Mouse Read Online Free PDF Page B

Earl remembered his manners. 'My dear, allow me to present you to your cousin Sebastian, Viscount Yardley.'
    Emily half turned and sank into a second graceful curtsy keeping her eyes down, as was expected of a well brought up young lady. To her surprise an elegant hand appeared and raised her to her feet.  She looked up to meet the bluest eyes she had ever seen. They appeared to bore into her very soul. If he had had not been holding her she would have taken an involuntary step backwards. Sebastian raised her gloved hand and pressed the back lightly with his lips. She was aware that although his mouth smiled his eyes were cautious, assessing her every move and, she believed, finding her wanting.
    Incensed she snatched her hand back; it was a deliberate insult, but she was unable to help herself. If his expression had been unfriendly before, now it was arctic. His eyes narrowed and she could see him clench his teeth, obviously biting back a crushing set-down.
    From somewhere she found the strength to speak. 'I am delighted to meet you, Cousin Sebastian.' Her cousin raked her from head to toe, dislike and disdain apparent in his every gesture.
    'Are you indeed, cousin? I only wish I could say the same.' He turned and half bowed to his great-grandfather. 'You will excuse me, I hope, sir?'
    Without another word he sauntered out of the room leaving Emily so furious she forgot to be insulted. She glared after him, hating him, and for a glorious moment forgot that she had possibly just ruined her family's one chance of happiness.
     

Chapter Four
     
    'Well, my child, you certainly knocked him from his high horse.' The Earl chuckled, much amused by his granddaughter's spirited behaviour. Emily swung back to face him, her face crumpled and tears filling her eyes. 'I have offended him, my lord. He will never offer for me now.' The weight of failure was crushing her chest.
    'Come and sit by me, my dear, and do not look so woebegone. If he does not want you, that will be his loss. There are plenty more eligible gentlemen out there for you to choose from, I can assure you. You are an heiress now.'
    Her mouth fell open. 'But I thought I had to marry Viscount Yardley. I thought that was the arrangement between us.'
    Her grandfather frowned. 'What arrangement, Emily? You wrote to me asking for my help in finding a husband; Sebastian is just the first suitable bachelor I have introduced you to.'
    Emily sat down beside the old man. 'Are you saying that you do not mind if my cousin does not offer for me? You're not going to send us back?'
    'Good God no! Of course not! Whatever gave you that ridiculous notion?'
    Emily recalled the letter from the Earl. In it he had offered to find her a husband and suggested that Viscount Yardley might do; he had also offered to give them a permanent home. There had been no mention of sending them back. Her fevered imagination had manufactured the threat. She nodded, her eyes still damp.
     'It appears I have misunderstood, my lord,' she said stiffly. 'But after the callous way you have treated my mother these past years, it is small wonder that I did so.'
    He shifted on his chair and his lined face flushed. 'You are right to take me to task, Emily, my dear. I have behaved abominably. I blamed my dear Althea for her mother's demise; I was so distraught at the time I was not thinking rationally.'
    Emily was unimpressed. She regarded him sternly. 'But you also ignored my plea for help when our father died two years ago. Surely you were not still overwrought at the loss of the countess then?'
    He shook his head. 'I have no excuse, other than your appeal arrived on the anniversary of her death. It was not an auspicious time, as you can imagine, and opened old wounds.'
    Emily jumped to her feet. She had heard enough of his feeble excuses. 'On my father's death you became the head of our household, my sisters and my legal guardian. You have shamefully shirked your responsibilities. If we were not in such desperate