A Gentle Grace (Wedded Women Quartet) Read Online Free PDF Page A

by the sight of her curled up sleeping beneath the mulberry tree that he had quite literally stopped in his tracks.
    He cleared his throat, and the faint sound was enough to wake Grace from her light doze. Lashes fluttering, she yawned widely and stretched her arms high above her head, taking in her outdoor surroundings with a bemused expression. Light filtered down through the sharp edged leaves, creating a shifting pattern of circular shapes on her pale blue dress and indicating the hour had passed from late morning to mid afternoon while she napped. Suddenly cognizant of the fact that she was not alone, Grace glanced to the side… and shrieked when she saw a man standing no more than three yards away watching her with great interest.
    “Hello,” he said. And then, in a more apologetic tone, “I did not mean to startle you.”
    Grace scrambled to her feet. “What did you think would happen, sneaking up on someone like that?” Pressing a hand tight to her chest, she drew in a deep, steady breath to calm the pounding of her heart. “You nearly scared me to death.”
    “You certainly look alive enough to me.”
    Eyes narrowing, Grace took a closer look at the stranger. He was tall, taller than she by at least six inches, with a well conditioned frame and undeniably handsome face. It was all brooding lines and angles and would have been perfect were it not quite so obvious that his nose had once been broken. He had a gleaming mane of gold, thick as a lion’s pelt and nearly as long. It brushed his shoulders, drawing her eye down to his dark blue linen tailcoat and the smartly pressed waistcoat beneath. They were the clothes of a gentleman. A wealthy gentleman if the gold buttons running the length of his tailcoat were any indication.
     “Who are you?” she asked, her shock quickly giving way to curiosity.
    “Who are you ?” he countered. “Were I to believe in such things I might think you were a wood nymph, or a sprite.” Faster than Grace could blink, the man came forward and plucked something from her hair. When he stepped back, she saw it was a leaf. He twirled the slender stem absently between his thumb and forefinger, a half smile flirting with the corners of his mouth as he watched the small leaf spin in circles before he lifted his head. “Do you often take naps outside?”
    His eyes, Grace noted absently, were the same color green as the leaf in his hand. “I… That is to say… Well, yes,” she admitted, for it was true. “Quite often, actually. Well, it is not so much that I intend to fall asleep. But that is usually the end result.”
    The man quirked one eyebrow. “The end result of what, pray tell?”
    “Trying to draw or embroider. I fear my hands are much too clumsy to do either, and so I simply take a nap instead.”
    “Outside,” the man said.
    “Outside,” Grace agreed.
    He seemed to consider this for some time, his attention wavering between the leaf and her face. Grace waited patiently, for she often took quite a bit of time to collect her thoughts as well, and rather despised it when people rushed her along before she had readied what she wanted to say.
    From the front of the estate she could hear voices raised in merriment, chief among them her mother’s, who rarely took time to think about anything before she allowed it to float past her lips.
    “You are quite unusual,” the man said finally.
    Grace’s brows pinched together over the bridge of her nose. “Thank you.”
    “How do you know that was a compliment?”
    “Because I have chosen to take it as one.” She tipped her head to the side. “I can only assume that you are comparing me to other young women of my age, and as I would be the first to profess that I have very little in common with them, I must say your initial assessment is very accurate.”
    “Quite unusual,” he repeated.
    Grace smiled.
    “And intelligent. Witty. Oddly charming. Beautiful, of course, and—”
    “No,” Grace interrupted, her smile