A Gentleman's Wager Read Online Free PDF Page B

a long sigh. Unless he was still here in the spring, that particular fantasy wasn’t going to happen. They’d both get pneumonia if they tried it now. Not that she had any certainty that any of her fantasies about Lucerne would happen. Certainly he’d teased her, but it was possible that was as far as it would ever go. She might have to rely on Mark for her fun, except she’d tried that last night when she’d gone to see him in his room above the coach house. It had been a mistake. Tired and in no mood to play her games, he’d been rough with her. Without bothering to kiss her, he’d pushed her over the foot of his narrow bed and entered her sharply from behind. The shock entry of his thick cock had felt good and she’d encouraged him to drive deeper. However, although he had pounded into her powerfully the encounter had only left her feeling more tense.
    The door of the back parlour creaked as it opened, and Joshua’s shadow fell across the worn carpet.
    ‘I’ve something to cheer you up,’ he said, and waved an envelope under her nose. The faint scent of sealing-wax drifted off the paper. Bella peered up at her brother’s hawklike face. He seemed remarkably pleased with himself. His brow had crinkled above his left eye the way it did when he won at billiards or got a good price for the copper ore. She knew he’d recently done neither.
    Over by the fire, Louisa put aside her sampler. ‘What is it?’ she asked Joshua, and Bella noted that, for some inexplicable reason, she blushed furiously when she spoke to him.
    ‘An invitation,’ he said candidly. He settled himself into the green armchair and reclined. ‘It’s from a certain favourite acquaintance of yours, Bella. Would you like me to read it to you?’
    ‘Just tell me what it is,’ she snarled. She was too wrapped up in herself to bother to catch his meaning. It was probably a dull proposal for a Halloween dance at the assembly hall. It happened every year with the same dull people attending.
    ‘Very well, if you promise to smile.’
    Bella scowled instead.
    ‘It’s an invitation from Lucerne. He’s holding a ball at Lauwine so he can introduce himself to his neighbours. He asks if we would like to remain as his guests afterwards, possibly until Christmas. Interested?’
    Bella clamped her lips together, determined to hide the smile that threatened to give her away. The result was an expression somewhere between sour and stubborn.
    ‘Bella, you’ve obviously charmed him – poor fellow. You could at least try to look pleased.’
    ‘She is,’ Louisa said, clearly delighted by the prospect of being closer to Wakefield. ‘She’s just being contrary.’

3
    BELLA’S HEAVY RIDING skirt swished against the stone steps at the entrance to Lauwine Hall, dusting aside the dead leaves as she hurried towards the open door. Two weeks had passed since they’d received the invitation, and those fourteen days had crawled by so slowly that she’d started checking the clocks every half-hour to see if they’d stopped. Captain Wakefield had called twice, much to Louisa’s delight, but they’d seen nothing of Lucerne. Bella optimistically assumed he was too busy with the party preparations.
    She had been supposed to take the long road by carriage with Joshua and Louisa, but Bella didn’t care for the claustrophobic leather interior and had sent her maid, Emma, to travel in her place, while she rode the six straight miles across the moors with Mark. The chill wind and the brisk gallop had put the colour back in her cheeks after too much time stuck indoors, and she felt invigorated and alive.
    She paused on the threshold and swept her gaze over the polished marble surfaces beyond as Mark took their horses to the stables. She’d wanted to know what lay beyond this door ever since she’d been old enough to rattle the handle in vain, and she was determined to savour the moment now it had come. The plain chequer-board floor contrasted heavily with the