A Heart's Treasure Read Online Free PDF Page A

notice of me.” This time she pushed clear away from his chest. “I shall be well. Quite well. After just a few more tears, I believe.” She tilted back her head, and blinked back tears as she seemed to beseech the ceiling for calm. She gave another damp laugh. “Or perhaps I shall throw myself in the Thames.”
    Xavier had smiled gently, unable not to under the weight of her highly unlikely claim. Despite the hollow threat of self-harm, her words were exactly what he’d expected of sensible Nellie. She’d a kind heart—who knew that better than he?—and she wasn’t one to be comfortable with the messiness of a refusal. She felt it, of course she did, even if it was caused by nothing more than wounded pride. Xavier knew about that…he only wished he better knew if it had actually been pride or her heart that had been the worst bruised?
    They said everyone ought be crossed in love at least once in their life. It was supposed to grow one’s character, or teach one a life lesson, or some such rubbish—but Xavier knew it left a mark that could never be scrubbed clear. In the weeks since, he’d only grown less sure in this particular that he entirely trusted his sister’s spirit of resilience.
    Today, however, she blinked away the tears and looked at him straight on, calm, levelheaded Nellie again. “You think that I should not be paired with Mr. Manning during our treasure hunt.”
    “Yes.”
    “The drawing took me by surprise, I admit it,” she said. “But just as I’d thought of the possibility he could draw my name, it was done, and we were committed.”
    “I could easily—”
    “No,” she said, sounding assured. “I’m glad for the excuse to spend some time with Mr. Manning. To come to a new understanding with him. I hope I may remain his friend.”
    He said much the same, Xavier thought with a twist of his mouth. He reached up a finger, stroking his sister’s cheek. “Perhaps it would be easier to stay behind, Nellie. I could make an excuse for you—”
    “No,” she reached up and grasped his wrist with both her hands, the gentle pressure of her fingers telling him to listen. “It’s time to begin again.”
    “You are very strong, my girl, but this cannot prove much of a pleasure trip for you, I fear.”
    “No?” She put her head on one side, her expression taking on the stubborn aspect he knew so well. “It can if I decide it shall be so.”
    He nodded, and sighed, and dropped his hand to his side, chagrined by his own renewed relief that she’d chosen not to undo his small, private, protected world.
    For good or ill, the treasure hunt would go forward—and Xavier could only hope it wouldn’t end in heartbreak.
     

Chapter 2
    The huntsman winds his horn:
    And a-hunting we will go.
    —Henry Fielding,
    A-Hunting We Will Go
     
    “Tally ho!” Michael cried with a flick of the driving whip, a sign of enthusiasm such as was infrequent with the man. It caused Haddy to frown at him, and murmur that hunt phrases were sacrosanct and ought to be used only for such, but the cry was echoed by the other passengers who were not such sticklers.
    The first of the two carriages rolled forward, only achieving a good clip once they were finally free of London’s traffic and tollgates. No one had asked how Kenneth’s interview with Sir Roger concerning this journey had gone, or if it had even taken place. It was easy to imagine a note left on the mantel.
    It was also easy to imagine Sir Roger’s wrath once Kenneth and Laura returned home.
    Michael drove the ladies’ coach, and Haddy the second one. The ladies’ maids had been turned back before they’d ever left Mayfair, and no grooms accompanied them.
    “Act as maid to one another, and of course you’re all safe enough with brothers coming out of every seam,” Haddy had supported Kenneth’s decision to travel more lightly. “We’ve fists and pistols aplenty to keep us safe from footpads.” He’d turned his attention to the heavily