A Loving Spirit Read Online Free PDF

with a loud thud over his face, and he pushed it aside impatiently.
    "Oh, no!" Louisa answered, fluffing up her lace-trimmed blue satin skirts. "They already know, I am certain. And they will soon make that stubborn Lord Royce see. Why, he is every bit as obstinate as my husband was!"
    Sir Belvedere chuckled. "It will be vastly amusing to watch them try to make him see, Louisa. Vastly amusing. 'Twill be the most enjoyment I have had since I overran castles in my mortal life!"
    "It is simply too bad Lady Lettice is not here to see this. She was always so wonderful at matchmaking, at helping people to see how perfect they are for each other. Do you remember what she did for this Lord Royce's grandfather and that Miss Sutcliffe?" Louisa smiled at the memory. "I think Lord Royce and Miss Richards will need a great deal of help as well."
    "I, too, miss Lady Lettice," said Sir Belvedere. "It has been a long while since we saw her. But if anything can bring her back, it is two people falling reluctantly in love."

 
     
     
    Chapter 6

     
    Cassie awoke from a dream of Jamaica, of walking along a warm, sandy shore with the bright morning sun shining down on her, to find herself not sunbathed and cozy but chilled and shivering. Sometime during the restless night she had thrown off the bedclothes, and her bare feet stuck out into the cold room.
    "Wretched!" she muttered, yanking the blankets back up over her shoulders and rolling over onto her side. The fire was long-dead in the grate, but the draperies at the window were drawn partially back, letting a bar of yellow-white sunlight fall across the floor.
    The room was so quiet that she could hear, very faintly, the rush and roar of the sea, far below the cliffs. It reminded her of her dream, and drew her out from the warm cave of the bed. She slid her feet into her slippers and padded over to look out the window.
    She could see the sea, but it was not like the violet-blue waters of the island. It was gray, almost black, roiling angrily against the steep cliffs beyond the castle's manicured gardens. The sun that was struggling so valiantly through the slate-colored clouds did not even seem to penetrate them at all. Scrubby trees grew along the cliffs, bending gaunt limbs toward the sea like hands in the wind.
    Cassie had never felt so far from home before. She shivered and crossed her arms tightly in front of her.
    Then, out of the starkness, she saw a flash of movement. A figure on horseback riding along the cliffs, sweeping past the trees and creating a veritable whirlwind of energy.
    He was quite a distance away, but she could see the banner of dark hair that flowed in the wind.
    Lord Royce.
    Cassie had decided when she went to bed that he was just a fusty scholar after all, interested only in his books, but he certainly did not look fusty this morning.
    He looked like a dashing poet. Or a pirate, against the backdrop of that dark sea. He rode along fast and furious, his horse's hooves churning up the earth. His white shirt billowed, adding to the illusion of piracy.
    Cassie smiled. Perhaps her strange fascination with him was not so odd after all.
    There was a quick knock at the door, dashing these fanciful thoughts. Cassie turned away from the window and called, "Come in."
    Antoinette entered the room, majestic in a blue-and-green swirl of a gown and a matching turban. Despite the early hour, she looked rested and regal, as usual.
    "Cassie!" she tsked. "Here it is time for breakfast, and you're not dressed."
    "I did not sleep restfully," Cassie said with a little shrug. "I had such odd dreams."
    Antoinette came up beside her and peered over her shoulder out the window. Lord Royce was just disappearing from view, his hair still flowing in the wind. "Um-hm," she murmured. "And I see what those dreams were about."
    "Antoinette!" Cassie cried, jerking the draperies closed. "It was not like that at all. Lord Royce is not even my sort of gentleman. He is—is narrow-minded, and cares