A Midsummer Night's Sin Read Online Free PDF Page B

She’s misplaced, that’s all, and most probably on purpose. When did you last see her?”
    “But I never did,” Doris Ann said, sniffling. “Not since we first got here. It’s nearly midnight, and you said one hour, Miss Regina, and it has been nearer to two. And she promised me. She promised she would listen to you, if you’d only come with her. I thought you both were gone, seeing as how you didn’t want to come in the first place, but now you’re here, and she isn’t, and I thought for certain she’d be with you and—”
    “All right, all right, let’s be calm, Doris Ann,” Regina said soothingly. “I’m aware that we have been here well over the agreed upon hour, but if I was…detained, then surely it must be the same with Miss Miranda.”
    “I popped my head in there when no one was looking, and there’s strange and wicked goings-on in there, Miss Regina. I heard two of the other maids talking, you understand. You should neither of you have come here.”
    “And we’ll be leaving the moment we find MissMiranda, I assure you. Now, this is what we’ll do. We’ll go inside the ballroom and look for her. You go to the left, and I will go to the right, and— Doris Ann! Don’t you dare shake your head no to me.”
    “I tain’t going in there. There’s wicked goings-on in there.”
    “Yes, you’ve already said that. But your Miss Miranda is in there somewhere.” Or out in the gardens somewhere. “You do love her, don’t you?”
    “Yes, Miss Regina. But there’s wicked—”
    “Do you wish to tell Miss Miranda’s parents you were a part of this? That you helped Miss Miranda find the dominos and masks, that you knew what was going to happen tonight and did nothing to stop it? That you came home without her?”
    Doris Ann licked her thin lips. “I am to go to the left, you said?”
    Regina breathed a sigh of relief. At least she would have help. “Yes, to the left. And if you find her, bring her right back here. Grab on to her if you have to, and don’t let go until she’s back here. Do you understand?”
    Doris Ann nodded, looking fearfully toward the ballroom. “Oh, laws. They’re taking off their masks, Miss Regina. Weren’t you and Miss Miranda to be long gone before they took off their masks?”
    “Oh, God…”
    How could she go back into the ballroom now that people were removing their masks? They would wonder why she kept hers on, and with everyone behaving sobadly, it was even possible some forward person would try to remove hers for her.
    But she had to find Miranda. Even if it was just so that she could wring her neck.
    “Is there a problem?”
    Regina recognized the voice and realized that the man who called himself Robin Goodfellow had found her, was even now standing directly behind her.
    “No. Thank you.” She kept her back to him. Had he taken off his mask? If he had, was he as handsome as she’d thought him? Would he still be laughing at her? Would he expect her to take off her own mask? Had he really meant what he said when he’d been kissing her, speaking to her in French while he thought she didn’t understand? Could she ever look at him after she’d heard what he’d said, knowing that she knew that he knew that she’d understood him?
    “All right, then. I’ll leave you to it, whatever it is.”
    No! Don’t leave!
    “Mr. Goodfellow—wait.” Regina bit her lip for courage and then turned to face him, ridiculously relieved that he still wore his mask. “I…I seem to have misplaced my companion.”
    “Ah. So she—or he—disappeared while you were otherwise occupied?”
    “Don’t be any more obnoxious than you can help, if you please,” Regina said irritably. “You know that I’m not who—what—you supposed, and not without reason, because I know I was behaving badly, so I do not fault you for that, and I will apologize for…for leading you on or whatever you think it was I may have been doing— Doris Ann, stop crying! But it is of extreme