An Heir of Uncertainty Read Online Free PDF

virile good looks she actually broke her stride for a moment.
    But only for a moment. Mastering her surprise, she stalked up to him. “Is it really necessary to berate this poor child? You’re terrifying the girl.”
    His startled expression gave way to a look of undisguised irritation. “For your information—not that it’s any of your affair—my daughter was in danger of running out onto the frozen pond over that rise. Or would you rather I held my tongue and stood by while she risked her neck on thin ice?”
    “Oh.” She hadn’t realized...and she would have apologized, but the man turned his temper on her.
    “And since when is it your place to instruct a father on how to discipline his child, Miss—”
    She stiffened at his lecturing tone, her chin coming up. “It’s not Miss, it’s Lady Radbourne. And it’s certainly my place when someone disturbs the peace on my husband’s land.”
    Now it was his turn to look nonplussed. “Ah. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were the countess.” He lifted his hat in grudging courtesy. Even his hair was manly, thick chestnut waves cropped short in a futile effort to tame them. “Still, my daughter’s safety is my concern. And I’m hardly trespassing. Forgive my bluntness, but this isn’t your husband’s land anymore.”
    “I take it you’re Mr. Vaughan? Well, it’s not your land. Not yet, anyway.”
    His jaw assumed a stubborn angle. “I regret to have to contradict a lady, but apparently this is my land, at least for the present. And it’s not Mr. Vaughan, it’s Colonel Vaughan.”
    She’d been right to suppose he’d be nothing like Edward—but with reluctance she conceded that the chambermaid had been right, too, in calling him a fine figure of a man. Where Edward had been slender and of average height, Colonel Vaughan was tall and broad shouldered. He wore a three-caped garrick coat, and he had the kind of strong, athletic build that suggested he was more accustomed to outdoor pursuits like riding and hunting than to haunting the inns and alehouses of his acquaintance.
    At the disloyalty of the thought—she knew very well why tavern-going had popped into her head—Lina drew herself up to her full five-foot-two. “If I were you, I shouldn’t grow too comfortable thinking of this as your land, Colonel.”
    “And if I were you, I shouldn’t grow too comfortable talking down to me, Lady Radbourne.”
    Tugging at the sleeve of her father’s coat, the little girl looked up into his face. “Don’t be angry, Papa.”
    He glanced down at his daughter, and his belligerent expression vanished as if by magic. “I’m not angry, Jules. Lady Radbourne and I were simply...having a discussion.”
    “Yes.” For the little girl’s sake, Lina mustered a friendly smile. “Grown-ups sometimes sound cross when they’re merely convinced they’re in the right.”
    “Yes, indeed,” Colonel Vaughan said, “though being convinced isn’t always the same as being correct.”
    Oh, good Lord. He was clearly the obstinate sort who had to have the last word, even in front of his young daughter. She would have to be the bigger person.
    Next time. This time, Lina said, “And neither is being louder.”
    A muscle worked in the colonel’s jaw. He appeared to be struggling to keep his temper in check, though he looked as if he would like to give her a crushing set-down, perhaps one in which oaths played a part. Instead he inclined his head and said with stiff courtesy, “Julia and I were on our way to the dower house to call on you, Lady Radbourne. I can see we should have found you from home, but perhaps you’ll allow us to escort you back?”
    She was quite capable of walking to the dower house on her own. But since she sensed it would vex him to have to maintain the appearance of civility when he obviously disliked her, she decided to accept. “Thank you, Colonel. I’d appreciate that.” There. That would teach him to make insincere offers just to look