An Unexpected Love Read Online Free PDF

her again, but she could not see the expression on his face because the light came from behind him.
    â€œIf you are leaving tomorrow for the country, perhaps you could assist me by allowing me to accompany you? I had intended to drive down, but my motor car has developed a very strange clanking noise under the bonnet and the mechanic tells me it will take a few days to repair.”
    Ravina was rather surprised at his proposal. At the same time, she felt it would be unnecessarily rude to say that she preferred to travel alone.
    â€œOf course,” she agreed, after a moment’s pause. “I will be delighted to convey you to Dorset. But I intend to leave very early tomorrow. Before breakfast, in fact. Perhaps you would find that too much of a rush?”
    â€œOn the contrary, it would suit me very well. I am most obliged.”
    Ravina rang the bell for Gibbs.
    â€œThen I will see you in the morning, Sir Michael, and we can tackle the Priory together.”
    She hesitated as she spoke, realising that perhaps she was being too forward.
    Then she shrugged. Surely no one could disapprove of her helping a neighbour decorate his home. What harm could there be in that?
    Gibbs appeared and ushered Sir Michael from the room. Ravina heard them walking across the hall, the sound of the front door opening and closing and Gibbs’s footsteps echoing back down the passage.
    Just then she realised that her visitor had left his gloves on a chair. She picked them up and ran swiftly to the front door.
    She heaved it open and peered out to see if Sir Michael was still in view. But he was not.
    Then to her surprise, as she stood on the top step, the gentle wind blowing her skirt into a flurry around her ankles, she realised that a tall cloaked figure was walking past.
    It was the rude stranger again. The one from the ball. As she gasped, he looked up, his dark eyes seeming to burn into hers.
    He raised his hand in a sombre salute and walked past, vanishing round the bend of the Crescent as if he had never been there at all.

CHAPTER THREE
    Ravina spent a restless night, tossing and turning in her pink and gold bedroom, her dreams haunted by the stranger’s dark piercing gaze.
    She rose at dawn, hours earlier than usual, feeling weary and irritable and was bathed, dressed and downstairs before the housemaids had finished sweeping the gleaming staircase.
    They looked astonished to see her up and about, but Ravina was too engrossed in her own thoughts to notice their expressions.
    She had seen the dark-haired man three times now. Surely it could not be a coincidence?
    She had heard of men stalking their victims – indeed, one of her friends had undergone a very distressing experience with a young curate, who had pressed his attentions on her daily, even lurking in the shrubbery in her garden to spy on her.
    Admittedly the poor young clergyman had been found lacking in his brain and was now receiving treatment in a mental hospital, but it showed Ravina that strange events could occur in even the most sheltered of lives.
    Could the man she had seen three times be someone similar? Surely not. There had been no sign of weakness in his face. All she had seen was determination and strength.
    Within minutes all the hustle and bustle of a household in the throes of moving erupted around Ravina.
    Trunks and boxes were loaded onto the second carriage and the servants who were going down to the country climbed aboard, chattering happily and glad of this break to their routine.
    Splendidly attired in her best black outfit, her Sunday bonnet adorned with a wreath of cherries, Nanny Johnson made her way slowly downstairs, grumbling under her breath.
    Ravina hurried across the hall to slip a hand under her arm, but the old lady shook it off.
    â€œNow, now, Lady Ravina. There’s no need to play the nurse with me. I may be old, but I’m not decrepit! Now, are you sure about travelling to Dorset alone with this Sir Michael Moore? I