Dangerous Diana (Brambridge Novel 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

anyone’s bidding for that matter, unwittingly or no. Her will was her own.
    A knock on the door marked the entrance of Carter and a tea tray, as well as the happy patter of Arturo’s paws.
    “Hello Carter.” The flutter of anticipation that had unexpectedly lit in Melissa’s stomach died as he closed the door behind him.
    The butler nodded silently.
    Uncertainly, Melissa smiled. “Um. How is Carlos’ hand?”
    Carter looked furtively behind him at the closed door. “Better.”
    “Oh, that is good.” Of course it was. “I was worried that without treatment it would turn into something worse. He is lucky that it cleared up by itself.”
    Carter sucked in a breath and pursed his lips. “I told him not to.”
    “Told him not to do what?”
    “Told him not to put on that paste that you recommended. But he refused to listen to me. He said that anyone that had eaten his biscuits couldn’t be bad.”
    “Oh.”
    “The wound cleared within a day.”
    Melissa nodded. “That is good news.” She stared at the butler as he put down the tray. “Carter, do you think you might send a message out for me?”
    The butler’s expressive face showed a small amount of horror. “It depends what it is, Miss Diana.”
    “Please stop calling me Diana. My name is not Diana, it is Melissa. Melissa Sumner.” Melissa stopped suddenly as a loud bang sounded in the hall behind her bedroom door.
    “Ah,” Carter stuttered, lurching a step backwards, his eyes on his tea tray.
    “Excuse me please.” Melissa got up from the chair and walked across the thick carpet to the doorway as Carter hurriedly put her tea tray down on top of a chest of drawers.
    “Miss Sumner!”
    Melissa didn’t listen. Laying her hand lightly on the handle, she waited and yanked open the door.
    There was no one there.
    She put her foot out to step into the hall, but stopped as the butler coughed behind her. “I’m afraid you can’t leave the room, Miss Sumner,” he said. “Earl Harding would be a trifle upset if you did so.”
    Melissa barely heard; as her heart raced, her gaze caught on the fast moving reflection of a large figure striding away in the hallway mirror. The large, handsome figure of an earl.
    Swallowing, she retraced her steps back into her room and paused as her stomach fluttered again. “I…err…”
    Carter coughed. “The note, my lady.”
    “Of course.” Rubbing her hand quickly against her strangely heated cheeks, she picked up the note that she had written earlier and laid it on Carter’s tray.
    “It’s to the people that look after my house. I need to tell them that I am alright. You can speak to them and read the message if you like. I have nothing to hide.”
    Nothing except the fact that she was seeking the Viper and that Earl Harding was too.
    “I’ll discuss it with the earl.”
    “Thank you.” She licked her lips and swallowed. “Please could you also ask him if I might use his study, or at least have the run of the house? This room is terribly confining.”
    And as she wasn’t the Viper she might be detained in the room for years.
    Melissa drew in her skirts and sat back down in her chair, sighing as the coolness from the window drove the warmth away from her face. Carter nodded silently and, picking up the tray, walked out of the room.
    Melissa stood again quickly. “Carter!” Oh goodness. She hadn’t thought. If she was given the run of the house then she might come up against the earl again and—
    “The earl says you can use his study, miss, and he would like you to dine with him every evening.” Carter pushed his head around the door. She hadn’t realized he had left it open.
    Melissa gulped in a large ball of air. It wasn’t quite what she had expected. “And the message?”
    “He sent it off himself.”
    Melissa nodded. Drawing in a breath, she pushed her silver spectacles firmly onto her nose and examined the tea stain the dribbled down the side of her bodice and onto the skirts of her dress.