Forsters 04 - Romancing the Runaway Read Online Free PDF

generosity in lending such intimate apparel to a trespasser and a thief.
    Miranda’s head felt perfectly clear. Unfortunately that meant she could remember everything she’d done since leaving Delroy Point. She’d heard tales at school about reckless young women who used unconventional ruses to put them in the way of rich gentlemen. Everyone in the house must assume that was what she had done. Heat invaded her face as that possibility lodged itself in her brain. They couldn’t be more wrong, but who was likely to believe that?
    Thankfully Jessie at least didn’t appear to be passing judgement, nor did she display any signs of curiosity about Miranda’s unconventional arrival at the Hall. There would be time enough for explanations, she supposed, when she faced Lord Gabriel—something she knew she would have to do sooner or later. Miranda would prefer for it to be later—much later. She winced, both at the thought of facing her rescuer and when she placed weight on her injured ankle.
    “Here, let me help you, miss.” Jessie supported her to the bath and helped her into it. “That ankle’s still swollen. We reckon you must have sprained it.”
    “Yes, very likely. I fell on it.” Miranda eased herself into the water and sighed with pleasure. It felt wonderful to wash herself after days of sleeping in a barn and then burning up with fever. Jessie washed her hair for her and as she did so two other maids stripped the sheets from her bed and replaced them with fresh ones.
    “They were quite wet, what with the fever making you so hot,” Jessie explained.
    “There’s no need to make a fuss over me.” No one else had during the past four years.
    “It’s no trouble.” Jessie held out a towel. “Now then, miss, how does that ankle feel? Should we strap it up again?”
    Miranda cautiously rotated it. “It hurts still but not as much as it did.”
    “Then perhaps we’ll leave it be. The swellings gone down a lot. I’ll brush your hair dry by the fire and then perhaps you might enjoy another little nap.”
    The hair brushing was another wonderful sensation. Jessie chatted away as she attended to the task, telling Miranda just what fair and compassionate masters the Forsters were.
    “How long have you worked here, Jessie?”
    “Since I was younger than you are, miss. My husband was head coachman here for many years.”
    “Was?”
    “He died two years back.” Jessie sniffed back tears.
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Aye well, he was getting on a bit. The marquess, he offered me a pension and a cottage in the grounds but I wasn’t ready to retire. I asked if I could carry on working and I get given light duties, ’cos of my age.”
    “You don’t look that old.”
    Jessie laughed. “Sometimes I feel it. I used to get aches in my bones something terrible but Lord Robert’s new wife has a brother who makes herbal medications. He sorted me out good and proper. Shame he’s not here now. He’d fix that ankle for you in no time flat.”
    “Yes, it’s inconvenient, not being able to walk.”
    “Right, there we are. Your hair’s all dry now and shining like the sun. It’s beautiful.”
    “Thank you, Jessie.”
    “Why not have a rest? You’re still not strong.”
    Miranda had done nothing but rest for the past two days. Even so, she found the small effort it had taken to sit in a bath and have someone else attend to her toilette was enough to tire her again.
    “Perhaps I will,” she said, stifling a yawn.
    “That’s the spirit.” Miranda dutifully lifted her arms as Jessie pulled a clean nightgown over her head. She then turned back the covers and helped Miranda into the fresh bed. “Sleep for an hour or two and then tonight Lord Gabriel would like you to dine with him.”
    Miranda froze. “Dine with him?” Why would he want to dine with a trespasser—one who’d caused him so much trouble?
    “Sure, he says he’s looking forward to it.”
    Well, that made one of them. “I have nothing to wear,” she