It Takes a Scandal Read Online Free PDF Page B

“He’s filthy.” Again his gaze skimmed over her. “He’ll ruin your gown.”
    Abigail pursed her lips. Even she could see the mud matting the puppy’s fur, which would indeed ruin her fine pale silk gown. “I can change it.”
    “I’ll carry him home for you.” He lowered the puppy and tucked the dog under his arm. “Hart House?”
    She stared. “Yes, how did you know?”
    Not a trace of smile touched his lips. “You can’t have come far, and Hart House is the closest house from here. In addition, Hart House was recently taken by a man with two beautiful daughters. I presume you are one of them.”
    “I am Miss Abigail Weston,” she said slowly, uncertainly. Was that a compliment? An opening for an introduction?
    “I thought so.” He reached up and fetched his hat from the branch where he’d hung it earlier. “Shall we?”
    She wanted to ask who he was. She wanted to ask why he was out in the woods; he hadn’t a gun that she could see, so he hadn’t been shooting. And while she knew there was another estate that shared these woods, she was fairly sure this was still her father’s property. “What made you think I was Miss Weston?”
    “Rumor.” He pointed the way out of the bracken with his cane. “Proceed, please.”
    “If you have a bit of cord, I could tie it around Milo’s neck and take him home that way,” she said in a last effort.
    “I haven’t.” He didn’t seem impatient, merely bored, as though she was preventing him from fulfilling some sort of obligation. Which, perhaps, he was; he certainly didn’t look pleased about any part of it.
    Abigail told herself to be grateful, and softened her tone. “Thank you. I’m sorry to put you to so much trouble.”
    He looked at her for a long moment. “No trouble at all, Miss Weston,” he finally said, his voice a low rumble. “Shall we get out of the woods before it’s too dark to see?”
    Her gaze flew to the sky. “Oh! Yes.” It was growing late, and she would have to change her shoes and perhaps even her dress before joining the ball. Papa would be irked, and even Mama would fuss at her to hurry. She turned and picked her way through the bracken, listening as he followed. He muttered something to his dog, who fell in step behind them, but otherwise said nothing.
    For a few minutes they walked, single file, down the narrow dirt path. Abigail didn’t know what to say. He walked with a quiet tread, and all she could hear was the big dog’s breathing. Discreetly she brushed away some leaves caught in her hair and on her dress. She would have to steal up to her room and examine the damage in a mirror. It would have been so much worse if she’d had to crawl into that wild thicket herself, but there was no question her appearance had suffered some indignities.
    As soon as the path widened, she fell back a step to walk at his side. It felt strange to walk in front of him like a princess with a retainer at her heels. He walked very easily despite the cane; if she hadn’t seen it, she would have thought he had only a trace of a limp. But walking beside him she could see how he leaned, stiff-armed, on the cane.
    “Did you see any sign of the rabbit when you found Milo?” she asked, trying to break the awkward silence.
    “No. There was no blood on him, either, so I presume it got away.”
    “Thank goodness,” she exclaimed. “I was so dreading telling my mother he’d killed a baby bunny.”
    He slanted her a look. “That’s what terriers do. They chase vermin.”
    “This one isn’t supposed to,” she retorted. “He’s a pampered little thing my father gave to my mother as an apology.”
    “She’d better train him and keep him indoors, then.”
    “Easier said than done,” she said under her breath. “But you have my eternal gratitude for fetching him. What was he caught in?”
    “A bramble bush.” He held up the puppy again. Milo’s little tongue flopped out and he panted happily as Abigail glared at him. “Cut his