Julia London Read Online Free PDF

passed, and the streets and thatch-covered roofs were blanketed in a thick layer of pristine snow. She mumbled a quick prayer that the roads would be passable and she could soon leave this awful place.
    In the small courtyard below, Lord Samuel Hunt oversaw the preparations for the trip to Blessing Park. In addition to the driver and Mannheim, he had two outriders with him for the last leg of Miss Carrington’s journey. It was a precaution he had taken himself; Michael had seemed unconcerned for her safety when he had summoned him and asked him to fetch his fiancée. He frowned as he tested the ropes that held her trunks to the back of the coach. What could Michael have been thinking when he had hired Mrs. Petty? Sam had dismissed her abruptly last evening after hearing her outrageous lies. He knew wild rumors circulated about Michael, but personally he had never heard such venom from anyone. His frown melted into a quiet smile as he recalled Miss Carrington’s response to the accusations. She was nothing as Michael had described, nothing at all.
    In the first place, she was not homely.
    Far from it, Sam mused. Her dark mahogany curls were offset by flawless, porcelain skin and full lips the color of roses. She was a classic beauty, with high cheekbones and a small, straight nose. And her eyes—good Lord, they were magnificent. A peculiar and remarkable shade of violet, framed by thick, dark lashes.
    Even more remarkable than her exquisite looks was the way she had stared that ruffian down and then hit her target with the dart. Sam chuckled to himself as he returned to the inn. He had never seen anything like it, and he could hardly contain his glee as he anticipated Michael’s reaction to a woman he had described as a savage little hellion.
    Outside her room, Sam sent away the outrider who had guarded her door through the night with instructions that they would leave within the hour. Then Sam rapped lightly on Miss Carrington’s door. When she did not answer, he rapped again, a little more insistently. After a pause, he heard the bolt sliding, and then the door was yanked open.
    Miss Carrington stood before him in a gown that accentuated her remarkable eyes, which at that particular momentwere narrowed with suspicion. She studied him for a moment before her finely shaped brows snapped into a frown.
    “
You
are not Michael Ingram!” she said angrily, and before Sam could respond, she whipped a small pistol from behind the deep folds of her skirt and pointed it straight at his chest. “I am no more interested in playing games this morning than I was last evening, sir. If you value your life, you will retreat down those stairs and not bother me again. Do not think for one moment I will not use this if I must,” she said in a calm voice that belied the small tremor in her hand.
    Sam slowly raised his hands, took a step backward, and bowed gallantly. “I have no intention of forcing you into a game of darts, Miss Carrington. I am Lord Hunt, a personal friend of the marquis, and I have come to see you to Blessing Park.”
    Abbey cocked her head to one side and considered that but did not lower her gun. “If you will pardon me, sir, I have had quite enough
escorting
. Certainly I would not get into a coach with a strange man.”
    Mildly amused, Sam arched a brow. “I applaud your caution. However, the Marquis of Darfield has asked me to escort you, posthaste, to Blessing Park,” he said, steeling himself for the possibility he might have to carry her down the stairs and put her in the coach.
    Abbey dropped the gun to her side.
“Really?”
she asked softly, suddenly looking very vulnerable. It occurred to Sam that she had traveled thousands of miles to marry a man she had not seen or heard from since she was a child. Coupled with her experience thus far in England, it was undoubtedly all very overwhelming.
    “Indeed he did. The weather, of course—”
    “I
knew
it!” she exclaimed happily, waving the gun