Julia London - [Scandalous 02] Read Online Free PDF Page B

using her wool shawl as cover. To be safe, she withdrew her dirk and held it in her hand.
    Minutes later—maybe as much as an hour later, who knew?—Lizzie heard Lambourne’s breathing deepen. At least one of them was sleeping soundly. He was right about the floor—it was hard and cold, but at least Lizzie had the small and admittedly foolish hope that Mr. Gordon could not possibly believe anything devastatingly improper had happened.
    She slept poorly, the cold seeping into her marrow. Her back hurt and her limbs felt numb. At some point, something startled her out of her shallow sleep. The fire had been stoked and, moreover, Lizzie felt a presence near her. With a gasp of fright, she jerked her hand up, waving the dirk in the air as she rolled onto her back.
    “ Diah, put that away!” Lambourne exclaimed.
    He was crouching next to her. Lizzie quickly pushed herself up and pushed her hair from her eyes with one hand as she pointed the dirk at him with the other. “Blackguard! If you touch me I will no’ hesitate to use this!” she exclaimed, and took another swipe in the air for good measure.
    The Earl of Lambourne sighed wearily and held up the greatcoat that he’d obviously been holding in his hands the whole time. “Lie down,” he commanded her. When Lizzie did not react immediately, he groaned. “Ionly mean to cover you! I could hear your teeth chattering across the room. If you’d prefer no’ to shiver all night, then lie down. ”
    The greatcoat did look warm. Lizzie reluctantly did as she was told.
    He spread the greatcoat over her, taking care to tuck it in close to her body. When he was satisfied, he inched closer and smiled at her with the lazy confidence of a roué. “Do allow me to make one thing perfectly clear, Lizzie Beal,” he said softly. “I am no’ a man who forces his affection on any woman—do you quite understand me? Furthermore, when the time comes that you want my affection, you will bloody well beg me for it.”
    Lizzie swallowed. “I’ll no’ want it.”
    “Then you may stop acting as if you expect me to snatch your maidenly virtue,” he said coolly, and disappeared from her side. When she heard the creak of the bed, she rolled onto her side and burrowed in under his greatcoat. It was heavy and warm and, she thought drowsily, it smelled quite nice—spicy and leathery, just like a man.
    She drifted back to sleep with the words you will bloody well beg me for it echoing in her mind.
     
    At Thorntree, Lizzie’s sister, Charlotte, sat at the front window in the drawing room, staring morosely at the top of the gray, imposing structure of Castle Beal visible above the tree tops, high up on the hill. Castle Beal dominated everything in this part of the Highlands, including Thorntree, the modest family estate on the banks of the River Almond, down the way in Glenalmond, in Castle Beal’s long shadow.
    Three miles separated the two structures, yet sometimes it felt as if Thorntree was in the castle’s upperbailey, so closely did Uncle Carson keep Lizzie and Charlotte to him.
    Since their father, Carson’s brother, had died several months ago, Charlotte and her sister rarely passed a day in which Uncle Carson did not call on them at Thorntree. He did not care that they were grown women—Charlotte was five and twenty, Lizzie three and twenty—and did not need or want his protection. To Carson’s way of thinking, they were Beal women, part of his clan and little more than inferior property, and he insisted on interfering.
    Of late he’d tried to keep Lizzie from accepting the attentions of Gavin Gordon, a Highlander who resided with his family in Glencochill, just a few miles over the hills from Thorntree. He was well regarded around Aberfeldy and Crieff. He was rebuilding the Gordon estate—they’d lost quite a lot during the Clearances several years ago, but Mr. Gordon was slowly bringing it to life again. Charlotte understood he’d been buying sheep and adding to his