Lady in Red Read Online Free PDF

entered it. The tall, gold-embossed door closed softly behind him.
    She stood in the same spot for several moments, gasping. His very presence had changed the way her body felt. She no longer felt battered or afraid. She felt strong, alive. How had he done that?
    Was there any possibility that she had dreamed the entire exchange? Considering her dependence on laudanum, it would not have been out of the question. But his commanding presence lingered in the room, surrounding her in its powerful embrace.
    She stared at that golden door, one hand still firmly locked about the crimson sheet, the other gripping the lowered poker, as she attempted to make sense of him. She’d been so terrified. But he had not hurt her. Contradictory to all her expectations, he had even saved her from hurting herself.
    While it was clear Edward Barrons wanted her for something, base rutting was not it. His consideration for her feelings and careful distance from her person seemed to confirm that.
    “Mary?” Yvonne called tentatively from behind the closed door.
    Mary rushed to the fire and replaced the poker on its brass hook. “Yes?”
    Yvonne whisked into the room. As she pressed the heavy wood panel closed behind her, her skirts whirled out ever so slightly, the hue catching the firelight. “Are you well?”
    The question was ridiculous and not easily answered. Her fingers crushed the silk, bound with her fingers at her breast. How could she give an answer?
    Yvonne’s painted mouth dropped to a ruby O as she spotted the pooled water about the bath. “Did you meet the duke?”
    “The duke?”
    Mary stared at Yvonne, barely able to take it in. Were the heavens laughing at her? Was she to be surrounded by dukes? First her father and now . . .
    Yvonne arched a red-gold brow. “Edward Barrons, Duke of Fairleigh.”
    Edward.
    “Yes,” she murmured. A duke? Her father was a duke, and there were slight similarities between the men—confidence and inherent command—but that was where their commonalities ended. Barrons was as powerful as her father, and born to it in the bargain, but there was no edge of simmering cruelty in his eyes.
    Yvonne rushed forward and reached out to take Mary’s hands. Halfway through the gesture she hesitated, then pulled back, recalling clearly that Mary didn’t care to be touched. Those empty, elegant fingers were now folded before Yvonne’s waist. “He didn’t . . . upset you, did he?”
    She couldn’t describe the bizarre complication of emotions the man had stirred within her aching heart. “No,” she said.
    Relief eased Yvonne’s features. “He mentioned you.”
    Mary aimed her gaze toward the fire, feeling more confused than she had in days. Which was truly an accomplishment, considering the last days had been spent in roadside ditches and back country roads. “Did he?”
    “He did. He suggested that you were a fascinating young woman.”
    Fascinating? Why in heaven’s name would anyone deem her fascinating? A night specter perhaps. A mad-woman. But not someone who could intrigue such a man.
    “Yes.” Yvonne closed the gap between them, leaving only enough room for the full crinoline covered in gold-shot silk. “And I think I may have the answer to our dilemma.”
    Mary clutched the sheet more firmly about her, a flimsy shield against the strangeness of the night’s events. “I don’t understand.”
    “You can’t stay here, Mary.”
    The breath withered from her chest, replaced by gripping panic. She desperately searched Yvonne’s face. Sincerity marked it. There was no hint of jest in Yvonne’s declaration and that meant only one thing. The streets. And all the dangers it possessed. “Please—” She choked. “I’ll do whatever—”
    “It is not that I wouldn’t protect you. I’ve cared for you all your life, and even if I had not, your mother’s loyalty to me would have bound my heart to you. But your father . . . This is one of the first places he will look. He knows of your