Lady Thief Read Online Free PDF Page B

wife, though their
similar smiles of acceptance towards Marianne made her feel only
more guilty, and that was before the hugging and greeting of
several other well-bred ladies, their husbands, and other distant
relatives and friends of William’s.
    All she heard was praise in her ear.
    “How lucky you are to have snatched him.”
    “Such a beauty ye are, ‘tis no wonder he fell
for ye.”
    “What a lovely gown ye wear. I imagine Lord
Gray must spoil ye quite a bit already.”
    Marianne’s eye twitched under her crumbling
patience, but she endured it and no one seemed to believe her
sputtering language was anything other than a weak, womanly shyness
brought on by so many people.
    She looked through the crowds, wishing the
fog of laughing and dancing people would all decide that the room
was too hot for their tastes and scatter, hopefully home to their
own beds. But they stayed and remained oblivious of the
helplessness of their hostess.
    Marianne saw William studying her from a
group of men with an entertained smirk on his face.
    She fought to keep from scowling at him in
front of so many noble people. Instead, she brightened her smile,
poured every happy memory into her head and let him have it.
    The shocked expression on his face made it
worth the effort, but her cheeks and skull felt as though they were
on fire.
    Her face relaxed when she felt a prickle
behind her neck. She turned and Sir Ferdinand appeared through the
haze of people. Fear jolted inside of her and consumed her body
like wildfire. Her eyes met his through the haze of dancing people
as he stood off the wall and openly stared. His crooked nose
scrunched and drooping eyes sent her hideous messages of his
displeasure.
    Marianne shivered, then froze, forgetting the
conversation Lady Anne was trying to have with her when Ferdinand
approached and formally bowed.
    She stood straight and stiff and allowed him
to clasp her hand with his gnarled fingers and bestow it with a
kiss. Even through the fabric of her gloves, she felt his wet lips
and suppressed another shiver of disgust.
    “Congratulations to you, my lady.” His voice
was deceptively sincere. Marianne tried to pull her hand back,
calmly so Lady Anne and none of the watching guests would see, but
he held firm, his other hand caressing the glove he had just
kissed.
    Though she was slightly taller, perspiration
formed on her forehead with her sudden stress and quickening of her
heart.
    This man frightened her beyond anything she
ever experienced, and sent chills under her skin.
    Like the first time when she had been
introduced to him, the faint scent of urine wafted from his clothes
and circled her, tightening around her body through her clothes,
trapping her to him.
    He was bald on the top of his head, but on
either side of his skull grey hair stuck out in all different
directions. Unlike his hair, his eyes were focused solely on
her.
    “‘Tis a shame I missed my opportunity to have
you. I should have acted more swiftly.”
    Anne pretended to sneeze so that she might
clasp her nose against the smell. The small action gave Marianne
enough courage to smile, because in this castle, Ferdinand could
not frighten her with his perverse innuendos.
    “‘Tis fortunate for both of us that I am
swifter.” She said, and Ferdinand’s grasp on her hand tightened
with a strength that should have been impossible for his age.
    ***
    Her hair was as red as he remembered and she
smelled of the fresh air he had eagerly inhaled in the damp church.
With her face so flushed from the humiliation she no doubt felt,
pleasant color invaded her cheeks, leaving a beautiful maiden for
his pleasure. More beautiful than he remembered.
    When well-wishers approached, her face lost
its blushing color and twisted in an awkward smile.
    Her face soon dropped, as though stunned and
fearful of whom she was seeing, but a group of giggling women
blocked the view of whoever was the cause of her stress, and
William tilted his head, willing