Love Is Blind Read Online Free PDF

doctor. It claimed Clarissa's mother had taken a turn for the worse and was not expected to last beyond a day or so. The letter instructed the aunt not to alarm the girl by imparting the full severity of the situation, but merely to tell
    Clarissa her mother needed her—and to send her back at once in the carriage that had transported the servant. Which, foolish as it may seem, the aunt did."
    "Why foolish?" Adrian asked.
    "The carriage was unmarked," Reginald explained, eager to redeem himself and add something to the tale. "The family crest was missing."
    Adrian's eyebrows rose. "Did the aunt not notice?"
    "Oh, yes. She even asked about it," Lady Mowbray assured him. "The servant claimed the carriage he had been sent in had suffered a broken wheel on the way to London, and that he had been forced to leave it at a roadside inn to be repaired while he hired another conveyance to finish the journey. He hoped to be able to reclaim the carriage on the return trip if it was repaired."
    "A plausible story," Adrian commented.
    "Yes, it was rather, was it not?" Lady Mowbray mused consideringly . "Still, the aunt should have at least sent a servant of her own with the girl, or done something else to ensure her well-being." She shrugged. "However, she did not. Lady Smithson merely packed up the girl and her belongings and sent her off in the carriage with this servant."
    "Who was not a servant at all," Adrian guessed.
    "Oh, he was a servant, all right, simply not in the employ of Clarissa's mother. This servant did not take her home, but stopped at Coventry. There she was led to a private room, where she was met by a Captain Jeremy Fielding and his sister."
    "Fielding?" Adrian frowned at the name. It rang a bell.
    " Mmm . This Fielding fellow explained that, truly, Clarissa's mother was well on the way to mending, and
    that Clarissa had really been called away because of her father. He gave some vague claptrap that Cram-bray's business affairs had taken a sudden turn for the worse, and that while her father had meant to meet her there, he had been forced to leave ere her arrival. I gather they hinted that Lord Crambray was being pursued by the authorities, and that he wished Clarissa to follow. Crambray had supposedly employed this Fielding and his sister to bring her to him safely."
    Adrian's mother's expression showed distaste as she went on. "Of course, the girl was just a child, and easily led astray, and I daresay this Captain Fielding cut a dashing and authoritative figure in his uniform. The girl went quietly.
    "They traveled for days, supposedly just missing her father here, and there, until they reached Carlisle, where Captain Fielding left his sister and Lady Clarissa alone at an inn and went off to supposedly meet with her father. When he returned, Fielding claimed that her family was on the brink of ruin, and that the only way for them all to avoid the poorhouse was for her to marry, which her father wished her to do at once."
    "How would Clarissa's marrying save the family from ruin?" Adrian asked with a frown.
    "I am not sure. Lady Witherspoon was not altogether clear on that." Lady Mowbray turned questioningly to Reginald. "Do you know what he claimed?"
    "I believe it had something to do with an inheritance she would receive only upon marriage. It was from her grandfather on her mother's side. Once married, she would inherit and the father's bills could be paid, thus saving the family."
    "Hmm." There was silence for a moment; then Adrian asked, "I daresay this Fielding offered himself
    as the martyr willing to aid her in her moment of need?"
    Lady Mowbray nodded with a grim little smile. "Kind of him, was it not?"
    "Oh, undoubtedly," Adrian agreed.
    "So they were off to Gretna Green," Reginald interjected cheerfully. "Married without banns or priest before a prostitute, a thief, and a blacksmith; then they went off on a honeymoon in Calais."
    "The witnesses were a landlord of a public house, a tailor, and the