Reluctant Bride Read Online Free PDF

rapidly, while on his face I read the determination not to satisfy me argue with his desire to prove his innocence. At length, he began slowly, one pocket at a time, to pull the linings out for inspection. First the jacket, unbuttoned and the inner pockets turned out. They contained a spare handkerchief, a black leather money purse and a few personal cards. Then the trousers, which contained a ring of keys, a small black comb, a miniature pearl-handled pen knife, a fish hook, some loose change and a piece of paper with a girl’s name and address scribbled on it. He said not a word throughout the ceremony, but only glared as if he would like to shoot me. When he had finished, he said, “Would you like me to remove my clothing and boots as well, Miss Braden?” On that sarcastic speech, he did actually remove his jacket, shook it, ran his hands over his shirt, which revealed no suspicious bulges. “Satisfied?” he asked, “or shall I take off the trousers?”
    I waited a moment before speaking, as though I were considering this point. I picked up one of his cards in a careful way to assure myself he had been calling himself Sir Edmund Blount long enough to have cards made up in the name at least. He was from Woldwood, in Gloucester. The name and place had a vaguely familiar sound to me. I thought some of our tainted cattle had found its way that far north, where they were very ill received. When I glanced up, he was still glaring.
    “I expect an apology. If you were a gentleman, I would call you out,” he said in cold, measured accents.
    “If I was wrong, I am sorry,” I said, with no hesitation.
    “You were wrong.”
    “I am not wrong that my diamonds are gone. They were in that green case when I left home this morning. If not you, then someone else . . .” Already my mind was flying back over the morning, with several unfortunate lapses during which I had been unconscious. “If you didn’t take them, it is certainly your fault they are gone,” I pointed out, with some justification I think. “It happened some time after the accident.”
    “Your reticule was open when I found it in the ditch. That must be when they fell out.”
    “The box was closed when we left the accident. At least—yes, I’m sure it was.”
    “It’s worth a look, back down the road. How valuable is it?”
    “Five thousand pounds.”
    “Why the devil were you carrying it around the countryside loose and unprotected?” he asked, beginning to stuff his contents back into his pockets.
    “I had not planned on being dumped unconscious in a ditch, Sir Edmund, or put on public display in a second-rate inn, with an underbred squire mauling me.”
    “Lizzie! Was he indeed?” Maisie asked, horrified.
    “He was trying to.”
    “I didn’t like the cut of him above half. A very disobliging fellow. Wouldn’t even go to the stable for me,” Blount added.
    “He was suddenly in a great hurry to leave, too!” Maisie remembered.
    “It could have been the doctor,” I said.
    “Or that smiling colonel who was in here, rolling his eyes at you,” Maisie pointed out.
    “He was not rolling his eyes! He was very nice. It could have been any one of the servants,” I said, beginning to realize my task was impossible, with such a surfeit of suspects.
    “Bingeman had more chance than any of them,” Blount pointed out. “He was here, and he was at the accident. I am going to pay him a call.”
    “You cannot accuse him outright of theft!” I said.
    “You accused me! Ladies do not understand these matters. My honor is at stake. Well, I must accept some responsibility for the loss, though I still cannot comprehend why you were carrying them around loose in your reticule. If I hurry, I might catch him before he leaves the inn.” He was already hastening to the door as he spoke, his long legs flashing.
    “He said he had some business . . .” Maisie said. Bingeman’s voice, notwithstanding his business, was heard in the hallway at that moment.