Sally James Read Online Free PDF Page B

though I suppose Lord Chalford carried you to bed, so he at least cannot have been totally incapable! No doubt he has had more practice!’
    ‘Everard! Where is he now?’ Julian demanded, his memory improving, and glancing guiltily at Susannah.
    ‘I neither know, nor do I care. I do not wish to hear anything about him. I came merely to say that I desire to start for London on Monday and will expect you early in the morning. If you do not come I shall go by myself.’
    She turned and left the room, ignoring his faint cry to her to wait, and went out to the stables, relieved to find that the outdoor servants seemed to have escaped the demoralization which had gripped those indoors. Within a few moments she was cantering towards the lodge, where she stopped to thank Mrs Skinner and reassure her that the night had passed peacefully before riding towards The Hall, revelling in what was an unexpectedly mild and sunny day for the time of year.
    She was a couple of miles from home when the mare cast a shoe, and since Susannah had to pass through the village on her way to The Hall, she stopped at the smithy to leave the horse. Too restless to wait, she said she would send one of the grooms to fetch it, and set off to walk the rest of the way home.
    While she had been riding she had resolutely refused to think of the events of the previous night, but now she found herself unable to prevent the memory of Lord Chalford’s handsome face, his fascinating smile, his intense gaze and the moments when he had held her closely to him from filling her thoughts. She wondered what she could have done, whether she ought to have announced her identity to him then, but decided it was probably better that she had managed to play her part, for it would have reflected on Julian had his guests discovered who she was, and might have ruined her own reputation before she even reached London. Also, she thought hopefully, she might never meet either of them again, for had not Julian said Mr Tempest rarely went to London? She suppressed the thought that Lord Chalfont would inevitably go there and firmly told herself he had been too drunk to remember what had happened, and even if he did he would never recognize her again or connect her with a maid in her brother’s house.
    She was so deep in her thoughts she paid no attention to the occasional rider or vehicle which passed her and it was with some surprise that she looked up to find a pair of beautifully matched greys drawing an elegant curricle halting beside her. She turned round and gasped in dismay, for descending from the curricle, a curious smile on his lips, was Lord Chalford.
    ‘So you thought to escape me, did you, my beauty?’ he queried as he leapt down to stand beside her.
    She frowned and he laughed down into her eyes.
    ‘I’m not so easy to trick as that, my dear. What did you do, steal a habit and a horse? Did it throw you, that I find you on foot?’
    Susannah gasped indignantly.
    ‘The mare cast a shoe!’ she returned. ‘I was - ‘
    ‘Of course. I had not imagined you could have walked so far already. Have you no baggage? Were you fleeing from me with no possessions? Never mind, I will provide you with all you might need. Come, let us waste no further time. I want to get home today.’
    ‘What can you mean?’ Susannah demanded. ‘You were going to Sir William’s.’
    He laughed. ‘I’ll visit my uncle when I have nought better to do, my dear. For the moment Monkswood will suit us better.’
    Without warning he picked her up and flung her into the curricle, leaping up after her and setting the equipage in motion before she had recovered her balance.
    ‘How dare you? Stop and put me down at once!’
    ‘What a pity that would be, my lovely one, when I won you from your master last night. You are mine now, and mine you shall remain!’
     
    Chapter Three
     
    Susannah gasped, staring at him, momentarily speechless. Lord Chalford observed her appreciatively, a smile playing on