The Devil Who Tamed Her Read Online Free PDF Page A

getting as hungry as he was. Nor had they even crossed into Northumberland county yet; he was sure they were still riding through Durham. But inns were few and far between, even in Durham, and the farther north they went, there’d be even fewer.
    He’d stayed at his aunt’s house the last time he’d come this way. Esmerelda was the oldest of his father’s many sisters. She’d married a Scotsman, but had insisted they live in England. Her husband had agreed, but only if it was a short jaunt back to Scotland, and in fact he’d wanted to live right on the border! They’d settled on Durham, one county farther south, but still a long way from London. Esmerelda could have moved back closer to the family when she became a widow, but she’d lived long enough in Durham to come to love it there. And Raphael was a dunce for not thinking of her sooner.
    Her house was only a few more miles down the road if he wasn’t mistaken, at least the side road leading to it was. If he hadn’t passed it already. He’d go back, though, if he had passed it. Ophelia wouldn’t be hearing from anyone there that they were in Durham, north of Yorkshire, rather than halfway to London down south as she assumed. Come to think of it, his aunt would make a much better chaperone for Ophelia than Ophelia’s maid would, and he didn’t doubt his aunt would be pleased to join them at Alder’s Nest for a while. He did need to assure that no scandal whatsoever resulted from his impulsive plan, after all.
    Fortunately, he’d already taken care of the only obstacle that he had foreseen. Ophelia’s parents. He’d jotted off a brief note to them when he’d made his decision and had pulled aside the footman that had been enlisted to drive her, to have him deliver it posthaste. Two birds with one stone, as it were, since he assured the man that he’d find someone else to drive Ophelia.
    Her parents were far too impressed with titles more lofty than their own. That they had arranged her marriage to the marquis’s heir against Ophelia’s wishes proved it. So he had no doubt at all that they would give their wholehearted approval to her sojourn with his family. He’d implied he’d taken her under his wing. If they assumed that meant he had an interest in her himself, he could hardly be blamed for such an errant notion.
    It was five miles farther on the main road and another thirty minutes down that side road to his Aunt Esme’s house. It was full night, by then, but light flooded out of the front of the house from a long bank of windows off the parlor, enough for Ophelia to see that it was no inn they were stopping at for the night.
    Raphael braced himself for an unpleasant scene when he opened the door to the coach and offered his hand for the lady to step down. She took it without even glancing at him. A footman, as she assumed he was, would be beneath her notice, after all.
    But he caught himself staring at her as she alighted and he sighed mentally. Even rumpled from the ride, and drowsy by the look of it, or maybe her eyes were just puffy from so many tears, her exquisite beauty still took his breath away. He’d been bowled over when he’d first clapped eyes on her at Summers Glade. Fortunately, he’d been across the room from her, so by the time he actually stood next to her when she’d joined Sabrina and him for introductions— intruded was more like it—he’d had his amazement well in hand.
    She turned back now to say something to her maid and gasped when her eyes passed over Raphael then abruptly returned to him. “What the deuce are you doing here?” she demanded. “Following me back to London?”
    “Not at all. You took it for granted that one of the marquis’s footmen would drive you all the way to London, but as it happens, they would have only driven you as far as Oxbow to find a driver there. They aren’t paid to be away from Summers Glade for days, unless the marquis himself sends them off. So I’m doing you a favor, dear