The Earl is Mine Read Online Free PDF Page A

wits when he bent that head of glossy black hair over her hand.
    “So good to see you again,” he murmured smoothly.
    Liar.
    She refused to let the warm, bold pressure of his fingers on her own disconcert her. “It’s been rather a long while,” she returned, striving for cool but failing miserably. There was that catch in her voice, after all. The truth was, she relished his touch.
    He stood tall again. “No more than our usual year. But while I was away, I recalled Plumtree and its inhabitants fondly.”
    “As we did you,” she said, “and wished for your safe return.”
    To me, she thought.
    They eyed each other, measure for measure. It was a whole new world between them now. Gone was her childhood playmate—long gone—but also absent was the artificial friendship that had sprung up between them over the years. In its place was … what was it, exactly?
    She couldn’t say she hated it. A layer had been peeled away. Now there was only a man. And a woman. A woman rejected, yes. And a man betrayed by two clandestine lovers and Pippa, at least in his mind. Yet it was a more honest place than they’d ever been together before.
    “We’re very glad you’re back,” she said gamely, and took a chair near Mother’s. “How was your American tour?”
    “Productive. Pleasant.” Gregory sat on a sofa across from Uncle Bertie and threw his arm across the back. He was at his most casual and charming, but the deep undercurrent between them belied his words and his pose. “I met up with several good friends, made new ones, too, and managed to see a great deal of the country’s best architecture, as well.”
    “Did you receive my letter?” Pippa dared to ask him. “I sent it to the address in Savannah your mother provided. Hopefully, you caught up with it. But I suspect you didn’t.”
    “I did receive it, yes.”
    “And you read it?” she boldly inquired.
    “Of course.” He arched a brow. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to write back. Time got away with me.”
    And pigs flew.
    “Heavens, I never expected to hear back .” Pippa swept open her fan and waved it in front of her breasts. “You’re an important man, my lord.”
    Who can jump into a lake of those wretched American alligators, for all I care, she said with her eyes.
    “We could debate my importance,” Gregory said matter-of-factly.
    Which was why she was blindsided when for the first time in their long acquaintance, he looked at her as if he saw her without a stitch of clothing on her body.
    How had he managed to sneak that look in?
    And why?
    She guessed he was using the garden sketch against her in every way he could—and it was working, damn him. It was working very well.
    “So your parents are in the area, too?” Mother asked Gregory in timid fashion.
    “Yes, Lady Graham, they’re in Dawlish. My stepmother loves the place, so Father took her there for a few days’ holiday and some good sea air. They were anxious to see you, but he’s got very little time to spare away from Whitehall. They asked me to convey to you their deepest wish that you come to London as soon as possible as their guests.”
    “How kind,” barked Bertie.
    “You’ve such a lovely family,” said Mother.
    “Your stunning stepmother puts every other woman her age to shame,” rasped the Toad, which was rude of him as his own wife was Lady Brady’s age.
    There was a few seconds’ painful lull in the conversation, and just when Pippa thought she might actually jump out of her own skin, Uncle Bertie said in a leading fashion, “Speaking of family…”
    In a great scarlet chair facing a modest fire, he sat with his stocky legs apart, his back straight, his stomach protruding like a pillow, all because he refused to remove the corgi sleeping behind him. His mouth drew down, and he lowered his brows at Gregory.
    It was his recitation mode.
    Pippa braced herself. Surely he wouldn’t do what he usually did—which was matchmaking—not when he knew she was going to