The Gilded Web Read Online Free PDF

had not asked, of course. Some explanation must be given for the happenings of the night, but she was not the one to do the asking. James would discover the truth. At least, she hoped it would be James. She prayed that her father’s servants would have allowed the message to be taken to her brother. Her father would have to know eventually, she supposed. But she wanted some time to collect herself before he was told.
    James would sort everything out for her. All she was thankful for was that it was over, that Lord Amberley had found her before Lord Eden came home. James would see to it that the truth came out. He would discover what motive a gentleman who did not even know her might have for having her kidnapped and held captive for the whole of a night.
    Alexandra waited with an outer patience learned through long years as her father’s daughter. Inwardly she was impatient to be gone, never to see this house again, never to see the Earl of Amberley again. She would burn with mortification, she knew, when she allowed her mind to dwell on the spectacle that must have met his eyes when he saw her on the bed. To have had a man in the same bed-chamber as she was horrifying enough. But ten times worse, she had been stretched on a bed in a dreadful state of dishabille.
    And then suddenly Nanny Rey was in the room and the earl’s housekeeper on her feet. And her old nurse looked dearly familiar with her diminutive sparrow’s figure, her sharp red nose, and the gold-rimmed spectacles that always looked for all the world as if they were ready to drop off the end of her nose. Alexandra would not run to her as she wished to do, or burst into tears as her body yearned to do. She merely clasped her hands very tightly in her lap and forced a bleak smile to her lips.
    â€œI am afraid I have got you from your bed very early this morning, Nanny,” she said.
    â€œThank the good Lord that Master James had the presence of mind to call me,” Nanny Rey said, peering at Alexandra over the top of her spectacles. Indeed, she rarely looked through them. “Have you come to any harm, lovey?” She glared at the housekeeper as if that poor lady were solely responsible for all the woes of her mistress.
    â€œNothing that has not been put right already,” Alexandra said. “Is James here, Nanny? May we leave now?”
    â€œAs fast as our feet will carry us,” her nurse said. “We will wait in the carriage, though his lordship said you was welcome to stay in comfort here while he had his talk with Master James, and Master James himself said we was to wait here. But old Nanny wouldn’t listen to the King of England himself if what he said wasn’t in the best interests of my girl. Put your cloak on and your hood up, lovey. It is a chilly morning, May or no May. And thanks to you, ma’am.” She nodded curtly in the direction of the silent Mrs. Haviland. “You will please tell Mr. Purnell that we will await him outside.”
    Alexandra looked about her in some wonder as Nanny Rey hurried her down a curved oak staircase to the tiled hallway she had glimpsed the night before. There were oak paneling and large paintings everywhere and a magnificent chandelier hanging from the domed ceiling. The experiences of the night before began to take on an aura of unreality.
    She had never been so happy to see her father’s carriage waiting at the bottom of a flight of steps. Her father’s coachman handed her inside. Her attention was only momentarily distracted by a tall young man of pleasing appearance, who looked at her in some curiosity as he touched his hat and mounted the steps to enter the house. He was dressed in evening clothes.
    Nanny Rey glared balefully at him and followed her mistress into the carriage. She pulled the velvet curtains firmly across the windows as the coachman shut the door.

    I NSIDE THE LIBRARY ON the ground floor of his town house, Lord Amberley found himself