The Husband Hunt Read Online Free PDF Page A

exposed."
    "Oh, Wendell, stop it," Olivia said, hitting his hand. "You'll give her a horrible impression of us."
    Catriona felt the tension begin to seep from her coiled nerves at their easy camaraderie. How different this was from her world, from her earliest years of distraught parents with sick children crowding into her mother's cottage for an herbal cure, her life with Uncle Diarmid and his unruly Border raiders, then her most recent years with James, in the castle watching him destroy all he held dear. Aye, she could sense the caring beneath their banter and wished to be part of it. But her tongue was tied in knots. What did she know of witty conversation, she who had never been properly courted by a man? She whose only genuine skill would mark her as an outcast in their glittering society where an ill-chosen remark could ruin a young woman's chance for acceptance?
    She looked up in chagrin as she realized that Lord Rutleigh had just spoken to her and was awaiting a reply. He studied her in amusement, his gray eyes mirroring the flames. "I don't suppose you have any secrets, Catriona?" he said, one dark eyebrow lifting in mock suspense.
    "Probably none as interesting as yours," she said.
    "Leave her alone," Olivia said lightly. "She looks exhausted, and we are rude to keep her up after what must have been a harrowing journey. Come on, Catriona. I shall tuck you into bed myself."
    "Come to think of it, I am dead tired. You are very kind, Lady Deering." She rose, eager to escape the perceptive curiosity burning in the viscount's eyes.
    "Isn't she?" he murmured, his fingers steepled beneath his strongly molded chin. "Yes, rest, cousin. In the morning, we shall discuss what to do with you."
    There was a moment of silence. Then Olivia, who until then had given Cat the impression that she was the epitome of a subservient English lady, turned on her brother like a tigress protecting her cub. "The matter has already been decided, Knight. There is nothing to discuss."
* * *
    Olivia whisked her upstairs with an astonishing air of determination for one so frail, the deerhound watching from the hall. "We must do something about your wardrobe, Catriona. Oh, I'm sure that heavy plaid is perfectly acceptable in the drawing rooms of a Border estate, but your figure is far too lovely to hide beneath that dull, shapeless wool."
    "Not to offend your judgment," Catriona said, "but there isn't much of anything to hide. Uncle Diarmid said I'm as flat as a griddle cake, with the exception of two currants for a chest. So it isn't the wool that's shapeless. It's me."
    Olivia turned outside the bedchamber door and stared at her, her mouth falling open. "This is going to take more work than I thought."
    "What is—oh, is this where I'm to sleep?"
    She was about to explore the small, darkened chamber when Olivia herded her through another door into a larger room where a coal fire had just been lit. Warm shadows danced on the wallpaper. "That was the antechamber where your maid will sleep."
    "My what?"
    "Your maid. When we employ one." An experienced woman with a background in current etiquette and fashion, Olivia thought grimly. She was going to have her hands full if Catriona was ever to be ready for a proper season. That the young woman might not care to embark on the social seas did not even occur to her.
    "This is your room, Catriona."
    "It's perfectly lovely."
    Olivia smiled. "It needs a good airing out, I expect."
    The room was furnished with a delicate French escritoire, a four-poster rosewood bed, an armoire, and a marble-topped washstand. The chambermaid had already brought up Catriona's small trunk and laid her nightdress on the bed. The air smelled faintly of must and the faded lavender buds that scented the mattress, freshly turned and beaten.
    Olivia fingered Cat's threadbare flannel night rail in distaste. "Do you actually wear this?"
    Catriona pulled off her buckled shoes and sank backward onto the bed. "Aye. Every night. It keeps