The Indian Maiden Read Online Free PDF

which hurt more and are more poisonous than those snakes you invented. They can create you a dungeon out of the thin air by ostracizing you, and taunting you, and excluding you from society.”
    “But I have friends whom I trust to remain my friends,” she said, sitting up straighter. “And I’ve told you that I don’t care about your society. So I don’t believe I need any more advice. But thank you,” she added, inclining her head as would a queen to acknowledge some courtier’s small favor, an effect somewhat ruined by the fact that it could only be seen from the back by the one it was meant to dismiss. To show that she wasn’t concerned enough to even be angry, she changed the subject lightly by asking, “And by the way, how did you know I was bamming them?”
    “I’ve been to your country,” he answered quietly, turning the horse sharply where the trail suddenly divided.
    “Oh really?” she asked with lively interest. “When?”
    “The first time? Four years ago,” he said.
    “But ...” She paused. “As a soldier?” she gasped.
    “Oh no,” he said calmly, “I’ve never bought colors.”
    “Then,” she said breathlessly, this time swinging her head around so swiftly, she felt a twinge, “as a spy ?”
    “No, Miss Hamilton,” he answered with a trace of anger, “as a patriot.”
    They rode on in absolute silence for a few moments more, Faith now wondering why she’d been foolish enough to be shocked simply because a man had been true to his own country, and Lord Deal wondering why a girl whose grandfather had sent her to get an English husband would be angry at a gentleman for being English.
    “Good heavens,” she said at last, abandoning her bout with semantics and nationalism in an effort to normalize relations, “I’d no idea the lake was so far.”
    “It isn’t,” he replied, “we’ve only been going round and round the bridal path. See?”
    And now, looking past his pointed finger, she could see that the evergreens were beginning to slope lower and grow farther apart until they gave way at their end to a wide and grassy meadow. Beyond that, she could make out the group of ladies and gentlemen they’d so recently left, looking as though they’d been raised up by some giant hand and deposited gently in this new locale, for they were ranged around on their cushions and rugs again, only this time on the banks of a disappointingly bland, obviously artificial, and perfectly round ornamental pond. “And,” he bent his head to whisper to her as they rode into the clearing and he noted the back of her neck growing pink, “here’s another unsolicited lesson in British social niceties. Don’t bother to be vexed with me for the sake of appearances. They none of them will ask where we’ve been. It’s not only because, my dear Miss Hamilton, they believe you to be entirely moral. Neither is it so much that they trust me to be highly honorable, as it is that they know me to be highly eligible. And I am, I assure you. For you see,” he breathed, his whisper tickling her ear as he brought his lips nearer the nearer they came to her smiling hostess, “I just happen to be looking for a fiancée . Because as it turns out, I did lose one.”
    Faith was lifted down from the saddle immediately by the earl. Before she could get her balance back and take an unwavering step on firm ground, Lord Deal had made his abjectest apologies to the group, cited several pressing matters, and with a show of reluctance so outsized it bordered on mockery, he saluted them and was off again and gone back through the evergreen passage he’d so lately left.
    “The fellow,” the earl drawled, “certainly knows how to make his entrances and exits. But how was the performance itself?” he asked Faith as they strolled back to where her patchwork cushion had been placed upon the grass. “Did he entertain you? He took such a time delivering you to us, we’d begun to wonder whether we’d have to send either a