The Indian Maiden Read Online Free PDF Page B

search party or a vicar after the two of you.”
    Though the words caused Faith to feel guilt for no reason at all, Lord Deal had said that no one would mind their absence, and then too, the earl’s voice held no more than its usual boredom, despite his words. So she only laughed and said dismissively, “You’d have done better to send a gardener with pruning shears. I’d no idea that you English kept timber on your land as impenetrable as our deepest forests.”
    “Oh?” he said with a little interest lightening his gray eyes, “like the ones with all those dreadful creatures lying in wait within them? Why don’t you tell us some more about them? Lord knows we could do with some enthralling conversation. The company’s gone into a decline since you’ve left. As you can see,” he whispered as he gave her one long white hand in assistance so that she could gracefully settle down to her lawn seating again, “they’re all positively wilting, and it isn’t just the weather that’s breeding ennui. We could use a little enlivenment from our intrepid young American visitor.”
    He smiled down at her, and from where she sat upon the ground, he seemed even taller, for to read his expression she had to tilt her head so far back as to look foolish. Perhaps that was why she decided to only shake her head in denial of his request, because it seemed silly to carry on a conversation with someone yards above you, and not, she told herself bracingly, most certainly not because she’d just been warned against indulging herself by telling more such tales. This day, she mused, she seemed to be being invited to the most awkward discussions with gentlemen she’d have otherwise enjoyed chatting with, for they seemed either to tower over her or sit behind her when they spoke.
    That was why, after she noted the earl had removed himself a pace from her, she greeted young Lord Greyville with such a wide smile when he approached and then without ceremony plunked himself down beside her with a sigh, and hugging his knees, said disarmingly, “What a pack of dead bores you must take us for, Miss Hamilton. Your only excitement today was when the Viking took you for a ride, but then he dropped you off and went on his way again. And this Duke of Limbs,” he whispered, gesturing with one raised shoulder to the earl behind him, “only says sweet somethings into your ears, and those, from two miles away. Poor sport! I’ll wager you don’t pass your afternoons in such no-account fashion back where you come from,” he concluded, looking at her eagerly.
    “Of course she doesn’t, ignorant puppy,” the earl commented laconically, causing the young gentleman to wince, since he’d only approached the American girl when it seemed that the older man had moved away from her and had been thoroughly engrossed with staring out at something across the waters. “But she doesn’t dare tell you the whole of it for fear you’d drown yourself in the lake in shame for your lack of enterprise. Then too,” he mused, “perhaps she’s afraid the Viking will come bounding out of the forest again to repudiate her.”
    “The Viking?” Faith asked curiously, for she’d thought the first mention had just been Lord Greyville’s jest regarding Lord Deal’s dramatic appearance, but now the earl’s continued reference to it confused her.
    “That is our little name for Lord Deal,” the earl commented, with a sidewise smile at Lord Greyville which was instantly reciprocated, “whose last visit seems to have silenced you.”
    “Oh too bad,” Lord Greyville said with disappointment, “since I wondered at what American fellows did for fun on summer afternoons.”
    When Faith did not answer at once, the earl looked down at her indecision and said in kindlier fashion than was his usual wont, “You might as well tell him, Miss Hamilton, since he’ll doubtless cling like a burr until you do. And I shouldn’t worry about the Viking. I don’t know how Lord