The Stolen Bride Read Online Free PDF

twitch. “You won’t be able to take your stockings off in public for a start.”
    “Is that all?”
    He turned back and there was a strange expression on his face. Was it only the sunlight falling speckled through the leaves which made him look wistful? “No, of course not. Hundreds and hundreds of men will gather around you like moths, little flame, and one of them, one lucky man, him you will choose to burn.”
    The leaf unfurled to the sunlight and grew, and swelled. But it was a strange and frightening process and Sophie flinched away. “Why would I want to burn anyone?” she asked.
    He grinned, and was the old Randal again. “Now that proves you’re not a woman yet, minx. Why don’t you catch me something to use as bait?”
    Mind spinning with a host of new and strange ideas, Sophie obediently cast a small baited hook and pulled in a dace. She speared it live onto his hook without a shudder, because he’d trained her that way. Head bent to her task, Sophie struggled to make sense of it all.
    Her feelings were unformed and poorly defined but she knew. In her childish adoration she would unhesitatingly have fixed herself upon the hook had he asked. But in an emotion much deeper and more potent she wanted to put some sort of hook into him, to capture and hold him....
    It had taken time for Sophie to truly absorb that she was in love with Randal, and what it meant, but from then on she had planned her life with that in mind.
    When she had gone to London this spring to make her debut she had been sure that Randal would finally see her as a woman and claim her as his own. Her heart had broken when she had realized this wasn’t to be.
    It had been that dreadful night which had changed everything—the night when Sir Edwin Hever had been confronted by her brother, David, and accused of being the rapist who had preyed upon the women of the city for months. Sir Edwin had taken her hostage and her very life had been in danger until Randal had risked an almost impossible shot to save her.
    Even now, sitting in the warmth of the sun, Sophie shivered at the memory. Sir Edwin had been quite, quite mad. She had fainted, she remembered, and only come to her senses in her bedchamber, in Randal’s arms. He had held her as she recovered from the shock. Her brother had found them there. The next day Randal had formally offered for her and been accepted.
    Any gentleman found in a maiden’s bedchamber, with said maiden in his arms, was bound to offer marriage. Why had that not occurred to her for months? Why did it haunt her now?
    Randal seemed so cool at times. He positively avoided being alone with her. Despite words of love, had he been trapped into this betrothal? Sophie could not bear it if that was so. In fact Sophie’s love for Randal was so deep and selfless that if freedom was what he wanted, she would give it to him.
    But that only left her the two weeks before the wedding to make such a terrible decision.

    Shadows were lengthening across the rolling lawns when the high-born members of the teams wandered back to the Castle while the servants cleared away the stumps and chairs. They found the family coach just pulling up to the porte cochere.
    Jane hurried forward as the steps were let down.
    “Beth,” she exclaimed happily, then stopped in surprise as Marius Fletcher stepped down first and turned to help her friend.
    “We met Sir Marius stranded on the way,” said Beth as she went to embrace Jane. “But we have another passenger too, I’m afraid.”
    “Why afraid, Mrs. Hawley?” asked David as he came forward to shake hands.
    “Well, my lord, she’s a bit of a mystery,” said Beth as Sir Marius lifted the unconscious woman out. She quickly recounted the events.
    “We were expecting no one today except you,” said Jane, “and I haven’t hired any staff from far afield. We must put her to bed, though, and call the doctor.”
    This was soon arranged. Beth was relieved of responsibility for the invalid and