Valentine Read Online Free PDF

waiting groom.
    “He’s here!” Rosie catapulted through the long glass doors of the drawing room, her cheeks pink. “I watched him ride up the drive.”
    “What does he look like?” her sisters demanded in the same breath that their mother said, “That will do. Rosie, come here and sit quietly.”
    “He’s riding an enormous black horse,” Rosie confided, sitting beside her mother. “And he has a beaver hat on and a green coat and brown britches—”
    “Lord Stoneridge, my lady,” Foster intoned from the doorway, bringing a summary halt to Rosie’s recitation.
    His lordship bowed as the ladies rose to their feet.
    “I bid you welcome to Stoneridge, my lord.” With a courteous smile Elinor crossed the faded tapestry carpet, her hand outstretched.
    The earl bowed over the hand, privately reflecting that Lady Belmont was a handsome woman with her soft brown hair, blue eyes, and elegant figure.
    “May I present my daughters?”
    Sylvester noted the diamond sparkle on Lady Emily’s ring finger as he took her hand. The betrothed sister … but a most attractive young woman, very like her mother. He turned his attention with particular interest to Lady Clarissa.
    “My lord.” Clarissa twitched her hand from his grasp a moment too soon for courtesy, and Sylvester’s lips thinned. Darker than her sister but with the same blue eyes. A shorter, less elegant figure … rather thin if the truth be told. But still passably handsome. Although not in the least friendly.
    “And this is Rosalind.”
    He shook hands with a child who regarded him with frank curiosity from behind spectacles that completely dwarfed her face. “Are you interested in biology?”
    “Not particularly,” he said, taken aback.
    “I didn’t think you would be,” she said as if confirmed in some negative opinion. “Gilbraiths probably aren’t interested in that kind of thing.”
    Sylvester shot a startled look at Lady Belmont, who was looking chagrined. “You may return to the schoolroom, Rosie,” she said sharply.
    Rosie seemed about to protest, but Clarissa, sensing her mother’s acute discomfiture, shooed her from the room. Theo’s absence was bad enough without Rosie speaking her mind in her usual blunt fashion.
    “Won’t you be seated, Lord Stoneridge?” Lady Belmont indicated a chair as she resumed her seat on the sofa. “Ah, thank you, Foster. I’m sure Lord Stoneridge will take a glass of claret.”
    “Thank you.” Devoutly hoping that wine would ease the tense atmosphere, Sylvester took an appreciative sip, commenting, “A fine vintage.”
    “Our cellars are well stocked, sir,” the butler said. “The Gentlemen keep us well supplied.”
    “Oh, I didn’t realize there was a smuggling trade on the Dorset coast.”
    “A very active one,” Emily said. “But Theo deals with them. You should ask her if you wish to know how the system works.”
    “Theo?” He looked puzzled.
    “My sister, sir.”
    “Lady Theodora?” He was still puzzled.
    “She had some urgent business to attend to on the estate,” Elinor said. “I’m certain she’ll return shortly.” But she wasn’t in the least certain.
    Sylvester put down his glass. It was time to come to business.“I wonder if I could have a word or two in private, ma’am.”
    Elinor rose immediately, relief apparent in her face that this awkward pretense at purely social intercourse was over. “Yes, there’s much to discuss. Come into my parlor, Lord Stoneridge.” She swept from the room, the earl on her heels.
    “Well, what do you think?” Emily demanded as the door closed.
    “Satanic,” Clarissa said promptly.
    Her sister went into a peal of laughter. “You’re such a melodramatic goose, Garry. But I own I can’t like him … not that I was expecting to. His eyes are so cold, and there’s an impatience … a haughtiness about him.”
    “That scar,” Clarissa said. “A great slash across his forehead. I wonder how he acquired it.”
    “In the war,