Whirlwind Wedding Read Online Free PDF Page B

caws. She chose paths at random, not particularly caring where she went, just happy to be outdoors. After a while, the forest thinned out to a wide meadow where bees hummed hovering around sweet-smelling honeysuckle. Colorful butterflies flitted over clumps of red and yellow wildflowers.
    She soon reached a picturesque lake. Pale shafts of hesitant gold light peeped down between leafy tree branches, offering a dawn-kissed shady retreat. Removing her sketch pad from her knapsack, she sank down on the grass and propped her back against the trunk of a huge oak tree.
    A frisky squirrel peeked at her from a nearby tree branch and she quickly sketched him. A family of timid rabbits made another subject before they hopped away to the safety of the tall grass. She drew a detailed picture of Patch, her heart pinching as she thought of her beloved dog. She'd wanted desperately to bring him to England but he was old and infirm and she knew he wouldn't have survived the rigorous ocean journey. She'd left him behind along with a piece of her heart, with people who loved him almost as much as she did.
    Forcing aside the melancholy that thoughts of Patch evoked she drew a likeness of Gadzooks. When she finished however, she quickly banished the kitten from her mind. If she thought about the furry beast, she'd recall the rest of her time in the garden . .. and the man she'd met there. The man whose hidden sadness and loneliness had touched her heart, a man she knew had secrets that tore at his soul.
    She'd offered to help him, but she'd spent half the night wondering if she'd been too hasty. The Duke of Bradford obviously did not believe in her second sight.
    Could she somehow convince him? After last evening, it did not appear so, but she wanted, needed to help him. Wanted to erase the shadows she'd felt darkening his happiness. And needed, for herself, to try and make up for the havoc she'd caused in America. Surely her guilt would ease if she could somehow reunite the duke with the brother he believed dead.
    No, she had not been too hasty in offering to help him. In fact, she was determined to do so, whether he wanted her to or not. All she needed to do was provide some sort of definite proof that his brother was indeed alive.
    To do that, however, she'd need to touch him again.
    Heat shot through her at the thought. He'd haunted her sleep, his handsome face, his intense eyes, his strong body. He'd made her wish, for one useless instant, that she'd looked beautiful and elegant, and that a man like him might actually be interested in her for more than a fleeting moment. And he had been interested as she'd discovered when he'd touched her hand. He had wanted to kiss her.
    His thoughts had come to her so clearly, so unexpectedly. Her breath caught at the thought of his lips caressing hers, his strong arms pulling her close, pressing her against his body. What would it feel like to be kissed by such a man? Touched and held by him? Heaven . . . It would feel like heaven.
    A sigh escaped her, the sort of feminine sigh she'd thought herself incapable of. Shifting herself to a more comfortable position, she gave in to her longing, closed her eyes, and imagined what his kiss would feel like.
    *
    Austin caught sight of a yellow skirt fluttering in the breeze and reined Myst to a halt. Bloody hell, was he never to find himself alone?
    He would have turned back, but he'd ridden Myst hard for the last hour and the gelding needed a rest and a drink.
    Resigned to making idle conversation for a few moments with one of his mother's houseguests, he approached the lake. As he rounded the huge oak tree, he drew up short.
    It was her. The woman who had disrupted his sleep and invaded his every thought since he awoke. The woman he needed to find out more about. She sat beneath the shady tree, her eyes closed a half smile touching her lips.
    He dismounted and walked quietly toward her, studying her all the while. Shiny auburn curls surrounded her face in