Almost a Princess Read Online Free

side.
    She sighed. “I know. I’ve been preoccupied lately, but not for much longer. We’re going home, boy. Just think of it—open spaces, meadows, trees, badgers, foxes. You’ll have a grand old time.”
    But before that happened, she wanted to make quite sure that she’d shaken off the earl. His lordship was a complication she could well do without right now.
    Case went in search of Lady Octavia, but it wasn’t to ask where he could find pen and paper. He had not known that Mrs. Gray was a member here until Miss Mayberry mentioned it. Now he saw a way of circumventing her. Not that he would have left anything to chance anyway. Mrs. Letitia Gray would see him whether she wanted to or not.
    He found Lady Octavia in the library, overseeing the disposal of a portrait that hung above the marble mantel.
    “Lady Mary’s father,” she said to Case by way of explanation. “The old earl, and a most objectionable man. His treatment of his wife and daughter was reprehensible. We can’t have him presiding over our assemblies. He would act as a blight.”
    To the two footmen who had removed the painting from the wall, she said, “Take him to the attics,” then to Case, but this time with a twinkle in her eyes, “There’s a lesson for you here, Lord Castleton. Consider how your wife or daughter will dispose of
your
portrait when you’re gone.”
    He answered her with a patient smile.
    “Lady Octavia,” he said, “I’m trying to find a lady who is a member here, Mrs. Letitia Gray, or perhaps you know her as Letitia Piers. Can you tell me where she lives?”
    “We never give out that kind of information,” she said. “It’s the library’s policy.”
    “But you know me! All I want is to speak with Mrs. Gray. What harm is there in that?”
    She regarded him steadily. “We have these policies for a reason, you know. Experience has taught us that it’s safer this way. Anyway, before you try to persuade me to change my mind, let me say at once that no Letitia Gray or Letitia Piers has ever been a member of the Ladies’ Library.”
    “You’re sure of that?”
    “Perfectly. Our membership list is small, and each lady on it is personally known to me. You’ve been misinformed.”
    He’d been misinformed, all right, deliberately misinformed by Jane Mayberry. It had come down to a tussle of wills. There was no doubt in his mind who would win the contest. Then he’d find out why Miss Mayberry was so determined to protect her friend.
    “Miss Mayberry,” he began, and let the name hang there, inviting a response.
    “What about Jane?”
    He smiled and shook his head. “She interests me. I don’t know what to make of her.”
    “Oh?”
    This was not the response he was hoping for so he took a more direct approach. “How would you describe her?”
    Until that moment, he had not known that Lady Octavia’s placid, fading blue eyes could pierce like the point of a blade.
    “Look away from Jane Mayberry,” she said. “She is not for you. You can have any woman you want. Leave Jane alone.”
    He took a moment to gather himself, a moment to rein in his formidable temper, to assume all the dignity and arrogance of his rank. “You are mistaken, ma’am,” he said. “You must be confusing me with someone else.”
    “Jane,” replied Lady Octavia, regarding him thoughtfully, “has not had an easy life since her father died. I think she has found a measure of peace with us. I don’t want to see that peace disturbed.”
    He didn’t know where elderly ladies got their gall. It was the same with his Great Aunt Sophy. Once they passed a certain age, they thought they could say anything they liked to anyone.
    “I doubt,” he said, not quite truthfully, “that Miss Mayberry and I shall have occasion to meet again, and if by chance we do, I shall endeavor to look the other way.”
    “I’m very glad to hear it.”
    Gritting his teeth, he stalked off.
    Five minutes later, he returned to the pantry with the letter in his