Anne Barbour Read Online Free Page A

perhaps they forgot about me altogether, because they moved to the front of the vehicle, where they huddled in the lamplight, poring over a map. I could hear them berating the coachman and deciding what to do next, with never a thought to me. I peeked out and saw their attention was wholly diverted, so I slipped through the door and ran as fast as I could. I was still dreadfully dizzy, and ...”
    She raised a hand to her head.
    “I’m not sure—that is, I don’t know precisely what happened then—everything is so muddled in my mind. I believe that’s when I met—that is, you ...”
    Jared rose abruptly, and came around the desk to where she stood.
    “My dear young woman, I am agog with admiration at your acting abilities. I must assume you earn your bread on the stage, when not otherwise, er, occupied.”
    Ignoring her gasp of indignation, he bent to capture one slim hand, turning it over in his own.
    “You have the speech and appearance of a gentlewoman, and you have not, evidently been engaged in any ungenteel labor recently. However, gently reared ladies rarely appear unaccompanied in coaching inns, sloshed to the eyeballs.”
    Diana opened her mouth to retort, but Jared raised a hand.
    “Nor can I recall ever seeing a lady giggling uproariously, and snuggling against supposed strangers like a cat in heat.’’
    Diana whitened as though she had been struck.
    “No!” she whispered brokenly. “I could not have acted so.”
    Observing her stricken expression, Jared spoke in a softer tone.
    “Well, I may have overstated the case, but it is no good denying you were under the influence of drink, or that you acted with your gentleman friend to rob me. Although,” he mused, ignoring the sob of protest emanating from the direction of the little settee, “I cannot imagine what a diamond of the first water like yourself was doing dressed in that wretched bombazine affair, and in the company of a third-rate Captain Sharp.”
    Diana leapt to her feet once more. She was unused to having her word disputed, and she was certainly unused to being accused of robbery and—other things. She faced the earl, her eyes glittering with icy indignation.
    “I have told you, my lord, what I was doing in the company of that dreadful man. I was his prisoner, my lord—his victim. As for the bombazine, it was precisely to discourage the attentions of such persons that I dressed as plainly and unattractively as possible. Now, I ask that you release me. I have important family business to pursue, and I must be on my way.’’
    Patience was not foremost among the Earl of Burnleigh’s virtues, and he had exhausted his minuscule supply. Upstairs, the person who meant the most in the world to him lay fairly writhing in distress upon what appeared to be his deathbed.
    If only he had listened to Grandfather’s pleas that he take a wife. There was no denying he should have been wed years ago. If he had, Grandfather, while he would certainly fight to his last breath, could face death with equanimity.
    And Jared had come close, not a fortnight past. He had been within Ames ace of asking Lord Brierly for the hand of his second daughter. It was only the echo of the girl’s piercing giggles penetrating the paneling of her father’s study that had stayed him.
    Now he wished with a bleak ferocity that he had girded his loins—to say nothing of his ears—and gone ahead with the proposal. If he were at least betrothed, Grandfather would not now be kneading the coverlet in his anguish.
    Jared flung up his hand.
    “Look here, Miss St.—whatever,” he growled, “I am not prepared to waste any more time on you. If you will not tell me what I wish to know, perhaps you will change your mind after cooling your heels for a few days in the village jail.”
    He moved to the bell pull, speaking over his shoulder. “Perhaps you can convince the magistrate of your innocence. With your spurious air of gentility, and your skill on the boards, you should