Only an Earl Will Do Read Online Free Page A

every move like a fox watches a rabbit. “Lord Muir, do you have something to say?” she asked, annoyed he would study her so.
    He cleared his throat. “Sincere condolences, my lady.” Henry took another glass of wine from a passing footman. “I’m relieved to hear ye father is doing well. I shall travel down to Dunsleigh and call on him before returning to Scotland.”
    “That won’t be necessary, Lord Muir. I’m sure you’re busy here with your visiting family from abroad.”
    “I admit we’re very busy, but I will always have time for His Grace. He was my guardian, after all.”
    Elizabeth made a noncommittal sound, looking toward the supper room doors that were being opened by liveried footmen. “Well I’m sure you’ll do as you please.” Victoria’s hold on her arm tightened, a silent warning to behave. The first strings of a cotillion sounded, and the tittering about the room increased.
    “I will dance with you, Henry. This dance is such a favorite of mine, and you do it so well. I’m sure, given the amount of times we’ve stepped out together, I will prove adequate for this society’s standard,” Miss Andrews said, her voice as sweet as ratafia.
    Elizabeth watched as Henry smiled down at Miss Andrews, and a rage as strong as she had ever known consumed her. This woman believed she was acceptable for Henry, and no doubt wished to become more to him than just his cousin. She watched as the woman boldly set her hand on his arm, her expression riveted on the earl.
    Miss Andrews was in love…with Henry.
    Elizabeth hated her on the spot.
    Henry chuckled, the sound deep and throaty, and one Elizabeth had heard only sparingly in his youth. She studied his profile and realized she no longer knew him. His voice, body, mannerisms were all different. Had she ever really known him? She doubted she did right at that moment.
    He took Miss Andrews’s hand and bowed over it. “Shall we, my dear?”
    Elizabeth looked away from the retreating pair and refused to let past emotions over Henry hurt her a second time. No, she no longer knew him and really never did, if she were honest. Never had she been so wrong about someone’s character as she had been with Henry.
    Needing to get away, she pulled Victoria toward the supper room doors, determined to stuff herself with food to fill the aching hole she felt in the pit of her stomach. Of course she’d known one day Henry would walk back into her society, possibly married and with children. But to see him again, to be so close to him and yet so distant, was something she would have to get used to. Perhaps he would tire of town and leave for Scotland soon and all would go back to the way it was before.
    Normal. Mundane. Lonely…
    Elizabeth heard a familiar laugh and turned to see Henry and Miss Andrews, their enjoyment of the dance and of each other clear to see.
    She growled under her breath. Damn him.

Chapter Two
    Henry finished the dance with Amelia and managed to dislodge his cousins from his side during supper. He leaned against the ballroom wall, watching the play of the ton before him, all of the guests oblivious to the turmoil coursing through his body.
    After walking past a group of meddling matrons he decided, at the look of fear they threw his way, that perhaps he ought to stop glaring at everyone present. He took another glass of brandy from a passing footman, confident the beverage would amend him to a more affable manner.
    Or perhaps not.
    The reason for his sour mood stood talking in deep discussion with the pompous Lord Riddledale. The older gentleman, at least fifteen years her senior, seemed to be too close, leering at her like a man who’d never seen a woman’s form before. And with Riddledale, that was surely a possibility. Henry gritted his teeth, forcing another sip of the burning liquid down his throat.
    “Is this the chit you’ve been pining over the last two years?”
    Henry huffed out a breath, but didn’t deny the charge his cousin