Scandal at Dawn (A Regency Rhapsody Novella) Read Online Free Page A

as well. It’d be beastly awkward to squeeze three people in a two-seater. You don’t need a chaperone for a ride around the park.”
    “Don’t I?” Olivia asked. Most people, even the stuffiest matrons, would admit that a single woman could ride alone with a man as long as they stayed in public view. But she also knew she would be held to stricter standards due to her handicap. However, she did want to go out—and to go out with Adrian particularly.
    “You certainly don’t. Besides, I did promise to take you, did I not?” Adrian walked over to the mantel and yanked the bell pull. Alice appeared almost instantly. “Yes, sir?” she asked, noticing it was Adrian who had summoned her. 
    “Miss Blake is accompanying me on a brief ride. Will you fetch her a hat? Thank you.” Perhaps it was his mere expectation of being obeyed, but Alice curtseyed and vanished.
    “Interesting,” Olivia commented, impressed by the maid’s instant capitulation. Of course, Adrian did have an advantage. Most women would probably do anything he asked. She heard him step toward her, his mass reducing the light from the windows as he learned over her. His hand enveloped her own.
    “Come,” he said, his tone making it a request. She rose and allowed him to escort her out of the room. In the hall, Alice was waiting with her bonnet. Olivia took it, and told the maid to inform her mother and Emily where she was, if they should return before she did. 
    And then they were outside, with the sun-warmed air all around. Adrian helped her into the curricle. Olivia had never been in one before, and felt it was almost like riding on nothing at all. Unlike a closed coach, there was no sense of being stuck in a box. The little curricle was light and let the world in. She felt the breeze ruffle the ribbon securing her hat to her head, almost as if it were teasing her to take it off. The seat moved as Adrian got in beside her. She heard him pick up the reins, and then the nickering of the horses. 
    “All ready?” he asked.
    “I think so,” she said, but was still surprised by the sudden lurch forward as the horses began to walk. Adrian steadied her by gripping her elbow with one hand while he drove. “I’m used to a closed coach,” she admitted.
    “You’ll soon get used to this,” he assured her, a smile in his voice. “Shall I head to the river, or the promenade?”
    “Oh, the promenade.” Olivia settled back to enjoy the ride. The curricle moved much more smoothly than a coach, or perhaps Adrian was simply a very good driver. The sounds of the city of London surrounded her: the calls of people, the clip-clip of horses, the bark of street vendors and piping voices of children.
    He did not speak for a few moments, and Olivia understood that he was negotiating the crowded streets on the way to the park. But then he lightly touched her hand, as if to remind her who she was with. “What are you thinking of?”
    “I was thinking, this is the first time in years I’ve been outside the house with someone who isn’t a member of my family.”
    “Is that true?” He was surprised. Astonished, really. He hadn’t considered just how restricted people’s lives could be. “Because you are a woman, or because you cannot see?”
    His bluntness didn’t upset Olivia. “Both, I suppose. Mama thinks me very fragile.”
    “You are her only daughter, are you not? She feels responsible for you.”
    “She has difficulty understanding that I am not still twelve years old.” Olivia sighed. “Forgive me, I shouldn’t talk like this.” She could smell the clean spring air replacing the dust of the city, and knew they must have left the road to enter the quieter paths of the promenade. She inhaled deeply when they passed a lilac in full bloom. “Tell me, what’s going on in the park?”
    “The usual,” Adrian noted, looking around with an uninterested air. “Lots of carriages and riders. The latest frocks, and pearls on every