Sweet Deception Regency 07 - The Divided Hearts Read Online Free Page B

you
with our bourgeois details of business.” Nate’s drawling tones
interrupted Judith’s thoughts and she flushed in her confusion.
“Your father and I are not overused to the company of ladies. But
such rag manners! After such a devastating crossing, we leave you
standing amidst the rabble. Mostly commoners, don’t you know.”
    Judith winced as the powdered head nodded
confidentially toward her. She wanted nothing more than to turn her
back on the man. How could her father be civil to such an arrogant
boor?
    “Yes, Master Bellingham, it was most
fatiguing.” Judith’s voice was a faint wisp and she placed the back
of her hand to her forehead like the veriest heroine in a
melodrama. Catching her father’s glittering eyes, she nudged him in
the midsection as she clung to his arm. “Is it far to your house,
Father?”
    “The carriage is right over there,” Simon
said, chuckling as his gaze swung between the two young people.
“We’re off, Nathanael.”
    “Good day to you, Simon,” Nate said, sitting
straighter in his saddle. His blue eyes were guarded as he swept a
bow to Judith. “Your servant, Lady Judith.”
    Judith bobbed a barely civil curtsy, eyes
flashing a look of disapproval as she walked with her father
towards the carriage. Simon turned at the last, flashing a wicked
grin in the mounted man’s direction.
    His face an unreadable mask, Nate sat his
horse, watching the progress of the swinging black skirt.
Gold-flecked hazel eyes, he enthused in satisfaction. There was no
doubt about it, Judith Hallowell was a beauty. An English beauty,
my lad, Nate thought to himself. There’s danger here.
    Nate was aware that he was not a free agent
who could dally with every well-turned ankle. It was on the long
voyage home from England that he had realized that his heart
belonged entirely to America. Even then he was aware that the
situation between the two countries might lead once again to war.
And if it came to that he would declare for America. But when he
sought to be of service, his assignment was less, and yet more,
than he had anticipated. His task was to gather information; his
usefulness depending on his ability to conceal his intelligence
beneath a mask of effete boredom.
    So far he had been able to play the part of
the foppish Bellingham. He had begun his charade just after
returning from Cambridge as a defense against the marriageable
ladies who swarmed around him. Then he had hidden behind a cold
mask of arrogance and a sharp, acerbic wit. Later he was able to
transform that behavior into a more outrageous form of
playacting.
    Lady Judith, as an Englishwoman, was
definitely a danger to him. For a moment, when he stared into her
eyes he had been caught in a spell of enchantment so strong that it
had been an effort to remember the part he must play. He sensed
intelligence, sensitivity and passion in this golden girl. He
should avoid her; continued association would involve a
considerable risk. But with a clear remembrance of her flashing,
disdainful eyes, Nate suspected that she might be worth the danger.
His full lips widened in a wolfish grin as Simon’s carriage pulled
away.
    : :
    “Why didn’t Letty warn me?” Judith asked in
exasperation as she settled against the bench seat. “ How can you
tolerate such a fop, Father?”
    “Now, now. Mustn’t be hasty in your
judgment. Nate’s a good lad,” Simon said, his eyes kindling at what
must be a private joke.
    “He’s hardly a boy, Father. He must be
thirty, at least,” Judith snapped, annoyed at her interest in the
outrageous man.
    “Twenty-nine. And unmarried. Quite a catch
for all the girls I see hanging on his every word.”
    “I can not believe that American women
should be so desperate to marry,” Judith sniffed. “You always told
me that American men were quite the contrast to the London
courtcards.”
    Pacifically her father dropped the subject,
pointing out places of interest as they made their way toward town.
The excitement