The Arrangement Read Online Free

possessed any money of your own.”
    I lifted my chin. Lady Saunders had hated it when Tommy married me. He was her youngest son, and her favorite, and she had wanted him to marry a lady who had money. To her mind, I had qualified under neither of those categories.
    I thought, I will not let the thought of Lady Saunders discussing me with the Earl of Savile upset me!
    I set my jaw, turned my face to the fire, and said coldly, “I have no need of inherited money, my lord. I have been earning a living for myself and my son ever since my husband died.”
    Silence.
    “I see,” he finally replied. “And may I ask what you do to earn your living, Mrs. Saunders?”
    His voice was quiet, but there was a note in it that set off an alarm in my head. It was a moment before I understood what it was that he thought I did to earn my living.
    White-hot fury flamed through me. I gripped the arms of my chair to keep myself from jumping up and hitting him. I glared at him instead, and said succinctly, “I teach riding, my lord. My clients are the children of the newly rich—men who have made a great deal of money in banking or in manufacture and who want their children to have the same advantages as the sons and daughters of the upper class. Most of these children have grown up in the city and have had no opportunity to learn to ride. They come here and I teach them.”
    He could not disguise his surprise, nor could I prevent the color burning my cheeks. My fingers opened and closed on the chair arms. I absolutely longed to hit him.
    At last he said slowly, “So that is why your stable is so full.”
    “Yes.” I was still livid with him for what I suspected he had been thinking. “Besides my own horses, I have three horses I teach on, as well as the two ponies whose stalls I commandeered to accommodate your carriage horses, my lord!”
    He looked me up and down. “You do this all by yourself?”
    I thought his look was insulting. Nor did his frankly incredulous tone do anything to soothe my temper. It is true that I am small boned and consequently tend to look rather delicate, but in fact I am as hardy as a mountain pony.
    “Yes,” I said through my teeth. “I do it all by myself.”
    The fire had begun to lag, and I picked up the poker and went to stir it up, wishing I could use the iron staff on the earl instead of the logs.
    Savile said, “Was this originally your husband’s business?”
    I glanced at him over my shoulder. The light from the leaping flames made his dark gold hair look very bright. “We undertook it together,” I said. “Then, when Tommy died, I continued it on my own.”
    “That must have been difficult.”
    I shrugged and gave another savage poke to the fire.
    “Difficult” did not begin to describe the horror of that first year after Tommy’s death. Had it not been for the Macintoshes, and for Mr. and Mrs. Ludgate, our local vicar and his wife, I don’t think I would have made it.
    I put the poker down reluctantly and turned to face Savile. I said, pronouncing each word as carefully as if I were communicating with someone who did not know the language well, “I do not desire Lord Devane’s money, nor do I desire to travel to Savile Castle with you, my lord. You may consider that your promise to Lord Devane has been fulfilled. You have found Nicholas. You may now go away from here with an easy mind.”
    Savile listened to me with polite attentiveness. When I had finished he said smoothly, “Let me remind you, Mrs. Saunders, that I have no idea of what my cousin wrote in his will. All he told me was that he had left money to a boy whom I must suppose to be your son, Nicholas. Whether or not he further identified this boy remains to be seen.”
    It took a moment for the meaning of his words to sink in.
    Then they did.
    Oh my God! I thought in horror. What if George has claimed in his will that Nicky is his son?
    Suddenly my legs felt too weak to hold me up, and I made my way back to my chair. I sat